ROTC to offer chance to jump off stadium

By Denis Tagler

Interested students and their parents will get a chance Sunday to jump off the top of Huskie Stadium when they join NIU’s Reserve Officer Training Corps in a rope-repelling exercise.

The ROTC event is part the Parents’ Weekend activities.

“It’s like a roller coaster,” said Gregg Mylin, a four-year cadet in charge of the event. “First-time cadets will naturally be afraid until they realize just how secure they really are.”

Ten select individuals from the ROTC’s Ranger team will assist the students and cadets in the 90-foot repel to the sidewalk below, said Mylin. Repelling exercises usually include going off a cliff or sliding down a mountainside during the field training exercises. “Repelling off the stadium is more exciting than off cliffs since you don’t have the same feeling of security,” said Mylin.

Cadets will practice repelling off 50-foot towers located on racketball courts inside Huskie Stadium Tuesday in order to gain experience. “We take people off the towers to build up their confidence and get an idea of what it feels like,” said Mylin.

The ROTC’s Charlie Company will be at the Stadium Tuesday to teach new cadets how to tie the knot used to anchor the rope in the repelling exercise. This is part of the leadership classes in which new students gain different levels of leadership as they go through the class.

This summer, cadets jumped out of airplanes at Airborne School and in November they will fly down to Kentucky in helicopters for military training exercises. As young cadets, they will be in charge of their own 30-men platoon in which they will conduct their training and get an idea of what it is like to be a lieutenant.