Nick MacKinnon (The Beacon)
By Nick MacKinnon, Guest Commentary
This summer, over 2000 Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets nationwide spanning six sessions, travelled to Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama to begin an intense 28-day training and leadership development program. Despite the overall graduation rate of a little over 90 percent, the University of Portland Detachment 695 had the proud distinction of having all 24 cadets sent to Field Training graduate. In fact, four of them received the Distinguished Graduate ribbon and three received the Superior Performer ribbon, indicating their graduation in the top 10 percent and top 20 percent, respectively.
Throughout their training, cadets were placed in highly pressurized environments in order to learn, grow, and be evaluated on their leadership competency amidst a simulated wartime environment. The focal point of Field Training is to allow rising Junior cadets the opportunity to demonstrate that they have the attributes necessary to be a military leader and ultimately an Air Force Officer.
One popular method of training involved introducing cadets to the perhaps unfamiliar feeling of failure. When presented with a problem, evaluators often shot down the first solution that a cadet offered in order to force the team to come together, build on the previous idea which had been rejected, and ultimately develop a bolder answer using the Observe, Orient, Decide, Act method known as the OODA Loop.
In order to be successful at Field Training, Flights of approximately 25 cadets were forced to come together as a team in order to accomplish The Mission. Without teamwork, success was often impossible. As many as 10 cadets would be working together in close quarters to prepare a room for inspection.
Upon learning to make the stressful 28-day program more bearable by coming together as a team, many cadets found Field Training to be "the most fun you never want to have again." This culminated in a ceremony signifying the graduation from underclassmen followers to upperclassmen leaders... now one step closer to becoming United States Air Force Officers.
Nick MacKinnon is a junior mechanical engineering major. He can be reached at mackinno14@up.edu
