3rd Regiment, Advanced Camp arrives on Sunday, June 2, 2019 at Fort Knox, KY. Upon arrival, Cadets go through all their belongings to ensure they have no prohibited items and everything they need for camp. | Photo by Hannah Hedden, Public Affairs for CST
FORT KNOX, Ky – Everyone has a different reason they join the Army for the common goal of protecting the United States. Cadets from all walks of life around the United States report to Fort Knox for Cadet Summer Training to form the 3rd Regiment of Advanced Camp.
Many Cadets enlist and gain prior military experience before they decided to join ROTC at their universities. Cleveland Braswell III, a Bowie State University Cadet, was previously enlisted as a 74D, which is a Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear specialist. He wanted to become an officer to progress his long-term military career.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge. I always like to challenge myself in life and I think that this is one of the big challenges that I’m looking forward to,” said Braswell. “And communicating with others, everybody has different experience, different knowledge and I’m just looking forward to getting to know some of my peers and working together.”
3rd Regiment, Advanced Camp arrives on Sunday, June 2, 2019 at Fort Knox, KY. Upon arrival, Cadets go through all their belongings to ensure they have no prohibited items and everything they need for camp. | Photo by Hannah Hedden, Public Affairs for CST
Some people always know that joining the military is their number one career option, others seem to be helped by the military as they are finding their career paths.
This is Bailey Walser’s, a Cadet from Texas Tech University, first time at Cadet Summer Training here at Fort Knox. She attended Cadet Summer Training at West Point U.S Military Academy last summer. ROTC has been beneficial to Walser by instilling the ideals of comradery and leadership within her.
3rd Regiment, Advanced Camp arrives on Sunday, June 2, 2019 at Fort Knox, KY. Upon arrival, Cadets go through all their belongings to ensure they have no prohibited items and everything they need for camp. | Photo by Hannah Hedden, Public Affairs for CST
“I joined ROTC my sophomore year in college just because I was kind of lost at the time, just between majors, didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I’ve always been interested in the military so I decided to talk to the recruiter and that’s been it since then,” said Walser.
Cadet Chynna Stanton joined ROTC at Morgan State University. She was influenced by her parents’ service and wanted the experience of going to college and pursing her dream and military career as a dermatologist for the Army.
Stanton said, “[I’m most nervous about] just going outside my comfort zone. We’re all here to push the limits and see our training and how much we’re learning but I guess just going out of my comfort zone for the experience.”
Even though each of these Cadets are nervous about what is ahead of them for the next 37 days of Cadet Summer Training, each one is excited about the experiences and the relationships that they are going to develop. Regardless of how they were introduced to their ROTC program, they were thankful they took that leap of faith.
