Battle Ready

A group of Fresno State ROTC cadets spent a weekend at an Army reserve base practicing skills they will need to be effective U.S. Army leaders

By RYAN SMITH

It was supposed to be an assault mission. The objective was simple — eliminate a small group of rebel soldiers on the run.

They weren’t supposed to know we were coming.

But now, four squad members lay dead in an open field, with those of us alive pinned down in a small creek bed a couple yards away by gunfire at our one o’clock.

With no options left and the mission compromised, the squad leader yells over the radio for artillery support.

Seconds later, as quickly as the ambush had started, the battlefield fell silent, the objective complete — the target eliminated. The mission wasn’t pretty, but real life rarely is.

The mission was supposed to be a simulation — one of many training exercises the Army uses to prepare its ROTC cadets to be future leaders as second lieutenants.

For three days, starting April 1, Fresno State Army ROTC cadets put to use all the information they’d learned in the classroom to learn how to survive and be effective in the field.