Det 415's very own Ball Squad

On a blustery, frigid Minnesotan morning a team of highly-motivated, lethally-skilled AFROTC cadets embarked on the great voyage of the semester. It was 21 February at 0630 in the morning when the team huddled in the armory for their last farewells as they packed up their gear. Lines of bystanders littered the sidewalks to see them off. It was as if they were leaving for an epic battle. The three and a half our car ride seemed like minutes as the caravan of b-ballers blasted adrenaline pumping music in preparation for what was to come. Each team member focused on what he or she needed to do to bring glory back home. At approximately 1100 the caravan arrived at the front steps of the coliseum of their destiny, North Dakota State University's Armory Gymnasium. The ballers stepped on to foreign ground feeling confident and unafraid, with determination in their faces. In a 

matter of hours three games quickly flew by with blood, sweat, and tears the only remnants left behind as reminders of what happened on the court. The two freshmen phenomes, Cadet Clayton Beck and Cadet Nathan Gassie combined for a total of 23 points, not to mention a deadly block by Cadet Beck's brick-wall style defense. If I didn't know better, I swore I heard him call in the S.W.A.T. team! Our senior crew leading the team led the charge with a combined total of 75 points! It should be noted that Cadet Jon Leveille called in a precision air strike from far outside of enemy territory, knocking down a whopping seven 3-point shots! Cadets Travis Yang, Shawn Brown, and Emily Timinski provided close air support (CAS) with a combined total of 14 points to keep the adversary at bay. Although the team did not bring home the championship trophy, if it weren't for the hard work and team mentality of each of these individuals the war surely would have been lost. Thanks to their efforts, we are able to proudly walk away as a fierce competitor awaiting next year’s trials by combat! 

-Cadet Christian Wachter

Welcome Back!

            Even as the thermometer continues to plummet outside, Det. 415 continues on with the new semester with new leadership and new challenges. Students have been back now for four weeks of school and cadet activities here at Det. 415 are well underway with physical training and Leadership Laboratory.
            With the start of spring semester, the organization of the Cadet Wing tends to change a little from the fall with new leadership positions being assigned to cadets. The Wing is now being commanded by Cadet Elizabeth Seitz, with Cadet Michael Lamers taking over as deputy commander. The freshmen begin taking on more and more responsibility as they prepare to become stronger leaders.  The sophomore class splits off and becomes Field Training Preparation flight. This creates a more intense training environment similar to the one that they may face at Field Training this summer. Finally, the senior class begins looking to the future as commissioning day gets closer and closer. Many have already received their AFSC (Air Force Specialty Code) and base assignments, and are eagerly looking forward to the start of their new careers!
            Over the rest of the semester keep checking back here for new stories and updates on the Cadet Wing. With new stories and pictures updated each week this blog will be a great place to get the latest news on Det 415.

 

-Cadet Wells

Competing for Warrior Flight

      Many things happened for the cadets of Det. 415 over the course of this week.  For PT, the members of Delta Flight faced Alpha Flight in several games of Icarus.  Though the members of Alpha flight gained the lead early and never slacked, Delta Flight was able to secure victory in a decisive showing of tactical knowledge and physical excellence.  On the next PT day, Delta Flight faced Bravo Flight in both Icarus and ultimate Frisbee.  To the shock of everyone involved, Bravo Flight was able to win consistently.  Their celebrations would be short-lived, however; Delta Flight was able to dominate Bravo Flight in several games of ultimate Frisbee that same morning.

            In AS100 class, Lieutenant Johnson briefed the freshman cadets on Air Force public relations.  Over the course of the class, Lt. Johnson covered examples of Airmen carrying out positive events for public relations (such as helping with disaster relief efforts, both foreign and domestic), and examples of how Airmen should not conduct themselves.  To illustrate incorrect behavior when on television, Lt. Johnson pointed out the flaws of Antoine Dodson and Sweet Brown’s actions when they were interviewed.

            Over the course of the week, every cadet had to face the same academic challenges they must face every week.  Though the courses each cadet is taking may differ from one another, no cadet was spared from having to complete seemingly endless hours of lectures, discussions, homework, and studying.  However, it was not all work and no play, at least for one particular group of freshman cadets.  The movie Interstellar had released and Cadet Weingartener, Cadet Warren, Cadet Gassie, Cadet Harris, and I decided to see it together.  After nearly losing our way to the theater (all while being directed by Cadet Gassie…), we were eventually able to make our way to our seats and proceeded to be mesmerized by the beautiful, albeit highly confusing, work of director Christopher Nolan.  Though some cadets were reduced to tears by the movie, every cadet in attendance agreed that the movie was outstanding in the end.

            In Gopher Football, Cadet Hubbard and I carried out flag detail for the American flag prior to the game.  Despite being our first time conducting the detail, the whole process went off without a hitch.  The American and POW flags were raised with dignity at the appropriate time and neither touched the ground at any point.  Sadly, this marked the high point in the game, as the Gophers were unable to secure a victory against the Buckeyes, leaving every cadet and Gopher fan in attendance highly disappointed.

