On November 16th, members of the Eastern Washington University’s (EWU) Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) “Fighting Eagles” battalion drove to Four Lakes, Washington to continue the unit’s participation in the Washington State Adopt A Highway program.
EWU Army ROTC Cadets are prepared to clean the highway. From left: Chad Triplett, Cesar, Guzman, Austin Pfennig, Ian House, Cheyenne Sweet, Olivia Roble, Zach Delacerda, & Joseph Jordan
The stretch of road that the Fighting Eagles Cadets are responsible for maintaining is the Lt. Col. Michael P. Anderson Memorial Highway that connects Cheney to Interstate-90. Lt. Col. Anderson was an astronaut who graduated from Cheney High School and was tragically killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
Ten members of the Battalion showed up with hard hats, safety vests and gloves in order to clean up the trash. Various items like cigarette butts and bottles were expected, but not to the extent that was seen. A total of ten bags of trash were collected on the sides of the freeway, but also more unfamiliar items. A front end of a car, two walking canes, a traffic cone, and a whole dishwasher was picked up and brought to the collection point.
The is the second time in the past six months that the Cadets have cleaned up this section of the highway. The Fighting Eagles Cadets will continue to periodically come out and keep the highway clean in honor of Lt. Col. Anderson. Go Fighting Eags!
Our Eastern Washington University (EWU) Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Cadets that were selected for active duty after graduation next year, were given their branching assignments earlier this week. An Army branch is the equivalent of the job a student would work after graduating from Eastern. During the beginning of their senior year, Cadets rank in order of preference which of the 17 branches in the Army they want to assess into. The Army’s accessions process then assigns a score to each Cadet based of the academic aptitude, fitness, Advanced Camp performance, and a few other variables. This score is then used to help determine which branch each Cadet receives; the higher the score the more likely a Cadet will receive their first branch choice.
The 2019 EWU Army ROTC Active Duty commissionees hold up their branch crests.
Here are videos of our Cadets opening the envelopes that revealed which branch they received:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B41cCYnhVOI/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B41cpGrBTyQ/
Our U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard Cadets go through a different branching process which we are still currently working to solidify. We will announce the branches our National Guard and Reservists received once complete. Congratulations to our senior Active Duty Cadets on receiving their branches.
Go Fighting Eags!
Air Defense Artillery
The mission of Air Defense Artillery is to protect the force and selected geopolitical assets from aerial attack, missile attack, and surveillance.
Coy Odiorne
Armor
Armor’s mission is to close with and destroy the enemy using fire, maneuver, and shock action.
Jameson Palmer – Distinguished Military Graduate – Top 20%
Robert Wheeler – Branch detail Armor; control branch of Signal Corps
Chemical Corps
The Chemical Corps is the branch of the United States Army tasked with defending against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons.
Joseph Jordan – Branch detail Chemical; control branch of Signal Corps
Engineers
An engineer officer is responsible for providing full support to the wide range of engineering duties in the Army. They can help build structures, develop civil works programs and even provide combat support.
Erling Anderson (Distinguished Military Graduate-Top 20%)
Samuel Coutts
Field Artillery
The mission of the Field Artillery is to destroy, defeat, or disrupt the enemy with integrated fires to enable maneuver commanders to dominate in unified land operations
Cheyenne Sweet
Ian House – Branch detail Field Artillery, control branch of Military Intelligence
Infantry
The infantry officer is responsible for leading the infantry and combined armed forces during land combat.
Chad Triplett (Distinguished Military Graduate – Top 10%)
Nursing Corps
Nurse Corps officers lead a nursing team that cares for Soldiers and their families.
Josiah Bryan
Sarah Mullen
Ordnance Corps
Ordnance officers are responsible for the maintenance of Army weapon systems, ammunition, missiles, and vehicles.
Megan Anderson
Signal Corps
A Signal officer is responsible for providing communications and computer capabilities to Army forces spread across the world.
Austin Pfennig
Transportation Corps
Transportation officers are responsible for moving people, equipment, and supplies around the world by sea, air, and land.
