“Having our group of four with me really helped out because when one of us was getting down or one of us was getting frustrated we were able to hold each other accountable and keep the mission in mind,” Mendiola said.

Trudging through the mud and ducking under thick branches, the Cadets of 2nd Regiment, Basic Camp spent the morning of July 18, 2021 in the forests of Fort Knox, Ky. doing their Buddy Team Land Navigation training. The purpose: teaching Basic Camp Cadets how to use maps, compasses, and other simple objects to find precise locations in rough, off-road terrain. Cadets were sent out in small teams with the objective of finding pre-placed posts hidden in the forest, marking the locations, and returning to base camp for evaluation within a limited time frame. 2nd Regiment took this training with a fair [...]