ROTC students test skills

Last week, 10 South Rowan students got a taste of the great outdoors when they a week at Camp Barnhardt working toward the highest honor a Venture cadet can receive.

Cadets of the South Rowan Junior ROTC program, Venture Crew 363, spent the week competing for the Venture Crew Ranger Award.

Ten students participated in outdoor training activities, from building primitive shelters and rope bridges to learning fire-building techniques and rappelling. On Friday, they participated in the last event, a simulated rescue mission.

Cadets got a map with the location of their victim — Gail Sellers, a May graduate of South Rowan who was in the program. They were to find her, stabilize her “condition” and move her to a safe location. They used the skills they had learned throughout the week during this final exercise, according to 1st Sgt. Jeffery Clendenin.

Cadet 2nd Lt. Christina Vanderburg, a rising sophomore, said such activities teach students teamwork.

“They teach us leadership, history and first aid, and they keep us in shape,” she said.

Even though she and Cadet Capt. Kattie Kerr were the only two girls at camp last week, Vanderburg said she did not mind.

“They call me G.I. Jane,” she joked Friday after the rescue mission. “We have blisters the size of quarters,” she added.

Cadet Maj. Joey Waters, a rising junior, said the cadets spent the week learning what they could not learn in a classroom.

“You really get to see the best of the best in the ROTC program,” Waters said.

As part of the 18 requirements for the award, cadets had to do community service. This week, they served as Boy Scout camp counselors and staff. The South Rowan JROTC has been a charter member of Boy Scouts of America for the past eight years.

The cadets were evaluated both by their instructors and by each other, and awards were presented Saturday.

The following students received the award: Waters, Kerr, Cadet Sgt. Maj. Tim Dial, Cadet 1st Lt. Jesse Case, Cadet 1st Lt. Shawn Black and Cadet Sgt. 1st Class Sam Blackwelder.

Both Vanderburg and Waters described the Ventures as a close-knit group.

“Not just anybody will take ROTC,” Waters pointed out.

Clendenin said he thinks the JROTC program gives students confidence in themselves and the ability to work as a team. Because the program is based on discipline and academic excellence, he said, cadets find peer pressure a little easier to tackle.

“I think kids go in a bad direction because they don’t have alternatives to use their time,” he said.

Paul Lambert, who graduated from South Rowan this May, got involved in the program as a freshman because it sounded like fun.

“It teaches you more life skills than anything else,” he said.

Lambert hopes to attend Guilford Technical College to study aviation and later join the Air National Guard.

Clendenin said the JROTC program is not intended to place young people in the military but to make them better citizens. He said about 10 percent pursue military careers after high school.

Contact Jillian McCartney at 704-797-4253 or jmccartney@salisburypost.com .