From the 7th through the 9th of November 2019, the Eastern Washington University (EWU) Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) “Fighting Eagles” battalion executed its annual Expert Fighting Eagle Battalion (EFEB) test. The EFEB is an event based competition where every Cadet in the program who does not already has an EFEB, participates in a variety of individual skill events that tests their mental and physical attributes. Everyone who passes the test is awarded an EFEB to where on their Cadet uniforms. The EFEB test historically only has a pass rate of 15% which ensures that only the most prepared Cadets pass. In order to receive the EFEB, a participating Cadet must pass every event labeled as, “must pass” as well as only being allowed to fail two of the remaining 11 other events.
The Expert Fighting Eagles Badge.
Must Pass Events
There are five must pass events the Cadets must pass. The events are:
Score at least 70 points in each event of the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) and an overall score of 240 or higher.
For day land navigation the Cadets must find 3 of 4 points
For night land navigation they must find 2 of 3 points
Complete a 6-mile ruck march in under 90 minutes followed by an equipment layout to ensure all gear was correctly packed.
Complete the obstacle course in front of Cadet Hall which includes climbing over a 6 foot wall and a rope climb.
Additional Events
The other 11 events where Cadets can only fail two of are:
a hand grenade course
an ASIPS radio test
assembly and disassembly of of the following weapons systems
M4 rifle
M240
M249
hand and arm signals
creating a range card
performing tactical combat casualty care
conducting a SALUTE report
written land navigation test
individual movement techniques.
EFEB Day 1 and Day 2
The first day of testing is when the APFT occurs. Any of the Cadets that were eliminated from the competition because of the APFT still continued on in the competition to build experience to be ready for next year’s EFEB test. The second day of testing had many Cadets going from event to event with little to no breaks. The events started with the hand grenade assault course and ASIPS radio test and ran until almost 9 pm where cadets finished with assembly and disassembly of three different weapon systems.
Cadet Crystal Cruz (left) and Joseph Jordan (right) take apart an ASIPS radio.Cadet Everett Kuhnel disassembles an M4 rifle.
EFEB Day 3
On November 9th, at 3 am, the competitors gathered around to hear about the land navigation course that would be held in the wooded terrain at the Cheney Water Works property. The course was designed to be tough enough where Cadets would have to walk from corner to corner on the course in order to find their points. Points were also almost invisible due to the darkness caused by the heavy cloud cover. This forced Cadets to be precise with their use of plotting points, establishing a route plan, and movement to their plotted points. Even with the darkness and removal of any sort of help from an outside source, most of the Cadets that were still in the competition passed the necessary event.
Cadets work on plotting their night land navigation points.
After a written land navigation test and short Meal Ready to Eat (MRE) breakfast, the Cadets were immediately given new points for the day land navigation test. This event proved much easier to all the Cadets that were still competitive for the EFEB. After land navigation, the Cadets then went through an individual movement techniques lane and finally the ruck march.
Cadet Austin Bristow briefs Cadets on the day land navigation course.
The ruck march is 6 miles long and had Cadets hold a minimum weight of 35 pounds, all while being expected to complete the ruck in 90 minutes or less. The course took the Cadets from the Cheney Water Works property, through downtown Cheney, and ended at Cadet Hall on the Eastern Washington University campus.
Cadet Justin Mebes carried the unit guide on and finished with the fastest time of 57 minutes on the six mile ruck march event.
When the Cadets finally made the march back to Cadet Hall, there was still more must pass events. The obstacle course tested the physical and mental strength of the participants after completing the ruck. After the climbing wall, the Cadets then had to climb a rope to have their bodies reach a certain point before they can slide down and conduct a gear layout to ensure there were no light rucks over the competition.
Final EFEB statistics
After all these events, only 7 Cadets passed the necessary requirements to earn the coveted Expert Fighting Eagles Badge:
The 7 of 51 who earned the EFEB meant the test had a pass rate of 14% once again demonstrating how challenging receiving the badge is. Of the seven EFEB recipients only one Cadet earned “True Red” status. To earn “True Red” status, the Cadet must pass every single course with no fail. This proves very difficult, considering that many Cadets who earn the EFEB fail at least one event, this does not mean they are not still competitive for the badge though.
Expert Fighting Eagles Badge recipients (from left): Isabell Erickson, Sam Yancey, Evan Lien, Adam Burnside, Liam Hewey, Justin Mebes, & John Drohman (true red).
Cadet Drohman, the only Cadet this year to not fail a single event, said he prepared for the competition with frequent exercise in his own time, as well as studying all the performance measures to be absolutely sure there were no misunderstandings about the rules. Congratulations to Cadet Drohman and our six other recipients of the 2019 Expert Fighting Eagles Badge.
