The Chronicle

The Chronicle Blogger

March 2nd, 2008

ROTC leadership course crucial for future placement

The Army Reserve Officer Training Corps members who participated in a mock mission Friday weren’t just doing it for kicks. Although many of them pronounced the experience to be “a lot of fun,” many of the cadets who participated will attend the ROTC Leader Development and Assessment Course this summer.

Conducted at Fort Lewis, Wash., the LDAC consists of four weeks of intensive training and evaluation for ROTC students between their junior and senior years of college. In preparation for LDAC, the junior ROTC members, who are enrolled in Military Science III and thus referred to as MSIIIs, take on the major roles in carrying out mock missions.

“As a senior, your job is way more strategic,” said sophomore Phil Cotter. “MSIIIs are more concerned with the tactics, and as a [sophomore] you take on more leadership, but not like the juniors.”

Performance at LDAC is extremely important for a ROTC members’ eventual placement. Cadets are evaluated on how well they can lead and given a score that determines their placement on a merit list. This list affects what branch the ROTC member is eventually placed in—some of which are more selective than others.

To help prepare them for LDAC, the junior ROTC members receive evaluations from seniors and Cadre faculty members.

“We help them with their job and then give them an evaluation,” said senior Alex Frank, who served as an evaluator to give students feedback. “The goal of all this was to help them learn.”
–Anna Lieth

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 11:39 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.