Air Force general speaks to ROTC
People recited rhymes and drank mysterious things Saturday, but it wasn’t at Poetry and a Beverage, it was at an Air Force ROTC dinner.
Saturday night was the ROTC’s long-standing tradition of holding its formal Dining Out dinner to help prepare cadets for the formal dinners they will have as officers in the Air Force, Maj. Kirstin Plagge said.
Cadets got to meet and socialize with dates, experience a formal Air Force dinner and get advice from Brig. Gen. Scott Harrison.
Harrison said the dinner builds “fellowship, camaraderie and introduces traditions to those in the civilian world who may not know about them.”
One of the traditions the dates and parents who attended with cadets got to see was the grog bowl. The grog is a tradition observed at Air Force banquets where a few people are asked to bring any ingredient they would like and add it to a grog bowl. Paul Overdiek, a senior in engineering, said there is usually no coordination between the people bringing ingredients.
During dinner, people are allowed to stand and ask the president of the banquet to send someone to the grog. They have to ask in rhyme, and the reasons people were asked Saturday night varied from such offenses as not showing up to morning work-outs to terrible rhymes to hitting on another cadet’s sister.
The person accused of the offense must then defend in rhyme, and the president decides who must drink from the grog. The person must then drink a full cup of grog without taking the cup from their lips and then hold the cup over their head to prove it is empty.
Overdiek said, “This year’s grog isn’t that bad. Last year I was too scared to do any poems for fear I’d get sent to the grog bowl.”
He said in past years, cottage cheese and live goldfish have been part of the ingredients. This year had a relatively tame concoction with cod liver oil, ice cream and marshmallows.
Along with the grog, all dinner members had to observe 16 rules such as “Thou shalt not laugh at ridiculously funny comments unless the President first shows approval by laughing” or “Thou shalt enjoy thyself to the fullest.”
Cadet Abayomi Olorunsola said he thinks the USU detachment is lucky to have formal dinners because not very many other detachments have those formal events.
“There are a lot of really funny things tonight, but it’s all in good fun,” said Kara Clark, a sophomore in mechanical engineering.
The highlight of the night, however, was Harrison’s speech, where he gave advice to the cadets attending.
His main message was to keep integrity in every action as an Air Force officer. He said officers will have “immense frustrations and incredible success” if they follow three rules: integrity first, service before self and excellence in all they do.
“There’s never a time when you need to suborn your integrity,” Harrison said. “However, there are many times when I’ve had to push the regulations. You have to learn
judgment.”
People will have to take some risks to keep integrity, he said, pointing to the examples of officers who refused to sign illegal paperwork and gave up promotions as a result of their actions.
He also said officers sometimes have to sacrifice things they want to benefit others.
“When we were supporting young Americans in harm’s way, you don’t take a day off. That’s service before self,” Harrison said.
Judging people is also dangerous, he said.
“Don’t color all Arabs and Muslims in an evil light,” Harrison said. “There’s evil everywhere and what we’re fighting is evil concepts.”
Officers need to be careful and always take care of the people under them, he said. Harrison also said to never underestimate the enlisted officers and never overestimate an officer’s brain power.
The night ended with Lt. Col. Michael Swift giving the Warrior Spirit awards to outstanding cadets. Cadets Jay Goold, Amanda Callister, Jonathan Tolman and Justin Gibbons were all honored at the banquet. Swift then gave out what he said was the highest award an ROTC cadet could receive, the Distinguished Graduate award, to Michael Vilven.
The awards were based on appearance, attitude, enthusiasm in duty performance, physical fitness and impact on flight morale, performance, motivation and team events.
-dilewis@cc.usu.edu