Go Fighting Eags!
Note:More pictures from the 2019 Expert Fighting Eagles Badge test can be seen below.
First formation before the start of the annual Expert Fighting Eagles Badge test.Cadet Cierra Neumann assembles an ASIPS radio.Cadet Sam Yancey conducts the hand grenade assault course.Cadet Sayliana Palmer conducts the weapons assembly/disassembly test.Cadet Taylor Stich disassembles an M249 machine gun.A Cadet conducts the Tactical Combat Casualty Care test.Cadets conduct the range card test.Cadets plot night land navigation points in the early morning darkness.Cadet Jazmin Castrejon finds a land navigation point.Cadet Everett Kuhnel finds a day land navigation point.Cadets Allyson Burnette (left) and Janu Lee (right) pose for a picture.Cadet Caleb Geringer executes the SALUTE report test.Cadet Christian Goldbach provides a safety brief prior to the ruck march event.Cadet Ethan Smart conducts the ruck march event.Cadets John Drohman (left) and Collin Galbreath (right) conduct the ruck march event.Cadet Adam Burnside conducts the ruck march event.Cadet Samantha Knight pulls herself over a wall on the obstacle course.
Cadet Crystal Cruz successfully climbs up the rope obstacle.
Cadet Kaitlynn Taylor climbs up the rope obstacle.
Cadet Liam Hewey climbs up the rope obstacle.At the end of the EFEB Cadets got to enjoy a catered meal of Mexican food at Cadet Hall.
We recently had everyone’s favorite mascot, “Swoop” attempt to join the Eastern Washington University (EWU) Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program. Let’s just say that things did not go to well. See the video below:
The Eastern Washington University (EWU) Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program is pleased to announce that Chad Triplett has been awarded the Legion of Valor Bronze Cross for Achievement in recognition of being the top Cadet in the western United States.
Chad Triplett, a Cadet in the Eastern Washington University Army ROTC program was awarded the Legion of Valor Bronze Cross.
The Legion of Valor traces its roots back to 1890 when veterans created an organization to promote patriotism, belief in the U.S. Constitution, and support of civil liberties. Members of the Legion of Valor are all recipients of the nation’s highest military awards for heroism, the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, or the Air Force Cross.
Legion of Valor Crest
The Legion of Valor began awarding the Bronze Cross in 1961 to top Army ROTC Cadets across the country. The recognition expanded to include Air Force ROTC Cadets in 1962, and Naval Cadets in 1975. Cadets selected for the award go through a competitive nomination process through their ROTC Brigades where they must have dem0nstrated academic excellence, outstanding leadership potential, and a high degree of physical fitness. The Legion of Valor then selects its winners of the Bronze Cross for Achievement from the brigade nominations. Only 1 in 4,000 Cadets across the country receive this award. Cadet Triplett this year was selected as the Legion of Valor’s top Cadet in the 8th ROTC Brigade that covers the western part of the United States, Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam.
The last known Eastern ROTC Cadet to win the annual Legion of Valor Bronze Cross for Achievement award was Richard Ator who graduated from EWU in 1962. Cadet Triplett after graduating later this year from Eastern will commission in the rank of Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Congratulations to Cadet Triplett for this prestigious accomplishment.
The Eastern Washington University (EWU) “Fighting Eagles” Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) battalion is pleased to announce that Cadet Emma LaTour has been awarded a 2019 Randy Van Turner ROTC Scholarship.
The scholarship is in honor of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity’s EWU chapter co-founder First Lieutenant Randy Van Turner. Randy was a 1968 graduate from the EWU ROTC program who was a recipient of the Silver Star and was killed in action in 1969 during the Vietnam War. His fraternity brothers decided to honor his service by establishing an ROTC scholarship program in his name. The scholarship is awarded to EWU ROTC Cadets that demonstrate academic excellence, high physical fitness, leadership, and financial need. Through a board process, Cadet LaTour was chosen as the third Randy Van Turner ROTC Scholarship recipient this year. She will receive one-year of paid tuition to EWU.
Congratulations to Cadet LaTour for being awarded the Randy Van Turner ROTC Scholarship and a big thank you to Pi Kappa Alpha for sponsoring this scholarship in support of our outstanding EWU ROTC Cadets.
