News FeedThe cold rain drummed against the squad’s helmets as they slowly crept through the wet underbrush. They made their way slowly to their target, the leader of the rebel group they were supposed to capture. Suddenly, explosions rip through the forest and the squad dives for cover, quickly returning fire while sighting their target and moving in to capture him.
These people are not fighting overseas but are actually members of Truman’s newly-established Recondo club. Created this semester by junior David Atkinson, the club is meant to be a place to learn and hone the military arts.
“[Our] mission is to further educate cadets about the military, enhance their skills and leadership, and make them more effective in practical applications,” said Atkinson.
The club is largely inspired by Truman’s ROTC program and borrows the program’s equipment and OPFOR (opposing forces or enemies) for their missions, said Atkinson. The similarity between the two isn’t surprising as Atkinson himself is enrolled in the ROTC program. The resources provided by those in charge of the ROTC program have been a great help to the program Atkinson said.
“Cadre (those in charge of Truman ROTC) have been great, Major [Eric P.] Shirley especially. He’s helped us, he’s supplying OPFOR which is opposing forces go out and play dead or play enemy for us. He’s willing to get us supplies. He’s offered a little advice in the background,” said Atkinson, who quickly pointed out that the club is still student run. “It’s clearly run by students. [The cadre] don’t make up our missions, they don’t tell us what to do or how to do it. They’re just there to make sure it goes fairly smoothly.”
Shirley, commander of Truman’s ROTC program and advisor says his role in the club is mentoring for the technical and tactical expertise of the students.
“One of my roles as an advisor is to help to construct [their mission], critique it, give them pointers on how to improve it, and then I go out and I monitor them as they go out and do their training,” said Shirley
As a member of Truman faculty, Shirley says he serves as a liaison between the student organization and the University for acquiring resources, reserving facilities, and ensuring their safety.
The club meets once a week on Friday afternoons to learn how to tackle different situations, such as taking out a bunker. Members use Army procedures as reference and develop their own plans for missions and accomplishment.
The group went on assignment in November to capture a rebel leader alive. The leader for the day quickly tells the group what to prepare for and soon people are moving around preparing their equipment, practicing maneuvers, and applying camouflage. After going over the plan in detail, they are out of the briefing room door and heading to location.
Safety is important for the club, according to member Sean Sawyer.
“When we cross the street we want to be safe so we post two guys to stop traffic for us so no one gets hit by a car or something serious like that,” said Sawyer.
Afterwards, members go over what they did well and what they should improve on. The learning process is continuous and the group has improved since it began according to Atkinson.
“I think we’ve made leaps and bounds better,” said Atkinson. “In our binder we try to keep after action review notes and from these notes…people can study them and prepare for the next [mission].”
Atkinson said he hopes to continue the club, increasing membership from the current 12.
“My goal would be to have around 15 [members] because every week there is around two people who can’t show up for whatever reason and our missions are on Friday,” said Atkinson. “Usually as long as we have ten people and hopefully we can get 12 or 13, we can function pretty well.”
For more photos, click on the following link:
