Cadet training
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Platoon UO
Oregon students train to become Army officers.
By Tristan CoolenIn the midst of the liberal, pacifistic Northwest, the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at the University of Oregon trains student cadets to lead troops in the Middle East. At this school, military leadership and combat unit coordination are the lessons of the day.
The beautiful, leafy green Oregon forest becomes camouflage, and the skills being taught here take on a seriousness greater than those often found in school. Morning physical training and regular combat education are de rigueur. In the backwoods of Oregon, students become soldiers.
This photoessay follows a class of 20 students through the second year of field training exercises. The cadets train in the woods of Eugene, to the hills of the Camp Adair equipment dump, all the way north to the coastal training grounds of Camp Rilea, near Astoria.
Whereas their first year of training focuses on becoming accustomed to military life, and their third and fourth years are focused on fundamental leadership training, second-year cadets spend their field time learning martial skills. They build their physical fitness and train themselves to carry heavy rucksacks. They learn to use rope to cross ravines and rappel down from helicopters or cliff-sides. Most of all these cadets learn the basics of marching, communication, marksmanship and infantry tactics.
Both the instructor cadre and the older cadets agree that the second year is one of the most enjoyable parts of ROTC training, but it is also one of the hardest. It is a bonding period for the cadets who stay with the program, but it is also a year that sees many cadets drop out. It is the transition period from civilian to cadet, from student to soldier.