In spite of the program’s future being in jeopardy, the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps held its Fall Field Training Exercise on Oct. 4-6 at Camp Westmoreland in Florence as normal.

The Field Training Exercise is held every semester, said Cadet Frank Kirsopp, a UNA senior.

“The purpose of ROTC training is to develop leadership,” Kirsopp said. “Cadets are training to be officers after they leave College. Field Training Exercise helps them to do that.”

The cadets practice a lot of different concepts on these training days, such as night and day land navigation, where they find objective points using coordinates, protractors and compasses, Kirsopp said.

“They usually work in three phases: planning, movement and objective,” Kirsopp said. “Cadets gauge their surroundings by stopping, looking, listening and smelling to check for dangerous situations. They also try to communicate without talking.”

After land navigation, cadets engage in After Action Review, where they discuss their mission.

 “They discuss what they can improve on, so that any mistakes that were made can be fixed,” Kirsopp said. “They also discuss the things that were done correctly.” 

“The freshmen and sophomores, or NS1’s and NS2’s, act as privates in the missions,” Kirsopp said. “The NS3’s act as squad and team leaders. The NS4’s are the senior officers of the battalion.”

He said it is important for the juniors to get practice leading the missions so they will be prepared for the Leadership Development Course.

“The training day helps to prepare cadets for the Leadership Development and Assessment Course,” Kirsopp said. “That course is taken after your third year in ROTC. Whether or not you go into active duty or reserve after ROTC is determined by this course, along with your GPA and physical training test results.”

Kirsopp said he enjoys ROTC because of what it has taught him.

“I got an ROTC scholarship right out of high school, so I’ve been in ROTC since freshman year,” Kirsopp said. “I’ve really learned how to juggle time. ROTC has let me have fun and also made sure that I have the right grades.”

Cadet Alyssa Primeau, a UNA sophomore, said she finds the field training exercise days very helpful.

“Not only do we learn things, but we get to experience them in a way that you could never get from any classroom experience,” Primeau said. “And having it over this weekend kind of extends the experience where you can do things time after time to really perfect them.

The focus of the training scenarios revolve around building teamwork and experience, she said.

“I love how each time and each situation is different, but you still have some basis of knowledge that you’re going to use” Primeau said. 

Cadet Deon Hill, a UNA sophomore, enjoys training days because he believes they are genuinely training him for the future.

“We are going to have to apply this training at some point,” Hill said. “The STX Lane is probably the closest thing we do to a legitimate operation. We run around, find points and fire in actual missions.”