Gateway Gazette SPECIAL
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POINTS OF INTEREST:
Current MS
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Gateway Battalion Begins the New Academic Year
IV Class talks about LDAC
Gateway Builds Relationship with the St. Louis Rams
Cadets Discuss Summer Experiences
Picture Gallery of Gateway Activities
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Greeting from Commander
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Cadet Warnke on her AMEDD internship
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A list of our recently commissioned
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Rams vs. Redskins
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Cadets talk about their summer training
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A Few Words from Our PMS (continued)
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Photo Gallery and
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Donation Information
Formation for the Fall 2011 Battalion Run outside of the Washington
A Few Words From Our PMS Alumni, friends, supporters and members of the Gateway Battalion, It was quite an eventful summer for the Gateway Battalion. First and foremost, I am proud to report that we commissioned 18 new Second Lieutenants. What an honor it
was to administer the oath to these great men and women – they will be fantastic leaders in our Army. Next, Gateway cadets travelled the world (literally) during this summer’s Army sponsored training exercises. Maybe you saw them on your post or in your town? I am so proud of all of
their accomplishments; you can read about many of their experiences in this newsletter. The new school year is already in full swing and we are very busy. We have a freshman class of nearly 40 new cadets, the biggest group of freshmen in recent memory! That number speaks to the character of (continued on page 8)
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Cadet Back Leading the Battalion Run
Greeting from the New Battalion Commander Hello, my name is Cadet Alexander Back and I am this year’s Cadet Battalion Commander. The Gateway Battalion is coming off of a successful summer and looking forward to an eventful year. Several cadets were able to receive advanced training through additional summer opportunities. These cadets return to Gateway ready to
share their experiences with other cadets.
We welcome all alumni to join us for this game.
Gateway cadets are becoming more active in the St. Louis community. Our Battalion Color Guard is serving the community in a variety of forms. Gateway Battalion has teamed up with the Rams to have a Gateway Army ROTC game. On October 2nd, the Gateway Battalion Color Guard will be presenting the national colors and the Battalion will have its own seating section.
This weekend, the Battalion will be heading to Fort Leonard Wood for our Fall FTX. This will be an excellent leadership opportunity for the Cadets. We are adapting our programs to provide Cadets with the most current and effective training. We will strive to carry on the proud tradition of the Gateway Battalion in order to produce the best Army Officers.
Letter from the Editor
Cadet Snider (left) With Cadet Clayburn
Hello all, Welcome to the Fall 2011 issue of the Gateway Gazette. I am Cadet Matthew Snider, and I am the current S-5 of Gateway Battalion. The Battalion S5 oversees mentoring and alumni relations. As part of our alumni relations, we create this newsletter to keep all of our alumni up to date on Gateway Battalion activities. In this issue, we
are placing special emphasis on what has occurred over the summer. I sincerely hope you enjoy the stories of our summer activities. Additionally, I wanted to say how excited the current MS IV class is for this upcoming year. Planning the training for our battalion has been and will continue to be a lot of work, but the rewards are great. Over the next year, we will get to see our work come to fruition as the MS III class prepares
for LDAC. We will also get to see the junior cadets develop a better understanding of what it means to be in ROTC. These meaningful results are a better reflection of the rewards we will continue to find in the Army when we commission as officers. As a final note, I just wanted to say that I hope you enjoy this newsletter as much as I enjoyed putting it together.
Upcoming Events
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September 23rd-25th Fort Leonard Wood Fall FTX October 2nd: Rams vs. Redskins Color Guard Event and Gateway ROTC Day
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Cadet Warnke Talks about AMEDD Experience Cadet Warnke (left) in scrubs for internship
Following LDAC this summer I attended the Army Medical Department Internship Program in Landstuhl, Germany. Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) is the only Level 1 trauma center outside of the United States. Almost all wounded service members from
down range come to Landstuhl to receive care before continuing to the United States or back down range.
At LRMC I was able to shadow physicians in many different departments including infectious disease, neurology, orthopedics, surgery, and internal medicine. I also was able to spend time learning about and participating in the Medevac missions which are organized to bring all patients injured down range to Landstuhl and then on to their home
base. However, I spent the most time in the ICU (the trauma center at Landstuhl). Patients coming into the ICU were critically injured from IED blasts, burns, firefights and “I was able to more. The level of care the soldiers were given was top of the line. The experiences I obtained from my time in the ICU cannot be replicated in any other hospital, civilian or military. I was able to gain a great amount of respect for the standards of care used in the hospital.
shadow physicians in many different departments including infectious disease, neurology, orthopedics, surgery,
Overall I had a great experience and internal during my internship and learned a lot about how being a physician in medicine. …” the Army differs from being a civilian physician.
Recently Commissioned 2Lt Patrick Arbuckle: Educational Delay,
Dental School
2Lt David Rickert: Infantry, Germany
2Lt Rachel Atkins: Ordnance Corps, Ft Bragg
2Lt William Shim: Educational Delay, Law School
2Lt Michael Bruns: Signal Corps, Ft Gordon
2Lt Joshua Tunnage: Educational Delay, Medical School
2Lt John Deng: Educational Delay, Law School
2Lt Beverly Wagner: Ordnance Corps, Ft Stewart
2Lt Alex Hendel:
2Lt Maretie Wagner: Quartermaster Corps, Ft Stewart
2Lt Ben Ingell: Aviation, Ft Rucker
2Lt Brendan Walmsley: Infantry, Ft Campbell
2Lt Yoseph Kram: Educational Delay, Medical School 2Lt Stephanie James: Adjutant’s Generals Corps, GA Army National Guard 2Lt Freddy Mawyin: Military Intelligence, Ft Riley 2LT Aaron Newton: Infantry, FT Campbell 2Lt Elijah Murrell: Medical Service Corps, Ft Stewart 2Lt Eric Pinard-Janisch: Infantry, Italy
Above: LTC Craig with Commissioning Ceremony Keynote Speaker, Joseph W.Westphal, the Hon. Under Secretary of the Army
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Leefers fakes a growl for the camera.
Cadet Leefers Talks about LDAC After much anticipation and worry, it turns out that LDAC wasn’t so bad after all. In the weeks leading up to camp I spent a lot of time reviewing notes from my MS III class, and hitting the gym hard in preparation for the infamously difficult LDAC PT test. In retrospect, the stress I put on myself in the week prior to departure for camp was much worse than any stress I actually experienced while training at Warrior Forge.
I can recall only one minor setback while at camp, LANDNAV. I was one of the many lucky members of 1st regiment who failed my first attempt at the day and night land navigation practical tests. It rained nonstop through the day and night courses. By the end of the night course I was slightly hysterical. My feet were a wreck, I was freezing, soaked, and, in general, questioning my ability to succeed at anything in life. After two hours of restless
sleep it was time to wake up, put on my soaked boats, retrain, and try to tackle the course again. I was less than thrilled, but I proved my resiliency nonetheless. I passed both the day and night landnav courses on my second attempt and never looked back. I am thankful that this was my only struggle at LDAC and I owe the Gateway Battalion cadre for all the hard work they did to train me and the other cadets who attended LDAC this summer.
Cadet Kellerman Goes to Portugal During the summer, Cadet Paul Kellerman embarked on a Cultural Understanding and Language Proficiency (CULP) trip through Cadet Command to the European country of Portugal. Kellerman’s trip was considered to be military-to-military contact; he was able to train with Portuguese cadets attending the Academia Militar – the Por-
tuguese equivalent to West Point. During training, Kellerman was able to shadow Portuguese cadets and actively participate in conducting night missions, planning operations, and take part in an artillery maneuver. Other components of the trip included stays in the cities of Lisbon and Coimbra and a staff ride detailing the 3rd French Invasion. To finish
the trip, Cadet Kellerman flew to the Azores Islands for three days and was able to tour the island of Ponta Delgada. The trip offered a chance to train with cadets from another NATO nation and broaden Kellerman’s cultural understanding of the Portuguese people and military.
Rams Tickets on Sale! As part of a new initiative to build an ongoing relationship with the St. Louis Rams, Gateway Battalion has agreed to sell three hundred tickets for the October 2nd home game against the Redskins.
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The price is thirty-five dollars a ticket. Five dollars of each purchase will be donated to the cadet fund for future ROTC training activities. The tickets are midtier tickets and would normally cost forty-five dollars.
If you are interested in purchasing a ticket please call Cadet Faoro at (314)-3486956 or email her at kfaoro@slu.edu. Thank you for your support!
