Training program offers leadership qualifies By Jo Griffiths Discipline, self-confidence, and leadership are three things all col leges and universities hope to in still in their students by gradua tion day. Fourteen of Capitol Campus’ students know they’ll be taking these qualities with them when they graduate. Why? Because they practice them every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, as members of the Army ROTC pro gram here. ROTC, short for the Reserve Officers Training Corps, is a na tional university-based organiza tion for recruiting and training future U.S. military officers, and its doing its job well, according to Lt. Col. Robert J. Harman, Pro fessor of Military Science at Dickinson College, and head in structor of the Capitol ROTC program. Acording to a recent ar ticle in the Wall Street Journal, enrollment is up 87 percent from the 1973-74 school year. Nation wide, a total of 114,451 college students are enrolled in ROTC, and 205,949 high school students are enrolled in the Junior ROTC program, said the article. “It’s a place to make your mistakes now and learn how to handle them.’* Major reasons for the growth cited by ROTC instructors and the cadets themselves include the unstable job market, rising tuition costs, and a more favorable view of the military in general. Whatever the reasons people may have for joining ROTC, the fact remains that they keep coming. Darrell Curtis ROTC cadet Harman said that active duty quotas are filling up and that about 300 cadets in the Army ROTC program will get reserve status this year instead of the ac tive duty status they requested. “ROTC? It’s a good pro-* gram,” said Darrell Curtis, a senior cadet at Capitol. “The program provides you with leadership and management op- portunities you’ll need and use in a military or civilian career. It’s a “We all have to accept leadership positions and learn how to handle ourselves well. In ROTC, you receive leadership training unlike any elsewhere.” place to make your mistakes now and learn how to handle them.” Other cadets in the program agree. Sherie Rausch joined for similiar reasons as did Jim De myanovich. Noted the latter, “we all have to accept leadership posi tions and learn how to handle ourselves well. In ROTC, you _ receive leadership training unlike any received elsewhere.”' ROTC instructors work hard to instill leadership and dependabili ty in their cadets, said Harman. A lot of time and effort is spent in building confidence in cadets abilities and self-discipline via a busy schedule of classroom work,outdoor drills and physical conditioning , and more than a few weekends of still more train ing. And, that’s all in addition to the traditional coarse load college students carry, said Harman. The time factor has eased a bit, though, for the Capitol cadets who used to spend their Wednesdays driving back and forth to attend classes at Dickin- son, the host school. As of last fall, ROTC classes have been con ducted right at Capitol, a factor which has boosted enrollment 70 percent. According to Harman, “We had two students in the pro gram before it was moved here. Now we have 10 juniors and four seniors, and we expect it to keep filling.” ROTC meets every Wednesday for two hours of classroom in Jim Demyanovich ROTC cadet struction and VA hours of drill and P.T. (physical training) out doors. Topics studied include land navigation, military skills and ad ministrative procedures, military intelligence, tactics and weapons, the different areas of service within the Army, and officer enlisted personnel relationships. Cadets must have a working The Editorial Staff of TARNHELM, Capitol Campus Arts Magazine, cordially invites you to attend the Reception of the 1983 TARNHELM Magazine to be held Thursday, June second, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Three in the Gallery Lounge of The Olmsted Building knowledge of military justice and ethics. The focal point of the classroom and outside training, however, is the ROTC Advance Camp which cadets usually attend the summer between their junior and senior years. Advance Camp is six weeks of “basic training” at Ft. Bragg, N.C., the ROTC’s ver sion of Officers Basic Training. Here cadets get a firsthand chance to put what they’ve learn ed to good use in a training exer cise to beat all training exercises. For some of the Capitol cadets, though, Advance Camp may be a sampling, albeit an exaggerated one, of what life may be like for the next four years or so. Of the 14 cadets at Capitol, four have chosen active duty, said Harman, while nine others have opted for reserve status. One cadet will be leaving the program to attend the Naval Academy. Cadets have the choice of serv ing active duty tours or reserve ones, but must decide which op tion they want by the end of their junior year, Harman said. Cadets choosing active duty generally serve three or four year tours while reserve cadets currently are required to serve eight years.
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