The rugged land of Marseilles spared no pity this weekend to NIU’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Cadets.

Through the seemingly never-ending hills and dales, the group of 74 Cadets – ranging in ages 18-28 – marched strong to learn one thing: leadership excellence.

MS-IIIs [Juniors] lead patrols made up of MS-IIs [Sophomores] and MS-Is [freshmen] and planned missions that were carried out by the platoon while being watched over by the Cadre, or evaluators.

“We watch the leadership to make sure they’re calm under pressure, not panicking, not freezing up.” said MS-V Michael Cramer, who acted as an evaluator over the weekend.

Through the ROTC, Cadets looking to become officers in the Army can be trained through the missions they run while learning basics of being a soldier.

“The Juniors (MS-IIIs) are doing the leadership roles and are instructing the sophomores, who are helping the freshman,” said Capt. Eric Weyenberg. assistant professor or military science. “For the freshman, it is all about the basic soldier skills. Sophomores help the freshmen out and in junior year, leadership kicks in.”

Joining the service

In the Army, there are two different ways to join the service: either enlisting directly or being contracted through the ROTC. To become an officer, the soldier must go to officer training school after college or through ROTC.

“As an enlisted soldier, you go to something called basic training, because they want to train all the soldiers to basically be very similar in nature, react the same way to things, be trained on the same kind of systems that military people have to be trained on,” Weyenberg said. “They’re not too focused on skills involving leadership at that point; they’re just focused on building good soldiers. This is something for people who are recruited right out of high school, like I was.”

Weyenberg went on to become an officer by finishing his original three-year contract, going to college and then re-enlisting through an officer candidate school.

“If you have a college education degree, you can go straight to a three-month training program to become an officer because you’ve had enlisted time and you have college education,” Weyenberg said. “But there, you have three months of active duty; you live it every day. Here in ROTC, it’s four years and you live it while going to classes and having these weekends.”

Others who want to go from green (enlisted) to gold (contracted) can do so through the ROTC.

“We actually have a lot of Cadets – about 30 percent that have been enlisted in one way shape or form,” Weyenberg said. “They’ve done deployments and most of them have been in an Army Reserve Unit or National Guard. But, they want to get a bachelor’s degree and get a college education but continue to serve their country and become an officer.”

Cadets who contract to become officers still continue training after graduating college.

After leadership in college, Cadets go on to another school for about two months, which further refines soldier skills and leadership skills for a full-time basis, Weyenberg said. After that, Cadets go to special education schools in the military that help make them more proficient in different branches, such as aviation or artillery.

Cadets, who become lieutenants through their further training, join units within about a year.

“Right away, a lieutenant has troops that they have to train and successfully lead,” Weyenberg said. “They have help with a senior non-commissioned officer (enlisted) that has hopefully been in military eight to 12 years.”

Not all ROTC Cadets choose to become officers. MS-IIs wishing to become officers can do so by contract after their second year. Those who decide not to contract at this time, have the choice not to continue.

Enrollment

“We normally start out the school year with 100 Cadets,” said Lt. Col. Craig Engel, who oversees NIU’s ROTC and was commissioned through the ROTC in 1985 through the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh. “As the year goes on, they decide – especially the freshmen – that it’s not something they’ll pursue.”

About half the freshmen Cadets leave and do not come back as sophomores, Engel said.

“They don’t like the physical or field stuff,” Engel said. “But you have to give them credit, because they made the effort – they tried.”

Cadets are also subject to being dropped if they are not contracted or be disenrolled.

“[We can disenroll them] if they are not following their contract and are having performance issues,” Engel said. “If they decide to do something criminal, they’re required to tell us; if they don’t, when they do security clearances, they’ll find it.”