ROTC’s Ranger Challenge tests cadets

Freshman Christine Blum’s first physical training test was something she’ll never forget. 

She was one of the last to finish, but the other members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps came back around to run with her and cheer her on. 

“This is amazing,” Blum said. “They didn’t even know my name or anything about me, and we’re already a team.”

The ROTC is a program that is considered an elective at IU and is geared toward teaching students leadership and management skills to be a leader in the army or to be successful in the civilian world. ROTC students who want a challenge both mentally and physically are welcome to try the Ranger Challenge, which is often considered the varsity sport in the ROTC, said Lt. Nate Tiffany, who works for the ROTC and supervises and provides the cadets with what they need.

The Ranger Challenge consists of land navigation, weapons assembly and disassembly of the M16A2 rifle, rope bridge, rifle marksmanship, patrolling, a physical training test and a 10K march, according to the ROTC Web site.

This year, the IU ROTC had seven teams. There are five-man teams and nine-man teams. Schools put their best five in the five-man team or their best nine in a nine-man team, depending on the schools’ preference. IU’s best team is the alpha nine-man team, Tiffany said.

“Our first nine-man team, they are absolute studs,” Tiffany said. “They are almost perfect across the board. And our five-man team, which is just a step down, is just absolute studs, too.” 

Among these seven teams are a five-man woman team and a five-man Air Force team.
Cadets pick their own training program. Their lieutenants and sergeants are there for guidance. The cadets chose to start training for this event two months in advance, Tiffany said.

They get up at 5:30 a.m. Monday and Tuesday for physical training, 5:30 a.m. Wednesday for a road march and 5 a.m. Thursday to train for a ruck sack run. The ruck sack run requires cadets to run six miles with 25 pounds in their ruck sacks, so IU cadets run with 35 pounds of weight. The first week they run two miles, the second week, three miles, the next, four, then five and six miles, Tiffany said.

Tiffany said the first month is to break the cadets down physically, so they are capable to handle what is given to them. The second month is to build them back up and give them the skills to succeed in the Ranger Challenge.

“You almost dedicate your life to Ranger Challenge for the two months before that,” Cadet James Hodges, a junior, said. “You’re always tired. You don’t party as much. You sacrifice a lot for the team in that two months, and then after that it gets you in shape, and it’s worth it in the end.”

To practice for the physical training tests, the cadets used the wrestling room where they could do rope climbing, pull-up workouts and use the padded floor for push-ups and sit-ups. A perfect score on the physical training test is 72 push-ups in two minutes, 79 sit-ups in two minutes and a two-mile run in less than 13 minutes, Tiffany said.

Despite the intense training, the cadets have one more aspect that sets them apart – school spirit. 

“You can tell who’s in IU because we’re the ones cheering on our teammates,” Hodges said. “Nobody else really does that. We get excited when one of our teammates gets a 300.”