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Cadet Clayburn Talks about Life in Kenya who pushed me to speak Cadet Clayburn in the language as local garb. much as possible, allowed me to advance from barely speaking Swahili to being able to hold fluent conversations with the youth in my 10 weeks in Kenya. During my time in Kenya I was exposed to a variety of lifestyles, cultures, and living conditions that were different than anything I had ever experienced before. Dr. Coffman told me the places that I would go and the things that I would do in Kenya, but I did not understand the extent to which we would be integrated into and become involved in the Kenyan society. Living and working with the families of the ethnic groups as we studied them made the experiences genuinely authentic, and I was honored to be fictively adopted into the families as their son. Studying Swahili while living with these families,
We encountered everything from living in Maasai cow dung huts out in the desert with no running water or electricity to spending a tough day in Kibera, one of Africa's largest slums, to staying in a luxurious hotel in Mombasa along the beach. This exposure to so many different aspects of Kenya gave us a chance to experience both the touristy and simpler lifestyles of its citizens as well as develop a holistic view of their everyday lives. Before this program, I had a very sheltered and media-based view of what life was like in Kenya and the rest of Africa, but I now have a drastically different
and more accurate view. The simple values such as "harambee" (meaning "to pull together”) run their society, and I have a high respect for how faithful they remain to these values. “This new understanding has
This new understanding has given me a determination to become involved in AFRICOM in my military career and become as involved as possible in the humanitarian efforts and improving United StatesAfrica relations. Furthermore, having lived in the harsh conditions of different areas, I am motivated with this new perspective to push myself harder and be less concerned with the difficulties of ROTC training. I am truly grateful to have been given the opportunity to attend this incredible program and I look forward to the ways my new perspective is affecting my motivation and approach towards life.
given me a determination to become involved in AFRICOM in my military career and become as involved as possible in the humanitarian efforts …”
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Cadet Dold Lounging in the Forest
On the ground there was an air of quiet jubilation, knowing that we had done what many consider to be all but impossible.
Cadet Dold Talks about Airborne This last semester I was selected to be one of three people in Gateway Battalion to attend Airborne School in Fort Benning, Georgia. When I got the news that cadre had selected me, I was both very excited for the opportunity and fairly surprised I even got the slot at all. This was actually my second try at Airborne School. I had also received a slot the year before, but due to a conflict with my summer classes, I had to give up my spot to another cadet. Our first week was
Ground Week, which focused on harness wear, exit from the aircraft, and proper landing. The second week, Tower Week, further focused on mass exit and advanced landing techniques. Then came Jump week. Waiting those many hours in the harness shed (and later in the plane), I didn’t feel any apprehension, or really anything at all. The adrenaline from having to jump out of a plane blocked out all errant thoughts as we climbed into the air. Then before we knew it, we found ourselves rushing out the door into the warm rushing air. The feeling of jumping out of a plane for the first time was
an incredible rush, just floating in the air as the ground slowly approached from below. On the ground there was an air of quiet jubilation, knowing that we had done what many consider to be all but impossible. This is what we had signed up for, and it was every bit as awesome as we expected it would be.
Cadet Farmer Reflects on his Experiences in Rwanda On July 2, 2011, I boarded a plane with seven other ROTC cadets for Rwanda. Our official mission was to teach Rwandan soldiers English. Little did I know
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that the journey that lay ahead of me would be one I’d never forget. When we first arrived in Kigali it was like experiencing an entire new world. Motorcycle taxies and crazy drivers filled the streets. It seemed like we escaped death a
few times on the way to the hotel. The first full day in the country we made the trip to the genocide museum. It felt weird being in a country where 20 years ago one million people had been murdered. To see the
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pictures of Kigali streets filled with bodies we had walked down was shocking. The following day we headed out to Butare and saw the National Museum for Ethnic Culture, National Art Museum, and the Kings palace. My favorite part of this day was not seeing the museums but rather the drive. The roads wind in and out of the mountains and pass through small villages. People walked up and down the road balancing baskets on their heads and the scenery was breath taking. We spent time swimming and kayaking at Lake Kivu and then the rest of the week consisted of a trip to Volcanoes National Park to see the Golden Monkeys and trek the infamous Bisoke Volcanoe. known to this region. The second week in Rwanda was hectic. The first day of teaching started that Monday. To make up for the time lost teaching on our adventures from the week before, we had to double up on teaching days. The whole week consisted of waking up, eating breakfast and teaching from the morning until the evening. It was not long before the entire group was exhausted. On Saturday of the second week we left for an orphanage across the country. Out of our entire stay in Rwanda this was my favorite portion of the trip. We played games with the children, had a bonfire, and took them to Lake Kivu. The kids eyes lit up as we brought them
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candy, soccer balls, and other gifts and goodies. The experience really showed me how lucky I am not only to have a family but to be American. The final week was a perfect finale to an amazing trip. We continued to teach but now only half days which was a relief on all of the cadets, and in the middle of the week, we were able to go on a safari. The Safari was in Akagera National Park which bordered Tanzania. It was here we saw zebras, buffalo, baboons, hippos, and my personal favorite Giraffes. The next day we were able to see a United Nations Peacekeeping training facility. This is where the Rwandan Defense Force soldiers are trained before assisting the UN in Darfur and other parts of the Sudan. After visiting the training center we stopped by a local church where 10,000 people had been murdered during the genocide. All the bullet holes, grenades, blood stains, and clothing had been left in the church. The bones of the murdered had been compiled into a mass grave which we walked through. The entire time I was here, I couldn’t understand how someone could have so much hatred. The following day after teaching we were able to head to the embassy. This was a great experience for me being able to speak to people that work there and see what they really do. It impacted me enough to make me consider becoming a foreign affairs officer.
