By Nick Matson
Ball State University
NORWICH – It is that time of the year when college students are getting ready to head back to school. Some have spent their summer working. Others are taking summer classes. Still others are traveling across the country. Then there are those college kids spending their summer in Ft. Knox, Kentucky preparing to join the military.
Cadet Larry Waters, from Norwich, is one such college student attending Leaders Training Course, or LTC, an intense 30 days of physical and mental training. He is studying mechanical engineering technology at Indiana State University but is also a part of ROTC. The reason for joining was quite simple.
“My dad was a Chief Warrant Officer in the United States Army and I used to dress up in his uniform and play army in the back woods,” Waters said. “So I think that had a little bit to do with it.”
Waters’ parents say they fully support his decision to join the Army and “are proud that Larry has decided to pursue ROTC.” It was something Waters was interested in coming out of high school. But he didn’t join the ROTC right away.
“I hadn’t seriously considered it until I decided to transfer from Rose-Hulman to Indiana State University and was wondering what I wanted to do, and it clicked,” Waters said. “Why not do ROTC and join the Army?”
When it ultimately came down to Waters’ decision to join ROTC, it was something he wanted to do and something he knew he would enjoy. Several of his fraternity brothers at Rose-Hulman were in ROTC and one of them introduced Waters to the recruiter on campus. The recruiter told him that if he was going to join, he needed to attend LTC this summer as part of the process.
The LTC program is for students about to enter their junior year who are interested in joining ROTC but may not have enough time to finish the program. LTC takes two years of information and training and condenses it into about 30 days.
For Waters, ROTC is a fairly new endeavor.
“I’ve been planning on doing ROTC since January of this year,” Waters said. “I came in with some expectations, but I wasn’t quite sure what to think. There are some people here who have no clue.”
Even though this is a new adventure for Waters, he has used the knowledge and information gained over the past six months to help out other cadets who may be even newer to the ROTC process. 2nd Lt. Tyler Anderson, Waters’ squad tactical officer leader, said that one of Waters’ strongest traits is his willingness to help other cadets.
“He knows a lot of his stuff and is willing to help anyone in his squad,” Anderson said. “One of the military values that Cadet Waters shows is never leave a comrade behind, and it is by Waters’ willingness to share his knowledge with the other cadets that exhibits this value.”
When it comes to sharing his knowledge, Waters is more than glad to help. “They are learning to walk and I am at a running pace,” he said.
Running is one thing that the cadets know a thing or two about. A typical day starts at 4:30 a.m. with the cadets being awakened by the lights turning on in their barracks. Groggy and still tired from the previous day, they get dressed and head out to do PT, also known as physical training, which consists of exercises such as chin-ups, pull-ups, and running.
The activities vary day to day. The cadets may go to stream crossing, where they cross a stream using a one rope, two rope, and a three-rope bridge they build. Once they have completed each station, they get together in their squads, and using the knots and strategies taught at the stations, cross a twenty to thirty foot wide stream and bring their whole squad across.
At the rappel tower course the cadre teaches the cadets different types of knots and rope-tying techniques. After they are taught these, the cadets move to different sized towers to practice these techniques and afterwards they move to the 50 foot tower to put all the things they have learned to use.
The rappel tower presents a challenge to cadets who are scared of heights. Cadet Waters is not one of them.
“I like rappelling and doing the high-speed stuff,” he said. “I’m fearless until I get to the edge of the tower and then it is like, ‘What did I just do?’ But once I get down, I find myself asking the cadre to go more times than I should.”
Combat water survival training tests different strengths of the cadets. They must be able to swim from one side of the pool to the other while wearing gear and carrying a rifle. Cadets also learn how to use their pants and jacket as floatation devices, how to enter the water from a high dive while blind-folded, and staying afloat for five minutes.
With all the swimming, rappelling and physical training that Waters completed at LTC, it was the motivation from family and friends that kept him going.
“I had a lot of people waiting back in Terre Haute for me to return,” Waters said. “They wrote me letters while I was away and let me know how much I was missed.”
Waters said he didn’t dwell on being missed and came away from LTC having learned something about himself.
“It (LTC) did show me that I am capable of dealing with a lot of stress in a positive fashion and provided me to test my resolve and grit.”
And now that Waters has successfully completed LTC, what is next?
Once Waters returns back to Indiana State, he will spend the school year passing down the knowledge he has gained and sharing it with younger ROTC students. Waters will sign a contract saying he will commission at the end of college. This is the first commitment he takes in continuing his Army career. Next summer, Waters must attend the Leadership Development and Assessment Course, LDAC for short. It assesses a cadet’s potential in the Army.
And the way that Waters appears to absorb knowledge, he hopes to be at a running pace while others are learning to walk.