Army ROTC classroom instruction covers two basic areas. First, you'll learn about the history, structure, and functions of the Army. Then, you'll learn how to think and act like a leader. Role-playing and management exercises will teach you how to organize tasks, make decisions, and use time efficiently. Best of all, after teaching you a particular leadership skill, ROTC will give you plenty of opportunities to use it--a fact which can make all the difference to future employers, and also improve your performance as a student.
Leadership labs involve military skills training, physical training and adventure activities such as rappelling, orienteering and marksmanship. The labs meet every Thursday. Seniors plan the labs and juniors lead and execute the labs.
Field Training
Army ROTC field training will teach you how to set goals and achieve them. You'll participate in hands-on exercises such as land navigation and platoon tactics. During these exercises, you'll develop judgment and decisiveness, while directing and earning the respect of others under a range of challenging conditions.
Physical Fitness
The Army ROTC program at Vanderbilt is designed to challenge you both mentally and physically, preparing you for lifelong fitness in any career. You can look forward to activities which will help build your coordination, stamina, and physical strength.
Ranger Challenge
Each year, top cadets from area schools gather to compete in Army ROTC's varsity sport: the ROTC Ranger Challenge. This voluntary competition offers outstanding teamwork training while demanding your best physical and mental efforts. Events for this competition include physical fitness test, hand grenade assault course, weapons assembly, river crossing event, 6 mile road march with ruck sacks, orienteering, and weapons qualification. Vanderbilt has fielded an extremely strong team the past eight years. In fact, Vanderbilt's Ranger Challenge team has placed first four times and second once out of thirty schools from Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio.
Other Activities
On campus extracurricular activities include intramural sports, Color Guard and Society of American Military Engineers. Cadet social activities include a dining out and dining-in, plus picnics and special trips.
Cadets enrolled in Army ROTC also receive opportunities to continue their education, expand their horizons, and expand their career options by attending numerous Army schools, training programs, internships, and language immersion programs.
LTC - Leader's Training Course
Students joining ROTC at the end of the sophomore year attend a four-week basic leadership course during the summer before their junior year. LTC is a fully paid program that is designed to teach the basic skills required of leaders.
As a part of the Advanced Course, cadets attend a four-week advanced leadership
camp - normally in the summer between their junior and
senior years. Warrior Forge is a fully paid program that is the culmination of
three years of training.
This school is located at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Cadets begin their first week on the ground, learning the basics of parachute landings, and start a vigorous training program. During the second week, called tower week, proper exiting of the plane is mastered, and cadets are given the opportunity to parachute from a 250 foot high tower. The third and final week is the jump week. Cadets make five jumps from either a C-130 or C-141, including one night jump and two combat jumps with full combat gear. Are you brave enough to be AIRBORNE?
This is available at a number of installations, but the largest is located at the air
assault home of Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. This eleven day course is very demanding both
physically and mentally, involving obstacle courses and several long ruck marches.
Students learn the basics of aircraft familiarization and recognition, slingload
operations, and rappelling. Can you see yourself rappelling out the side of a hovering
Blackhawk helicopter? AIR ASSAULT!
Cadets also may find themselves anywhere in the country, or overseas, involved in the Cadet Troop Leadership Training Program. This internship program places cadets in actual Army units acting as real Lieutenants! This two or three week challenge is a definite learning experience, and allows cadets to gain a perspective on what they will be facing as future officers. Generally, cadets are placed in platoon leader positions, leading 30+ soldiers and responsible for millions of dollars of equipment!
Mountain Warfare, located in Jericho, VT, introduces cadets to the techniques and tactics required to operate in a mountainous environment under hostile conditions. The emphasis is on field exercises where the students learn mountain-related skills. The instruction includes advanced navigational training, special mobility training (with special operations forces mountaineering equipment), and mountain tactical instruction.
The Northern Warfare Basic Military Mountaineering Course is located in Ft. Greely, Alaska. The course is three weeks long with emphasis on mobility in mountainous terrain, rappelling, and climbing skills. The training is demanding both physically and mentally but also extremely rewarding. Those who live up to the challenge come away with not only a vast knowledge of climbing skills but also a new level of self confidence born from facing adversity and overcoming it.
Take the challenge. Test your courage. Get ahead of your peers. Prepare for the future.