Alpine Towers

For LLab on Tuesday the four squadrons took on many different challenges while at Alpine Towers. They were faced with many different missions, and were expected to work together as a team to successfully complete each mission. For example, one of the missions was to get an entire squadron over a HUGE wooden wall (It depends how short you are for it to seem really huge). The cadets had to lift up one teammate at a time, and the cadets on top had to make sure the cadet got pulled over safely. Some of us were a little hesitant to let others lift us and pull us over a wall, but we all had to quickly overcome our fears so our team could complete the mission! The key to completing this mission is TRUST! We had to trust everyone in our team to do their part and make sure each of us was able to get over the wall safely. After the first time over the wall, the squadrons became a little competitive and started to see how fast they could get their team over. At the end of the day the Raptors had the fastest time overall, and the Eagles had the fastest time for the initial attempt at the wall.

Another challenge each squadron faced was known as the "spider web". It consisted of two poles, with ropes criss-crossing between them creating holes like a spider web. The mission again, was to get the entire squadron to one side of the web. The catch to this was, that we couldn't touch the ropes at any time or go through any hole more than twice! This meant we had to trust others to lift us and pass us through the web to teammates on the other side! Again, we had a lot of fun with this and really learned how to work as a team.

For each of these missions, the FTP cadets were expected to lead the group. They were given the problem, time to plan, and time to execute the mission. The FTP cadets led their squadrons well. Many of them took the correct steps in carrying out the mission. It was very interesting for the POC cadets to take a step back, and see the different leadership styles of the FTP cadets. While the freshman on the other hand seemed to really enjoy the challenges of Alpine Towers. Many of them helped out by giving ideas during the planning stage, and participating during the execution stage! All of the cadets had fun on Tuesday! We got a chance to get off campus, work together, have some fun, and build some teamwork. It was overall a very rewarding day for the Cadet Wing.

From an FTP Point of View

Coming from the perspective of an FTP cadet, the semester has gotten off to a great start. New cadets are quickly becoming familiar to the detachment and experienced cadets are continuing their diligent efforts. Everyone works together so well that I believe we will speed right through the forming and norming stages and be performing in no time at all.

I must admit that FTP training was a bit of a shock at first. There is much information to learn and skills to improve. During LLAB on 15 September, we participated in Operation WHAT? while the IMT were away at Alpine Towers. This operation consisted of several different parts: road crossing procedures, guiding bearing procedures, and organization of personal belongings. In addition, several FTP cadets were given the opportunity to command flights in marching. All of these areas will need improvement, but with the help of each other and the POC, we will quickly learn and perfect our skills. I look forward to the rest of the semester. It will be exciting to see my classmates work together and to find out more about what to expect at field training next summer.

Awards and Drill

We started off this semester with recognizing academic and field training achievements from the spring semester and the summer. Awards ranged from academic honors to the completion of field training. Numerous cadets received multiple awards, and others received long awaited scholarships! Here at Det 440, we are constantly being reminded that academics always come first, and the Awards Ceremony greatly evidenced that, with a large portion of cadets taking home honors for their outstanding academic achievements.

During our third LLab of the semester we saw firsthand why flexibility is the key to Airpower! Originally, the IMT were scheduled to make a trip to Alpine towers, while FTP were scheduled to be shown some dorm maintenance procedures in preparation for field training. However, the IMT were not able to make to Alpine towers this week, so we had a little change of schedule. We worked on drill out at Stankowski Field, teaching the new IMT, and new FTP some basic drill and ceremonies procedures. They learned some stationary facing movements, parade rest, raising and lowering the flag procedures, and how to present arms. After a short amount of time the newer cadets were really getting the hang of it, and ended LLab looking pretty sharp!