Campus site of Tennessee
Wing’s annual weeklong training encampment for U.S. Air Force auxiliary
MURFREESBORO — Almost 100 cadets from
Tennessee Wing Civil Air Patrol are spending the week on the MTSU campus for
the U.S. Air Force auxiliary’s weeklong annual training encampment.
The
cadets, ranging in age from 12 to 21, are living in campus residence halls,
attending special presentations by the university on aerospace and leadership
and learning military drill and customs during the encampment.
It
is the first time Tennessee Wing has held its annual training for cadets on a
university campus. The Department of Aerospace is the host of the encampment
and its faculty will train cadets on MTSU’s 360-degree air traffic control
simulator, as well as equipment at the aerospace campus at the Murfreesboro
Airport.
“I’m
hoping cadets take away a different experience from encampment being at MTSU,
as this is definitely not like previous encampments at military bases,” said
Cadet Lt. Col. Jonah Torp-Pedersen of Spring Hill, the senior cadet commander.
“It offers a wide variety of opportunities, especially in the aerospace department.”
One
of those opportunities was a lesson in leadership and service from retired U.S.
Army Lt. Gen. Keith Huber, MTSU’s senior adviser for veterans and leadership
initiatives, who spoke to cadets Monday.
Huber
also used the occasion to mark the 72nd anniversary of D-Day, the
Allied invasion of Europe in World War II, recalling the bravery and courage of
the service members who fought in that pivotal conflict.
Huber
challenged cadets to remember that by wearing the Air Force uniform, a
privilege granted to CAP because of its status as the service’s volunteer
civilian auxiliary, that they must also represent the values and ideals of the
armed forces.
“Why
do you wear this uniform? Why do you sacrifice part of your individuality to
learn about teamwork and learn about leadership,” Huber asked.
“Wearing
this uniform … has an expectation of your behavior,” he said. “And people will
comment on your behavior in one of two ways: Well, of course, I expected them
to be that honest, courteous and intelligent because they are wearing that
uniform or, worse, I would have never expected that behavior out of someone
wearing this uniform.”
Lt.
Col. Jeff Clark of Knoxville, the encampment’s senior adult leader, said 60 of
the cadets at this year’s training are first-time attendees. Twenty-five cadets
are returning as staff members and 10 are part of an advanced program, which
will include a day trip to nearby Fort Campbell for skills and simulator
training.
“Encampment
does three things: it’s necessary for promotions for cadets to become officers,
it gives us an opportunity to standardize things across the state and it allows
cadets to get experience with large-scale leadership,” Clark said.
For
the university, it affords an excellent opportunity to welcome prospective
students to campus, said Andrew Oppmann, MTSU vice president for marketing and
communications.
“We
appreciate the chance to host so many excellent young men and women and give
them a chance to see all the great academic programs our university has to offer,
including, of course, our aerospace department,” Oppmann said. “It’s a real
win-win partnership.”
Some
of the cadets at the encampment are already True Blue. Cadet Lt. Col. Josh
Brinegar of Hohenwald, the second-ranking youth officer, will attend MTSU in
the fall as one of the new class of Buchanan Scholars, the university’s highest
academic award. He will major in concrete industry management.
Cadet
Capt. Justin Kuroski, a Georgia Wing cadet attending the Tennessee encampment,
will be at MTSU this fall as an aerospace administration major with a minor in
air traffic control.
“I
saw the email back in February with the announcement that encampment was going
to be held at MTSU and I immediately said, ‘Mom, I’m applying here again,’”
Kuroski said.
Cadet
1st Lt. Joshua Williams of Smyrna is already a junior at MTSU,
majoring in criminal justice administration and a member of Army ROTC. He said
this will be his final encampment for CAP.
“I’m
looking forward to training my replacement, making sure the cadets have the
right command and the biggest goal is for them to achieve excellence and bring
that to their squadrons, schools and homes,” he said.
CAP,
organized just days before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor that propelled the
U.S. into World War II, will celebrate its 75th anniversary this
year. Its national conference will be in Nashville this August.
It
is an all-volunteer organization with about 56,000 members nationwide and 1,000
in Tennessee. They are best known for their emergency service duties, including
90 percent of the continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions, its cadet
program and its support of aerospace education.
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