The UTM Skyhawk Battalion recently conducted its annual Fall Field Training Exercise (FTX) at the Milan Training Center.

The two-day FTX consisted of several events including a land navigation course, garrison training, a Hand Grenade Assault course (HGAC) and a Field Leadership Reaction course (FLRC). The events are geared to prepare the junior cadets for summer training at Warrior Forge in Fort Lewis, Wash. The FTX also serves as an introduction to Army life for the freshman and sophomore cadets and is planned and supervised by the seniors and cadre.

Upon arrival at the Milan Training Center, cadets were immediately taken to the land navigation site, where they were given maps and assigned lanes of five points each. In order to successfully complete the course, cadets had to find four out of five points in fewer than three hours using the maps and compasses. The course was a success with most cadets finding all five points and none getting lost in the woods. That night, the cadets slept in barracks.

Day two of the FTX started at 5:30 a.m., after a breakfast of Meals Ready to Eat (MREs). Cadets were then transported to the HGAC, where they reviewed the basic hand grenade throwing techniques and individual tactics before negotiating the course. The HGAC consisted of five enemy targets at a range of 15-30 meters, an enemy bunker, a climbing wall and a barbed wire obstacle. The cadets ran the course using the buddy rush, high crawl, low crawl and back crawl. They were graded on accuracy, technique and speed.

The final event of the FTX was the FLRC, which evaluated the cadets’ ability to work as a unit in difficult situations. For each FLRC lane, the cadets were given a scenario and a mission for which they had to develop a plan on the spot and work as a squad to accomplish the goal.

In one lane, they had to move a barrel, without touching it, across a bombed out bridge. The junior cadets faced the extra challenge of leadership as they were given the squad leader positions for each lane.

Cadet Middleton, a freshman, said, “The training here at UTM is great, and it helps me develop skills that I can’t learn anywhere else.”

The Military Science Department conducts at least two FTXs each year.

The next FTX will be a joint venture with other ROTC programs in the region next semester.

For more information about the ROTC program at UT Martin, contact Capt. James Lacy at (731) 881-7682, visit the UTM ROTC website at www.utm.edu or learn more about the program by talking to any cadet currently enrolled.