• FTX

  October 9, 2011

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  army-rotc  

  Hello. My name is Kacie Truss and I am a Freshman at the University of Toledo and a cadet private in the ROTC program there. Two weeks ago, the MS1's experienced their first FTX (Field Training Exercise) at Camp Perry and I am writing a little about the experience I had there.

  The first day of training was the Field Leadership Reaction Course and Heat Training in a Humvee Simulator. We were divided into even groups of MS3's, MS2's, and MS1's and took turns being squad leaders and team leaders, learning more and more after each task. The MS4's prepared well and adjusted the plan well when it started raining and it was a successful learning opportunity. Later that day we did land navigation and night navigation. The MS1's were in groups with MS4's to learn how to use the azmith to find a specific control point. Overall, we became very familiar with the techniques of land navigation and also learned helpful tips about night navigation!

  The second day we did EST (Engagement Skills Trainer) and the shoot house. There was a long period of classroom learning before we actually got to handle the weapons but it was important information that needed to be taught. EST was very cool and interesting because I have never shot a M-4 before and we were able to shoot several rounds and get a good amount of practice in. The shoothouse was the best part of FTX. At the shoothouse, we learned how to clear a room using a 4 man team and also how to clear an entire house. Using the skills we aquired from the MS4's training lessons, we actually got to go through the entire house with paint ball guns and our other platoon members were acting as the enemies and made it a more "real-like" situation. I was actually scared a couple times entering a room first knowing I was going to be shot at and it could be like that in real life!

  The last day was an event called "Rocket Challenge" that they have every year. The Rocket Challenge consists of the entire company competing in a 5k ruck/run with 4 different stations: 40 push ups, 40 sit ups, 25 overhead ruck presses, and 25 crazy ivans. It was 5 laps around a mapped out course so you had to visit each station 5 times and we had 2 hours to complete the challenge. It turned out to be a very nice morning to have it on and it was definately challenging but not impossible and everyone finished on time. The best part for me was how encouraging the upper classmen were to me. I struggled on the last lap and had about 3 people running along side of me, pushing me, motivating me to finish and not give up and that's exactly what I did, finished!

  Overall the FTX was a new, fun experience that I would highly reccommend to MS1's and other cadets who have never gone before!

   

  -Kacie Truss

  submitted by Cadet Kacie Truss on Oct 9 2011

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