Cadets of the Shippensburg University Raider Battalion were transported by a CH-47 Chinook helicopter Friday afternoon to participate in leadership development and team building exercises.

They spent the entire weekend at Army base Fort Indiantown Gap in central Pennsylvania to create a realistic training environment.

Amid rain and below-average temperatures, cadets remained hardy as they engaged in exercises related to orienteering, rifle marksmanship and operations order development.

From the moment they dismounted the helicopter, cadets were put to work. After preparing the next day’s gear and drawing additional equipment, the juniors went with half of the seniors to receive training on Operations Order (OPORD) development. Under the direction of Battalion Commander and criminal justice major Daniel Kinney, cadets spent all evening learning the task and purpose before they practiced writing their own and developing matching terrain models.

The other half of the seniors went with the sophomore cadets under the direction of senior exercise science major Coby Sullivan for training in land navigation.

After an early wakeup and some hot chow, the cadets were split into two companies to do rotations at different stations and compete for the most points. At one station, the Leader’s Reaction Course, cadets developed team building and leadership skills by navigating across obstacles using minimal equipment — sometimes using as little as a rope and some pieces of wood.

Senior exercise science major Xiomara Espinosa created a scoring rubric based on the cadets’ completion of the objective within the allotted time frame and adherence to the rules of conduct on the range.

At the other morning event, cadets were provided with several grid coordinates, which they had to navigate in the woods using only a compass, a map and a protractor. Senior psychology major Laura Altman gave the cadets four hours to find as many points as they could while abiding by the range’s rules.

The next scored event was Saturday evening, when cadets tested their mettle in the Engagement Skills Trainer (EST) 2000. Cadets received brief instruction on the fundamentals of rifle marksmanship before grouping their shots and performing the simulation of a standard Army M16 qualification. The qualification scores per team were used to give them an overall score for that event.

Finally, cadets were run through a nearly two-hour course designed to test their physical strength, endurance and mental toughness.

Junior psychology major Alex Fata had never been a part of a learning exercise like that.

“I’ve really gained a lot of what I imagine will be valuable experience,” Fata said. He has more to gain than others because of his interest in being commissioned as an active duty infantry officer upon graduation. He cited the OPORD, orienteering and marksmanship activities as particularly enlightening.

Cadets returned to Shippensburg early on Sunday to perform an after-action review and start on their week’s work.

Maj. Chris Morton, chair of the military science department, made sure the cadets got back with enough time to do their schoolwork before an early Monday morning of physical training with the brigade commander Col. Kenneth Mintz.

Overall, it was a positive experience for many of the cadets who will commission as second lieutenants in the Army when they graduate.

Junior Brandon Krehling reflected fondly on his experience. “Many times throughout the week, I [got] stressed,” Krehling said. He appreciated the stress and felt it might make him a better leader in the future.

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