-Cadet Pederson 

Retreat

The week began with an eventful, and stressful, Lead Lab. It was the 100’s first glimpse at outdoor marching and it showed us the importance of fully being able to perform the commands we have been learning all semester. The destination of our outdoor excursion was to Williams Arena where a Retreat ceremony was to be practiced. Retreat is the act of taking down the flag. Our nation’s colors flying in the wind and surrounded by our fellow wingmen reminded many of us of why we are in ROTC. Once we had completed Retreat and successfully marched back, Lead Lab continued with a lively game of Battle Ship. Battle Ship consists of flights marching around the gym while trying to run into other flights in column formation. This turned into a hectic event, which resulted in recitation of Warrior knowledge. Lead Lab ended with a GMC discussion about our views on the detachment and the usual announcements. In this time, we were reminded through a motivational brief that the Air Force requires 100% effort every day, and anything less will not be enough.

PT this week took a fun turn now that the FA has been completed. Tuesday morning the detachment’s morale was boosted and cadet bonding was strengthened. This was aided by a pancake breakfast, compliments of the POC and MWR flight. The intake of calories rather than the burning off at PT was a well-earned break. The following PT session brought the GMC more competition, specifically for Warrior Flight. They competed in a game of Ultimate Frisbee and Icarus (a game designed for the Air Force, but similar to dodgeball).

Last, but not least, Color Guard presented wonderfully at the Gophers VS Hawkeyes Game, which is good considering it was Military Appreciation Day at the stadium. The Gophers also beat the Hawkeyes 51-14.

-Cadet Weingartner

  (JMAC)-

JMAC!

Another busy week at Detachment 415 started off with Lead Lab. During lead lab there was a corps-wide open ranks inspection (ORI), as well as time for squadron marching. The 100’s were put into some intense leadership roles and they rose to the occasion. As always, there was a warrior knowledge review, the phonetic alphabet, and a briefing by the Wing Commander, Cadet Wachter, about Movember. Several cadets will be growing out their mustaches in order to raise awareness for men’s health.

            Then came the moment we had been training for all year, the FA (fitness assessment)!  Overall, Detachment 415 put up very impressive test scores, including several cadets maxing the push-ups, sit-ups and mile and a half run. It was a very motivating and rewarding time to see the improvement we had been training all semester for.

            To cap off the week the detachment participated in JMAC, the Joint Military Athletic Competition, with the other branches here at the University of Minnesota. The Air Force made a clean sweep of Army and Navy in both football and basketball. The 4x400 and warrior relay teams both posted good times but just fell short, taking second place. The Ultimate Frisbee team showed a valiant effort, but couldn’t quite connect the dots to defeat the Navy.  After the scores were calculated the competition was a tie between Air Force and Navy. This meant one thing, TUG OF WAR!! Both teams lined up and pulled for what seemed like an extremely long amount of time. Sadly, the Air Force cadets were bested by the midshipman. The whole day was an extremely fun experience and gave us motivation to get the trophy back next year!

            Next week holds many new exciting challenges and opportunities to look forward to, so wish us luck!

-Cadet Beck

Warrior Competition!

Our week at Detachment 415 started off with some fun and invigorating drill and ceremony 

practice. This week we spent our time reviewing a lot of marching movements that we had 

done in the past. This included an ORI (Open Ranks Inspection), which is a very tedious 

procedure to conduct as there are so many steps to it. We spent D&C reviewing this because on 

Monday during lead lab we had a detachment wide "Warrior Competition.” This is competitive 

event that tests each flight in our detachment on everything: warrior knowledge, basic 

knowledge, marching, physical fitness, and anything else that we have covered over the past two 

months. A certain point amount was given to the flights that took first, second, third, and fourth 

in each event, and at the end of leadlab the points were tallied. It was a close competition in 

which Delta Flight just barely took home the gold! HUA! 

PT this week was light. JMAC teams practiced during each of our morning PT sessions while 

everybody else tapered for the FA (Fitness Assessment) set for next week. We have been training 

for this all year so hopefully we have a lot of people max the test, especially the Phase 0 and 

ST (Special Tactics) Prep teams. From what I have heard from some of the upperclassmen, the 

FA is actually one of the easiest days of PT that we have since we only have to do our minute 

of pushups/sit-ups and then we’re done! On Saturday the Arnold Air Society cadets had their 

annual ARCON (Area Convention) event. It was a great opportunity to meet AAS cadets from 

other detachments. There were also two distinguished guests present. Brig. Gen. Dennis W. 

Schulstad was the guest speaker and he gave a very motivational speech about being in ROTC. 

The other guest was Brig. Gen. Daniel P. Woodward, Executive Director of Arnold Air Society,

who spoke during many of the briefings throughout the day.

In other exciting news, the 100s’ uniforms have arrived and will be picked up this upcoming 

week! It’s been a long wait but worth every second of it! Wish us luck in the next week!

-Cadet Hubbard

Homecoming Week!

This week Det 415’s schedule began with LLAB, as always.  We formed up in the gym, reported in, and separated into our respective rooms to carry out the tasks of the day.  We had our midterm, which most of us took at the position of attention, yet we emerged victorious by surpassing our expected average scores.  At drill and ceremony selected cadets were asked to give certain commands while marching our flight. 

At PT this week we performed AMRAPS, which means “as many reps as possible.”  The workouts have been getting harder and demand more mental strength, and thankfully, the motivation was really high this week.  I’m confident all of our hard work will show in our FA scores!

Phase 0 had another weekly training session, helping those cadets hone in on their physical and mental strength and develop qualities demanded of Special Forces officers.  Arnies training candidates met for another training session Wednesday morning, meaning there is one less week till pledge night!

The homecoming game against Purdue gave the detachment another opportunity to work CSC and Color Guard.  It was an exciting game and an excellent closure to another Air Force ROTC Det. 415 week!

-Cadet Warren