It is quiet in the wooded clearing of the high mountain desert. A fortified truck serving as a bunker is parked in the distance, an occasional guard patrolling in front of it. A rustle in the trees breaks the serenity. People are out there, somewhere.
David Bracero, a BYU ROTC cadet majoring in geospatial intelligence, lies prone on the ground several yards south of the truck, waiting to ambush any who would dare assault the truck. Suddenly an explosion from a 60 mm artillery round sounds beneath the bunker. A squad begins to move in, setting up a perimeter. Bracero is caught off-guard by the squad’s movements and is shot in the leg and captured. His comrades choose that moment to attack the squad from the north, drawing all attention away from him. Bracero attempts to break his bands and flee, getting shot two more times in the back in the process. A shout rings through the air: “Change of mission!” The mission is over, all participants gather round to discuss the events that took place.
Bracero was one of a few cadets chosen early Friday morning to be the “bad guys” for this particular station at the ROTC’s spring field training exercises in Camp Williams. The exercises that took place last weekend involved all ROTC cadets from BYU, Utah Valley State College and Southern Utah University.
From 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. cadets participated in training exercises ranging from using grid coordinates in navigating courses to simulated battles with weapons loaded with paint balls, like the one Bracero was involved in. Cadets learned vital skills, such as how to count paces from point to point and search for snipers in battlefield conditions.
The spring training exercise consisted of hour-long squad tactical exercises. Squads were led on a rotational basis. Cadets have two to three opportunities over the course of the day to lead a unit through missions varying in difficulty and objective.
On Thursday cadets participated in land navigation courses; on Friday and Saturday they led squads of 9 to 12 and patrols of 24 to 30 people through simulated battlefield conditions accomplishing realistic mission objectives.
One of the objectives of the exercises is to prepare juniors for their Leadership and Development assessment in the summer, conducted at Fort Luis in Tacoma, Wash., said Eric Becker, a BYU cadet majoring in wildlife/wild land conservation.
All cadets attend a leadership development assessment course between their junior and senior year. The military tests the cadets on everything they have been taught during the first three years and ranks them accordingly. This evaluation determines what branch in the military a cadet will be assigned to.
“The cadets have spent the year to this point training,” Becker said, “We’ve been preparing for these exercises about 4 to 6 hours each week this semester.”
Maj. Ted M. Leblow, department chair of military science, said this entire event was planned and run by the cadets with the officers providing oversight and ensuring that things run according to plan.
Leblow said these training exercises are the equivalent of a final for many cadets. Officers grade cadets based on leadership in the field, decision-making under pressure and how they keep control of the squad in battlefield conditions.
Copyright Brigham Young University 3 Apr 2007
