Fifty-eight cold, wet cadets
Fifty-eight cadets from the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps set out to Hyrum Reservoir on Thursday to take part in their annual Zodiac Laboratory. The goal: to familiarize cadets with Zodiac boats, a type of inflatable water raft used only by special operation units in the military.
It also helps to “Teach cadets how to work together as a team in a cold and strenuous environment,”said Sergeant Petrone.
In water that measured 50 degrees, ten cadets and one supervisor were expected to paddle out about twenty-five feet from the shore, capsize their zodiac boats, then flip it back over as a team. Once they paddled back to shore squads worked together to carry the boat another fifteen feet up the dock then bring it back and set it down just above the water line.
Blue lips and chattering teeth were seen once the cadets got back to shore. “These kinds of labs help get new cadets excited about the ROTC,” said Cadet Keneth Myers. And despite the cold, the lab did just that.
“Exercises like this help me know that I can trust the people I’m working with. That’s one of the reasons I like the ROTC,” said Cadet Morgath, who was participating in the lab for the first time.
For Cadet Trevor Anderson, the experience was a little different.
“When I first did this lab it was scary. I though the ROTC was really tough and I was nervous to jump into the water since I wasn’t a really good swimmer but it was an amazing experience and helped me realize the army is a brotherhood more than anything.”
In addition to learning how to use the zodiac boats, cadets were taught how to create flotation devices out of ponchos. Both labs were taken out of the Ranger’s Handbook in sections 9-4, 9-7, and 9-9.
“The reason we use the Ranger’s Handbook is because we want to see traits in our cadets from men such as Jim Bridger, one of the frontier’s men of the west. Some of the traits he had was the ability to survive off the land, map it and help travelers … He was very self-aware of what the land was like and was able to relay that,” said Captain Anderson. In addition to being a role model, Jim Bridger is also the name of the Battalion at Utah State University.
Despite the guidance from the handbook, all exercises were planned and taught by senior cadets, all of whom had two or more years experience in the ROTC. The reason for this is to not only give new cadets training but also teach the senior cadets leadership skills they will need once they move on from the ROTC.
For now, however, new cadets aspire to work hard enough to become senior cadets and senior cadets work hard so that once they leave they can do well in whatever position they have in the military.
“Once they leave the ROTC ninety-nine percent of these cadets will never see these boats again, but learning how to use these boats isn’t the goal of this lab,” said Sergeant Petrone. “We want to teach these cadets how to work as a team and how to become great leaders.”