The Kinnear Husky Battalion

1. The Kinnear Husky Battalion Panorama Spring Newsletter 2009-2010 Sandhurst CONTENTS Sandhurst Spring FTX Joint Service Review Commissioning Every fall quarter, University of Washington Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (UW AROTC) competes against fellow programs in our geographic area in a competition known as Ranger Challenge. This event tests our cadets in a variety exercises meant to demonstrate their physical, mental, and technical prowess. This year, UW hosted the competition staged at Fort Lewis on November 7th and 8th. Our Alpha and Bravo teams competed in a variety of events, such as the one-rope-bridge, land navigation, situation reports for which they earned points contributing to their final scores. Our Alpha team took home the gold, achieving the highest score in both our region and brigade. Due to our success, we were invited to send a nine-man team complete in the annual Sandhurst event at West Point against an array of forty-nine other national and international challengers. Our competition included over thirty West Point teams, teams from other service academies, seven other ROTC programs, and teams from the UK, Canada, Afghanistan, and Chile. The competition was held over a period of two days. Friday April 9th was set aside for the day-long rifle event On Saturday April 10th, our team began the second portion of the event, a seven mile course filled with a number of creative and challenging tasks that must be progressively accomplished. The team with the lowest time at the end, with penalties determined by performance on the rifle range factored in would be the winner of Sandhurst. The courses events included, land navigation, one-rope-bridge, zodiac boat course, first-aid, obstacle course, M16 assembly/disassembly, and many more. Our battalion's team finished with a score of six hours and fifty-two minutes (penalties included). With this score we took 12th place overall and 2nd among the ROTC programs represented at Sandhurst. Upright: Our team creates a one-rope-bridge across a stream at West Point. They had to make sure the rope was tight and secure to avoid incurring penalties for drenched equipment. Right: The team poses with Major General Bartell. Cadet Leverkuhn (far right) was the team captain and responsible for organizing, preparing, and leading the team's training since early fall quarter.

2. Spring Field Training Exercise Through the entire school year, the ROTC program strives to train cadets well on all the fundamentals of leadership that will be valuable for the summer evaluations known as LDAC (Leadership Development and Assessment Course) that all third-year cadets take. Our best simulation of LDAC is completed over the weekend at Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM) where we complete the running phase of our assessments of squad and patrol level tactical leadership. Above: Cadets in company formation report their accountability and stand by for departure. Left: Most fourth-year cadets left earlier with the advance party to set up the tactical operating center (TOC) from which SFTX operations were managed. Here is their information display used to organize all the important details of the operation. Right: Prior official deployment to Palomas, the imaginary country in which our battalion is conducting peacekeeping operations, our fourth-year cadets gave last-minute classes on patrols and the procedure over the weekend. The battalion was split into 5 squads to run a series of tactical-focused lanes for Saturday. At night they reformed into 2 patrols for the Sunday exercises that are more focused on teamwork, communication, and the management of a larger element while negotiating and developing interpersonal relations with the native population of Palomas. Left: All squad and patrol lanes were designated within the training areas of JBLM. Sometimes the lanes were dense with vegetation or sparse and grassy. Cadet leaders had to respond to terrain by adjusting the formation of their squad/patrol, the distance between cadets, or even to use the low or high crawls. Cadets not justifiably concealed gave their position to the opposing force (OPFOR) and increased the likelihood of an attack, artillery rounds, or sniper threats. Right: Cadet Aaron, a fourth-year student, pretends he is a solider wounded recently by a roadside improvised explosive device (IED). The leader of the squad on this lane needed to properly provide security around the area, communicate with a local national of Palomas (the imaginary country the battalion is deployed in for this exercise), call by radio for a medical evacuation, and ensure his squad performed its basic tasks. Cadre and fourth-year cadet evaluators followed the cadets through their leadership positions annotating successes and failures to review at the end of the lanes through group and individual counseling.

3. Joint Service Review Every year the Army, Air Force, and Navy/Marine Corps ROTC programs co-host the Joint Service Review. This is the opportunity for the services to work together and show off their drill and ceremony in Red Square. Right: All three programs take up Red Square as they report in at the beginning of the ceremony, followed up with a display from the Air Force rifle team and the speeches of distinguished guests. Left: The event's color guard was also a joint service effort comprising members of all three ROTC programs. Right: Cadet Michelle Lee assists with the arrangement of the many awards presented later that afternoon in Kane Hall. Many of the awards were contributed by organizations such as the Military Order of World Wars and the American Legion. Commissioning A cadet's training at the university ends when he or she becomes a newly commissioned 2nd lieutenant. The commissionees over the next few years will complete training at their branch-specific schools, specialty schools, and move to their first assignments, usually as platoon leaders or staff officers. Cadets Hampson and Aaron, also members of the class of 2010 and shown right, were commissioned slightly later (CDT Hampson during of his LDAC graduation, CDT Aaron after completing his degree over the summer). Commissionees and their Branches as shown in picture left to right Jared Hampson - ArmorKenneth Aaron - Joseph Armstrong - Medical Service Corps Shawn O'Keefe - ChemicalMarissa Perez - OrdnanceGehee Ahn - Ordnance Joshua Jorgensen - Adjutant General Mary Wallace Olver - Army Nurse Corps Christopher Chung - Medical Service Corps Brad Allen - Quartermaster Alyson McWherter - Medical Service Corps Ryan Youngman - Field Artillery Stephen Leverkuhn - Infantry Nathan Wagner - Aviation Haruna Drammeh - Field Artillery Nathan Taggart - Medical Service Corps Andrew Saack - Quartermaster Michelle Lee - Medical Service Corps Daniel Lee - Infantry Congratulations to the Class of 2010!