ROTC cadets prepare for Air Force careers

  • Published
  • By Cadet Matthew Sargent
  • University of Alaska Anchorage Air Force ROTC
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  The mission of the United States Air Force ROTC program is to train America's future officers. The local detachment from the University of Alaska Anchorage, Detachment 001, did just that this past weekend on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson's Camp Mad Bull.

At the end of every semester, the University of Alaska Anchorage Reserve Officer Training Corps program conducts their field training exercise, which sets the tone as the culmination exercise for cadets seeking to be officers in the United States Air Force.

The FTX was a chance for cadets in their sophomore year of college, who are known as Aerospace Studies 200 cadets, to practice the skills they will need to attend Field Training during the summer months at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

Field Training is 28 days long and is the equivalent of boot camp for future second lieutenants. In order to pass, cadets must master a wide variety of skills, be among the top cadets in their class and pass the active- duty physical fitness standards.

Cadets take two days out of each busy semester to focus on FTX and hone the critical skills they will be needed to pass Field Training and be USAF officers.

During the FTX, junior and senior cadets along with active-duty Airmen from JBER train the younger cadets on field tactics, small team tactics, weapons handling, land navigation and - most importantly - leadership.

Cadets are expected to make snap decisions with limited information in order to progress through the scenarios constructed by their trainers. It is this training which breeds the logical and intelligent decisions Air Force officers have to make every day.

Cadets practiced weapons handling, self-aid and buddy care, perimeter security, and intelligence gathering in order to put those items to use in scenarios which played out after every cadet received training.

The cadets didn't know it before hand, but the scenario they faced was the task of securing the Camp Mad Bull compound, recovering a downed pilot and treating "wounded" Airmen.

Some of the senior cadets performed the role of insurgents who attempt to attack the base, hamper efforts to recover the pilot, and derail the cadets with simulated combat situations.

The intent was by the end of the exercise, for cadets to come away with the knowledge and the experience of making decisions under pressure.

"The 'deer-in-the-headlights' look is common as young cadets freeze under the pressure of possibly making wrong decisions," said 1st Cadet Wing Commander Matthew Sargent.

"They need to be aware that for now, while in a training environment, the most important thing is to actually make a decision - any decision - right or wrong and go with it.

Later they will learn how to effectively implement the right ones, and discard the wrong ones, even under pressure."

Detachment 001 conducts a two-day FTX every semester usually in early September and late April.

If readers are interested in conducting an Air Force ROTC related event or teaching some of the items listed in this article, please contact the AFROTC Commandant of Cadets: Captain Troy D. Basenett at aftdb1@uaa.alaska.edu.