Classes and camo
A Day in the Life of an Army ROTC Cadet from The Daily Orange on Vimeo.
Quentin Sica occasionally dons green camouflage fatigues and always stands at attention when a superior officer enters the room.
But this ROTC cadet is just another college student.
‘As soon as I take off my uniform, I’m a civilian,’ the junior sociology major said.
Sica and 60 other Syracuse University students are members of the Stalwart Battalion, which also includes 43 students from Utica College.
A cadet’s education revolves around an eight-course sequence of military science classes that do not count for SU credit. The courses are an hour and 20 minutes long and meet once a week.
The cadets take one military course each semester throughout their college career. The sequence is split into four course sections teaching ‘leadership for life,’ beginning with basic leadership training and concluding with advanced leadership, said battalion commander Lt. Col. Susan Hardwick.
One member joined the corps with hopes of gaining leadership experience.
‘The best part of ROTC would have to be knowing that I will be going through school not just as a student, but someone who will come out a leader and step ahead of my other classmates with the experience and leadership (abilities),’ said Sarah Stenuf, a freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences.
Each course has a ‘leadership lab’ that meets once a week. This allows the cadets to apply what they learn in the classroom to real life settings, Hardwick said.
Cadets also have to wake up three times a week for an 80-minute physical training course at 6:30 a.m. The course features a full-body workout that can be intense at times, Hardwick said. There’s also a remedial section for cadets that need help catching up to their battalion mates’ physical stamina.
The commanding officers of the battalion aren’t just coaches on the sideline during the training course. Hardwick and the other officers participate fully in the various drills.
‘You have to lead by example,’ Hardwick said.
In the classroom, Capt. Brian Moore maintains a relaxed atmosphere, using light examples such as Dunkin’ Donuts when explaining land navigation.
In the past, a cadet’s experience in ROTC would end in the classroom. However, the Stalwart Battalion debuted a new experiment this year – a living community for the new freshmen cadets on the first floor of Flint Hall.
As one of two sophomores living in the community, Matt Karrenbauer serves as the unofficial leader.
The community does maintain a college dorm atmosphere, said Karrenbauer, a sophomore in The College of Arts and Sciences.
‘It’s not barracks-like by any means,’ he said. ‘The freshmen are just like any other regular student living in any dorm on campus, except they happen to all wake up at six in the morning.’
Adjusting to life as a cadet can be intense, but it’s not unmanageable, Karrenbauer said.
Stenuff said the experience can be a bit crazy and overwhelming at first, ‘but everything falls together.’
Hardwick has a unique perspective on college life and the adjustment that her cadets go through. She graduated from West Point Academy, where the atmosphere was ‘semi-controlled’ and rigid, she said. But at SU, cadets have the full college experience.
And despite the early wake up calls and intensity of the curriculum, neither Stenuf nor Karrenbauer said they would give it up.
‘I couldn’t imagine college without the Army,’ Karrenbauer said. ‘Our battalion is a family. If you had the opportunity to start your life over again, would you do it without your family?’
Published on September 4, 2008 at 12:00 pm
