Achievers

EDITOR’S NOTE: Rich Lamance is a writer for the Army & Air Force News Service Print Features.

By RICH LAMANCE
Special to the Tyler Paper

MAXWELL AFB, Ala. — For most college students, taking the summer off between their sophomore and junior years, life is usually filled with a summer job, time at the beach or a little extra time in front of their favorite video game.

For the son of a Tyler and Lindale resident, this summer is more strenuous. Kenneth W. Bell, son of Ralph W. Bell, of Tyler, and Andra Hilton, Lindale, is an Air Force ROTC cadet going through a boot camp of sorts, during a more than three-week physical and mental challenge designed to prepare more than 2,300 cadets nationwide for eventual commissioning as a second lieutenant. This is the first year cadets have converged to one single location for their training, with the most sweeping changes to the program in more than 60 years.

“We are going through some pretty tough training. I didn’t expect it to be so mentally demanding,” said Bell, a 2006 graduate of Winona High School. “There is definitely a reason that a lot of people wash out of the officer program at this point.”

The ROTC field training course is divided into three phases: The first 11 days of the training is primarily devoted to classroom work, focusing on leadership, marching and problem-solving scenarios.

Each group of about 350 cadets then moves into a more intense, six-day training at the “Blue Thunder” camp, a tent city set up at Maxwell. There, the cadets learn hand-to-hand combat, land navigation, tactical communication, face leadership reaction obstacles and qualify at the small arms range on the 9 mm pistol.

For the first time, cadets will wrap up their training with a six-day exercise at the Joint Forces Training Center at Hattiesburg, Miss., in an environment that gives them a safe look at what they might face if deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Reacting to roadside bombs, conducting convoy operations, learning small arms tactics and getting their first look at urban warfare situations are some of the challenges awaiting these cadets.

“One of the most important things we are learning here is the fact that every decision we will make as an officer will affect someone under us in a good or bad way. We are seeing clear that people’s lives will be in our hands soon,” said Bell.

Bell is attending Texas A&M University, pursuing a degree in political science. “I plan on going for a pilot or intelligence slot after I commission in May 2010.”

Kenneth W. Bell
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