Media Advisory -- ROTC Training Exercise

September 30, 2009

Media Advisory -- ROTC Training Exercise

Cadets from Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s U.S. Army Reserve Office Training Corps will conduct their fall field training exercise, Friday, Oct. 2 through Sunday, Oct. 4, at the SIUC Department of Public Safety Firearms Range.

Several interview opportunities are available during the event. Cadets will ruckmarch from Kesnar Hall (1125 Douglas Drive) at 5:30 p.m., Oct. 2. Over the next two days cadets will participate in squad situational training exercises (paintball force on force), a field leadership reaction course, day and night land navigation, and rifle marksmanship.

According to Illinois Army National Guard Capt. Jonathan A. Cape, an SIUC Army ROTC enrollment officer, the ruckmarch is a 2.5-mile tactical movement cadets will do along the road and trails to get them from Kesnar Hall to the training area.

When cadets arrive they will learn how to set up a proper area to stay in the woods overnight.

In the situational training exercise, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, squads of cadets receive missions, and they develop a plan to successfully accomplish those missions within a time frame. The exercise allows cadets to develop leadership skills and ability to adapt plans when situations change, Cape said.

In the field leadership reaction course, squads of cadets must complete an obstacle course with a timeline, while identifying a possible way to successfully maneuver through the course as a team, Cape said. The exercise is also from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. A land navigation exercise is from 3 to 11 p.m. Saturday.

For more information on the exercise or to make arrangements for interviews, contact Cape at 618/453-7563.

To get to the training exercise area, take McLafferty Road south to Pleasant Hill Road. Turn west onto Pleasant Hill Road to Union Hill Road. Turn south onto Union Hill Road and continue to Mine Tree Lane. Turn southeast and continue. The police range is on the east side of the road. ROTC personnel will be available throughout the day for interviews.