Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets from Miami Dade College’s North and Kendall Campuses joined cadets from Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University and other schools in the region for the Southern Strike Brigade’s annual Field Training Exercise held from April 1 – 3 at Snake Creek in Hollywood, Florida.
Students stayed overnight to simulate the living conditions of military environments and participated in rigorous training regimes including day and night land navigation, police calls, bunker invasion tactical training, and for more advanced cadets, the Ranger Challenge, a battle simulated combat course designed to test older, more hardened members.
“FTX is a great way of introducing cadets new to Army ROTC to the military field environment,” said Captain Alvin Williams, an assistant professor of Military Science at the Kendall Campus. “It’s not going to make them seasoned soldiers, clearly, but it’s just long enough to give them a taste of what it’s like to spend one or two days on the field under less comfortable surroundings.”
Aside from the physical training, students followed protocol similar to standard military operations, even eating MRE’s or “Meals Ready to Eat,” the same meals soldiers on the front lines consume.
“Some of them [MRE’s] are surprisingly amazing.” said Jose Pabon, liberal arts major and cadet from FIU. “The others are still actually pretty good.”
