Auraria ROTC cadets learn more than military tactics

Photography by Jeremy Papasso, jpapasso@mscd.edu

THE WEATHER IS BONE-CHILLING COLD, Speer Boulevard begins to fill with traffic, and with the exception of scattered light poles and neon signs, the Auraria campus is pitch black. An abrupt break in the quiet quickly disturbs the early morning.

“We’re just going to go do sprints together if I see you slacking!” shouts Cadet Cmdr. Dan Lynch.

It’s about 6:30 a.m. on a Friday and Lynch isn’t too happy — Charlie Company is lagging behind.

“Don’t worry,” says Metro State sophomore Sean Bottlemy as he passes by, running. “He usually isn’t like this all the time.”

In addition to sit-ups, push-ups and crunches beforehand, the members of Auraria ROTC are jogging around the campus track. The strongest runners fall in step to a quick sprint, while the rest pace themselves into a jog.

“If I catch the last person — we’re doing another lap,” shouts Lynch, again. When the company finishes its quick morning run, Lynch grins a satisfied smile. Breathing hard, the company starts to line up.

When at ease, their hands coupled in a crisscrossed position behind their backs, their life stories begin to appear. Some have wedding bands, some do not. Some twist and wring their fingers, some keep themselves still. Some hands are cracked with the signs of wear and tear, others have already begun to see future’s wrinkled folds.

IN A SHELL

Three times a week, starting at 6 a.m., students from Metro State College of Denver, Community College of Denver, University of Colorado Denver, Johnson and Wales University, Regis University and the University of Denver all come together in one satellite program.

Two years after breaking away from CU-Boulder’s Alpha Company —one of the largest companies in the state — Auraria ROTC has started standing in its own boots. For the first time, the newly founded company participated in a Ranger Challenge in the fall with two other companies. It came in second — behind CU’s Alpha Company but in front of Bravo Company, the ROTC at Colorado School of Mines.

Lt. Col. John R. Toth said the company has a lot of pride in what it does and is excited to prove itself.

“They want to have their own identity,” Toth said. “They want to be known as Charlie Company.”

Twenty years ago, Toth was part of the ROTC at University of Pennsylvania. He initially joined for the physical education requirement, but after jumping out of an airplane going 150 miles an hour in his sophomore year, that all changed. Toth believes ROTC builds leaders and fosters a natural environment for competition – whether between cadets in a company or the units themselves.

The Buffalo Battalion, the three combined companies in Colorado, are physically ranked eighth in the nation, according to a test conducted during the summer in Fort Lewis, Wash.

Still, UCD sophomore and Cadet Cpl. Garrett Hothan thinks the group will be a lot stronger next year when the bulk of the incoming freshmen have matured in the program. Hothan enlisted in high school as a private in the Army to become a medic.

He wanted to see if a career in medicine would be a good fit. Hothan was deployed to Iraq for 15 months. During that time, he helped give aid to 20 or 30 platoon members and keep watch on their medical complications. Afterward, Hothan joined ROTC in hopes of becoming an officer. School remains his biggest priority — he plans to graduate from Metro with a business degree. “Education is something they can never take away from you,” he said.

BREAKING STEREOTYPES, FINDING A WAY

As with most members of ROTC, Hothan is contracted. A basic contract from the ROTC involves a four-year active duty and four to six years in reserve, but that doesn’t necessarily mean each soldier will be in combat.

“(The) Army needs to get paid,” said Phillip Garrison, an ROTC member and a private first class who specializes in finance, which is a division of the Army that does not see combat. Garrison won’t be taking the typical early-morning car ride to campus for long. He’s scheduled to leave in March for basic training, which should eventually lead him to Iraq as a finance specialist, said Capt. Byron Elliott.

There are 16 main branches and five specialized branches that students may enter after completing ROTC. The main branches include aviation, military intelligence or infantry, while the specialized branches can be the dental, veterinary or medical corps.

“The hardest thing we do as a program is (break) stereotypes,” Elliott said.

Not all cadets in the Auraria ROTC are under contract either. The first two years of the program are just basic courses — students learn about history, procedures, ethics and land navigation. After those two years, cadets can choose to stay and pursue the program. If they stay, they must fulfill their contracts as officers.

In addition to classroom time, it’s mandatory for contracted cadets to attend physical training, more commonly known as PT, three times a week. That’s the back-and-forth sprints, the burning lunges and the strenuous sit-ups.

Mel Romero has Type 1 diabetes and will never be able to finish the program, yet he continues to participate in all of the exercises. All of the males in his family have been in combat regiments, but because of Romero’s condition, the military will not accept him for any position.

Romero went as far as writing to a congressman asking for help, but he never got a response.

“It’s embarrassing for me to have to fall out,” Romero said. “Why should I be treated differently because I’m sick?”

Regardless, the company cadets view Romero as part of their own and don’t interfere with his physical training.

“They won’t treat me any differently unless I ask,” Romero said. “I like to be pushed, I like to be motivated.”

Even after all of this, every Friday involves a lab – one with the cadets participating in practical hands-on instruction. In an hour and a half, the students dress in full uniform, grab an imitation M-16 rifle and practice various scenarios in Ninth Street Park. It might be a strange juxtaposition, but their instructional space is limited.

Elliott and Master Sgt. Bobby Bostick both said one of the issues facing the program is space.

The program has two offices in South Classroom 213, and one of them acts as a part-time closet, just storing the cadet’s packs. Elliott said he would like to see a cadet lounge, which would allow more face time for students. Most of the funding the ROTC receives comes from the Department of Defense, and the budget for administrative costs comes from Metro State and UCD.

But the group of students has come up with more creative ways to drum up donations for the program. For Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 7, the company is planning to run a 5K at Auraria to raise more money. The Mile High ROTC Running Club, a nonprofit program led by cadet Sean Bottlemy, will circle the campus twice.

A MEANS TO AN END

Richard Hancock, a freshman at DU, stands next to two other cadets in the early morning, their right hands raised, repeating an oath to be sworn into the ROTC. Starting that day, Hancock signs his contract. But the paperwork wasn’t anything to worry about — standing in front of his fellow cadets was more nerve-racking.

“I definitely look up to a lot of cadets and hopefully have cadets look up to me.”

Hancock is 18. He’s majoring in international studies and Arabic. He hopes to become a foreign-area officer at the state level. The hardest part is PT, said Hancock, but it’s nothing new to him. He’s been involved in a previous ROTC program in a junior military school he attended in New York.

“I like structured environments,” Hancock said. “When I’m given the opportunity to relax, I’ll kind of fade off.”

He felt a little nervous giving his oath, but after the flag behind him was folded and the members of the company dispersed into their daily schedules, Hancock took a chance to reflect.

“Something inside of me lit up — this is what I want to do.”

This story was published first in The Metropolitan, the student-produced newspaper at Metropolitan State College of Denver.