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CAMP BLANDING, Fla. - Eleven Colleges and their ROTC cadets came together at Camp Blanding Joint Training Center, April 3, 2013, to test their mental and physical fortitude in the three-day Audie Murphy Exercise.
The Leadership Development Assessment Course is the standard used to grade cadets on a scale of 1-5,000 in the nation. It is the culmination of all the training and studying an individual goes through in their four years of college. The higher the rating the better their chances to get the job they want in the Army, to include Army Corp of Engineers, Aviation, Infantry and a plethora of other key military departments.
"The Audie Murphy, which is what this event is called is designed to be a last ditch chance training opportunity before they leave for LDAC this summer. A lot of these kids will be leaving in less than 60 days from now to conduct probably the most important training of their cadet careers thus far," said Master Sgt. Scott Brinson, noncommissioned officer in charge of squad training exercise tactical operations center.
As the schools arrived at the training area, the cadets all received their operation order for the three days they would be there. Unlike the training students went through at their respective schools, they would be integrated into squads with cadets from other universities, so they can learn to adapt their leadership abilities in an unfamiliar environment.
Hours before the sun came up, cadets were assembled and ready to take an Army Physical Fitness Test in the pouring rain; the first of many physical and strategic tests they would go through together. Upon completion they dispersed into their squads and traveled from training lane to training lane.
According to cadet William Sherwood, one of the student leaders in charge of running the cadet side of the joint force training exercise, the cadets are given two hours to go through a training lane intended to test their competency in a tactical setting. At each lane they are given an operation order containing the logistics of that event. As a squad leader their job is to take that operation order and disseminate it through the ranks of the squad and then lead them through the mission.
"Some of the missions have variables. The cadets will be briefed on missions, but then something could change. Maybe more enemies than expected, civilians on the battlefield, media on the battlefield; variables to test their leadership and reaction skills," said Sherwood.
The exercise tests each individual differently, as the collaborative circumstances of every squad will vary throughout the four days of the Audie Murphy Exercise.
"You have to be quick on your feet to come up with that kind of leadership and that's what we are out here learning today," says cadet Cody Eigo, student leader for the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's ROTC Eagle Battalion.
The schools involved with the Audie Murphy exercise are as follows: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida Agricultural Mechanical University, Florida Institute of Technology, Florida International University, Florida Southern College, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, University of South Florida, and the University of Tampa.
| Date Taken: | 04.06.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 04.07.2013 18:49 |
| Story ID: | 104763 |
| Location: | CAMP BLANDING, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 292 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Florida's Army ROTC cadets are put to the test at the Audie Murphy Exercise, by SGT Spencer Rhodes, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
