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The Challenge of the Battlefield : Leadership Is the Goal for Cadets

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The soldiers lay in shallow foxholes on a recent warm, windy morning, eating chicken a la king and pork patties from plastic envelopes and waiting for the enemy.

The enemy began to appear on the far ridge. Thirty or 40 soldiers appeared at the top of the hill. The troops in the foxholes talked about wiping them out with one mortar round--but they had no mortars.

After all, the ROTC cadets didn’t want to touch off a brush fire from sparks and flames coming out of their rifles, and they certainly didn’t want to kill each other.

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They and the attacking “army” were participating in a simulated attack--an “airmobile insertion”--as part of a weekend training venture at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County for ROTC cadets stationed at Cal State Fullerton, Claremont College, Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly Pomona.

“If we can teach them to take 40 people and take that hill, we can teach them to run a finance division,” said Army Maj. Kenneth Sadekas, who runs the ROTC program at Cal State Fullerton.

“Leadership is the primary goal here,” said Army Capt. Jack Roberts, who teaches in the ROTC program at Claremont. “The real skills are thinking, making plans and making decisions.” He said the cadets are not only getting a college education but they are also learning leadership skills that most students don’t get until they are out of school.

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