Photo By Crystal Housman | A middle school cadet from California Military Institute makes it to the halfway point...... read more read more
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10-year-old Camila Arevalo focused on putting one foot in front of the other as she began ascending the intricate course of interwoven telephone poles.
The sixth grader at California Military Institute (CMI) was the first of her schoolmates to reach the top of the Alpine Tower at Camp San Luis Obispo, California, during the cadets’ annual fall bivouac, held Sept. 16-20, 2016.
“I thought I wasn’t going to survive,” said Arevalo. “It was crazy up there.”
The 60-foot tower features three starting points, but quickly sprawls upward with endless pathways to the top, including telephone poles criss-crossed and lined with rock-climbing holds, knotted ropes dangling from the final platform, and a pair of rope ladders that swing and sway with every climbing movement.
“Now what?” Arevalo called down to her rope belay, U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Dustin Dionne, then followed his suggestions to safely maneuver from one area of the tower to the next.
“The scariest part was where I had to step on this iron piece and balance across it,” said Arevalo. Following Dionne’s guidance, Arevalo balanced along a metal rod connecting two telephone poles in order to continue ascending the tower.
Dionne, who serves on state active duty as the operations NCO for the California Cadet Corps, of which the Perris, California-based CMI is a part, frequently belays and coaches young people up the tower.
“It’s a good sense of accomplishment and excitement for them to be able to do something like that at that age,” said Dionne. “The look on their faces is priceless.”
In addition to conquering the climbing tower, CMI cadets also took on the base obstacle course and Leader’s Reaction Course. The program wrapped up with basic marksmanship training and a land navigation course.
“The objective [for bivouac] is to enhance their outdoor skills and teamwork,” said Maj. Joseph Alo, California Cadet Corps’ 9th Brigade and 10th Corps Advisor, who also serves as CMI’s Senior Military Advisor.
The majority of the nearly 50 cadets who participated in bivouac were middle school students in fifth through eighth grades, Alo said. High school students served as leaders and mentors for the younger cadets.
Cadet Recruit Abel Hernandez, a CMI fifth-grader who celebrated his 10th birthday during the trip, found a mentor in Cadet 1st Class Manuel Lozano, a junior at Riverside County Education Academy. At CMI’s invitation, RCEA, a small school in Moreno Valley that also participates in California Cadet Corps, sent a handful of their high school students along for the trip.
Hernandez, who only stands as tall as Lozano’s chest, found some of the obstacles challenging due to his height, but working together the duo completed all of the obstacle course objectives.
“The easy ones I did them, but [for] the hard ones, he helped me,” Hernandez said with his glasses-framed eyes beaming up at Lozano.
At one point, the pair had to ascend and descend a modified weave constructed of evenly spaced wooden beams. Hernandez, whose legs barely reached from bar to bar, made it past the halfway point and was on the descent before nerves got the best of him. Lozano was right by his side and didn’t let his battle buddy go down alone.
“He just told me to drop if I got scared,” Hernandez said. “Then he dropped with me.”
One by one, the pair landed on a padded cushion underneath the tower. Without hesitation, they ran on to the next obstacle, where Hernandez placed his small black combat boot into Lozano’s interlocked hands for a boost over a six foot wall.
Lozano, who hopes to enlist in the Navy or Marine Corps after high school, said he partnered up with Hernandez because of the young man’s drive.
“This guy wouldn’t quit,” Lozano said about the 10-year-old.
Mentorship across the grade levels is exactly what Alo hoped to see develop during bivouac, and continue on for years to come.
“Hopefully one day the fifth and sixth graders will be like the high schoolers are now, and they will show the young kids,” Alo said.
No matter their age, each cadet benefited from the trip, he said.
“Some of them have never been outdoors for anything, so this is a good experience for them,” Alo said. “The whole reason for bringing them up here is just to give them that experience.”
CMI is a military-themed charter school for grades 5-12 and is the 163d Attack Wing's adopted school.
| Date Taken: | 09.30.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 04.11.2017 00:17 |
| Story ID: | 229920 |
| Location: | CAMP SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 213 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, California Military Institute cadets train at fall bivouac, by Crystal Housman, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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