Cadets get awards for summer work

While many other students spent their summers lounging in the sun, 14 University of Idaho students spent theirs jumping out of airplanes, teaching English overseas and polishing their leadership skills.

At a ceremony Wednesday afternoon, those Army Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets were awarded completion certificates for their summer programs.

Among them was master's student Brett Payne.

Payne completed the monthlong Leadership Development and Assessment Course at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, with the highest grade of excellent.

"It was good, but it was not what we expected," Payne said.

Cadets participating in the program were on a rotational cycle leading the day's assignments. He said it was difficult because no one there normally would have to take orders from one another - it was leaders leading leaders.

Payne's resume is already much longer than that of many of the other cadets, because he already has served as a soldier for almost two years.

Payne joined the Army in 2012 and was deployed to Afghanistan five days after finishing basic training to fill a replacement spot, he said. He was deployed for three months before returning to the U.S.

"I knew I wanted to be in the military, but I didn't know what I wanted to do," he said.

Enlisting helped him decide on military law enforcement. A year after returning from Afghanistan he was accepted into the "Green to Gold" program.

The Green to Gold program allows enlisted soldiers to return to school, he explained. The Army pays for the schooling of a soldier who promises to enlist for at least three years after graduation. The program is paying for Payne to receive his master's degree in adult organizational learning and leadership while in ROTC at the UI.

The UI Army ROTC, explained Lt. Col. Brad Martin, takes young men and women at a very young age and prepares them to be leaders.

"In less than 12 months from now, these will no longer be cadets, they will be second lieutenants," he said. "I know they're ready for the challenge."

Also among the nine cadets who attended the LDAC program this summer, Brad Townsend, a senior in finance and operations management, said the course's most challenging aspect was working with the other cadets.

"The best part is getting out and meeting people from all over the country," Townsend said, but at the same time everyone has been trained differently and it can be frustrating at times to work together.

"You're definitely tested on how well you work with other cadets," he said. "They would give you a task, and you had to spread it out to everyone else."

"That is the biggest road block you can have in the military, is working with people you may not get along with," said Steven Cleppe, a senior Army ROTC cadet studying political science at the UI. "You learned a lot about yourself."

One of those moments where cadets saw their own and others' true colors, he said, was during a field mission. Cleppe and his platoon of 50 spent three days sleeping on mats, not showering and practicing mock combat scenarios.

"People really change in the field," he said.

Another program he attended this summer, Cadet Troop Leadership Training, opened his eyes to what the military is really like, he said, and what his future may look like in May when he is commissioned.

"I'm nervous, but I'm excited," he said.

Payne, who's served in the military before, said he sees how the military works from a different point of view, and hopes it will help him become a better leader because he understands better those under him.

Capt. Christian Greenleaf, executive officer for the UI Army ROTC, said, "We want to show the future what they can do. It takes time to develop these skills."

In the Army, they will be trusted with the livelihood of a group under their leadership, Greenleaf said.

Also present at the ceremony were the UI Army ROTC's newest members, scholarship recipients, 8th Brigade Commander Col. Samuel Williams, UI Dean of Students Bruce Pitman and Moscow City Councilors Wayne Krauss and Art Bettge.

Samantha Malott can be reached at (208) 883-4639, or by email to smalott@dnews.com.