Augusta, Mich. - As the bus passed through the gate house at Ft. Custer on its way back to MSU, the exhausted cadets fell asleep to the low hum of the motor.
As it neared Demonstration Hall, Sgt. John Pohl, senior military instructor for MSU's Army ROTC program, stood at the head of the bus and broke the slumber with a booming proclamation.
"It doesn't get a whole lot more difficult than that," he said. "Regardless if you feel like you can't do it, you did do it."
On April 6, about 60 Army ROTC cadets finished a grueling weekend at Ft. Custer Training Center. They rose each morning before sunrise to physically and mentally test themselves by running through thorn-filled brush, scaling walls and planning ambushes on "opposing forces" hidden in the camp's vast forest.
The third-year cadets attempted seven missions designed to evaluate their progress and prepare them for a 32-day training session at the National Advanced Leadership Camp in Ft. Lewis, Wash., during the summer.
As an experienced veteran, serving eight years in Alaska and Germany, Pohl said the below-freezing conditions mixed with hail provided a grueling environment for 14 hours of tactical exercises on April 5. Under the circumstances, he expected cadets to give up.
But no one did.
Pohl told the cadets, "You should feel damn proud of yourselves."
The test
In the early hours of April 5, cadets began their first tactical mission, covering more than eight miles with M-16 rifles and rucksacks on their backs. To carry out the task, they ambushed opposing forces - volunteers from the Army National Guard - and executed reconnaissance missions to locate the enemy.
By the time they returned to barracks No. 2415, the sun was fading in the distance.
Even with a war raging in Iraq, the weekend's focus remained consistent with previous sessions - building leaders for the years ahead.
"We're always prepared to go to war," second-year cadet Scott Pastor said. "The fact that the job that we train for is actually being carried out doesn't change anything with ROTC right now."
But ROTC is not a combat unit. Guidelines for cadets, who are contracted by the program, specify they will not be deployed.
"Just because the president sends troops overseas doesn't mean we're all going to start training in desert warfare," the political science sophomore said. "That kind of stuff doesn't go on at ROTC."
In the future, Pastor hopes to work in military intelligence.
"Not everyone wants to be an infantryman. Not everyone wants to spend their life carrying a rucksack through the woods slugging through the mud," he said. "Very few people in the Army actually do that."
When the cadets graduate from the program they will be platoon leaders in charge of 40-50 soldiers, said Col. Michael Pacheco, chairman of the department of military science. Less than 10 percent become infantry soldiers, he added.
"People don't think of us as a well-educated, motivated group of people," Pacheco said, noting officers must receive bachelor's degrees. "At 22, the decisions they will be making will be rivaling people that have been in business for 30 years."
When Pacheco first entered the military, he was in charge of $36 million of equipment, including seven Cobra helicopters.
Cadets are taught to handle billions of dollars in army equipment through military training classes, weekends at Ft. Custer and leadership camps.
Without extensive training, Pacheco says, the equipment would be useless.
"A helicopter, a tank, no matter how good the technology, is not worth a dime if you don't have good people to lead them," Pacheco said.
To make sure cadets can handle the future decisions they will be making, they are evaluated on how well they can lead their squads in stressful situations, not how successful they are in completing assigned missions, Pacheco said.
"The biggest thing is to get them to communicate under stress and make them make decisions," he said.
Pacheco said they are trying to improve the soldiers' image.
"A lot of people think we want to kill people," he said. "Soldiers don't want to kill people 'cause when we're killing people someone's trying to kill us."
Passion for duty
Lying in the brush and using a tree for cover, first-year ROTC cadet and Army Reserve Pvt. Alex White pointed the barrel of his M-16 rifle into the forest. He protected his squad leader from an unseen enemy as he received the final mission of the day.
After 10 hours on his feet, White continued to push forward.
"I like the training in the woods, with an actual rifle," the physics sophomore said. "The closer you get to the real thing the more you want to do it."
With real military engagements such as the war with Iraq dominating the news, White said he often feels anxiety.
"Everyone's over there and I wish I could be over there, too," White said, a noncontracted cadet, who hopes to become an infantry officer in the 75th Ranger Unit.
While the military can be a dangerous job, White said he has always wanted to serve his country.
"I can't wait for basic training, having them yell at me, 'Do more push-ups,'" White said.
White said he thrives in these situations.
"Staying motivated is not hard, we are highly motivated all the time," he said. "You get tired when you slow down."
But he said his energy could be due to the amount of sugar he had downed from his MRE, or meal ready-to-eat.
"I just drank a whole pack of drink mix, which is like the largest Pixie Stix ever."
Third-year cadet James Carrier was one of the cadets to have his leadership skills put to the test.
During the two missions he led, Carrier became frustrated when his two teams, designated Alpha and Bravo, became split when the enemy moved from their anticipated location. One team detached from Carrier's group because they were planning to flank and ambush the enemy from the side.
But the planned attack went awry when the enemy began to fire at the flanking team.
"I didn't know what happened with the squad I left behind, but I still had to make decisions for them," Carrier said. "During missions (opposing forces) will change things on you and you have to make snap decisions and you don't know if they're right."
Carrier was also "killed" in that mission when he got caught in his own soldiers' cross-fire.
Eventually, Carrier said he wants to go into the branched armor division and become a platoon leader, who is in command of four tanks.
"I knew I wanted to be in combat arms where the fighting is and I know tanks are a big target," Carrier said.
The front-line combat the military has to offer is very appealing to him and he said he isn't scared.
"People always ask me why," Carrier said. "I just want to be up there with the boys."
Kelli Cynecki can be reached at cyneckik@msu.edu.