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Then finally, the last full day of our stay came on Friday. We had a ceremony for the students and had the opportunity to swap gifts with the RDF soldiers. This was a great finale for the trip, and I know that my fellow cadets and I left a great impression on the RDF soldiers. The three weeks I spent in Rwanda this summer has had a profound impact on my life. I have always thanked God for the blessings in my life but this trip was able to put that thankfulness into perspective. When we see poverty on the news highlights at home, everyone always stops to think how horrible it is, but they just go back to their day. This trip has shown me the importance of standing up and making a difference in the world.
The kids eyes lit up as we brought them candy, soccer balls, and other gifts
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My personal thank you goes to all alumni and family members who have contributed to the Gateway Battalion both financially and with your time.
A Few Words From Our PMS (Continued) of the generation that is entering school. Most were in 4th grade on 9/11/01, yet they understand the need and they are looking for ways to serve a cause greater than themselves. Knowing these young men and women, I am very hopeful for our future.
alumni affairs officer, please consider doing so and sharing your experiences with our cadets.
Finally, no good PMS letter is complete without a small plea for financial support. In your end-of-the-year giving plans, don’t forget donations to the Gateway My personal thank you goes Battalion are fully tax deductable (see the last page to all alumni and family members who have contrib- for details). All your suputed to the Gateway Battal- port goes directly to fund ion both financially and with cadet activities, travel and your time. Graduates, if you additional training opportunities. We would not be as haven’t contacted our
successful without your support. Keep it up and Thanks. I hope to see you all at “Gateway ROTC Day” at the Rams football game on October 2! LTC Jim Craig (314) 935-7200 Jim.craig@wustl.edu
Contact Us: Washington University North Campus Bldg, 700 Rosedale Ave, Suite 1120 Saint Louis, MO 63112 Phone: 314-935-5537 Fax:314-935-6931 E-mail:rotc@wustl.edu
Photo Gallery
On the left: Gateway Cadets prep for rappelling; One the right: Cadet Trog waves to the camera Both photos from September 17th Rappelling lab
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Far Left: Cadet Kellerman in Portugal Near Left: Cadet MacDonald at LDAC with new comrades
Near Right: Picture of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center Far Right Warnke in Scrubs for internship
Above to the left: Cadet De Hoyos talks to new nursing cadets Above to the right: Battalion Run at Washington University near freshman dorms
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Photo Gallery
Above: Cadets warming up for the Fall Battalion Run in front of the Washington University Athletic Complex
To the Left: Cadets practicing their marching at the equipment issue lab
Top Right: Families, new and old cadets mingle at the Battalion Barbeque in Shaw Park
How Can You Support Gateway? Donations through Washington University are fully tax deductible.
Checks Payable to: “Washington University-Department of Military Science” (Memo: Acct# 11-2051-94990) Mail to: Washington University, Campus Box 1082,One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130
Online: Go to https://gifts.wustl.edu/giftform.aspx Click: “Giving Areas,” then check “other,” and enter “Department of Military Science– Acct# 11-2051-94990” http://www.rotc.wustl.edu
Other: To donate time, food, equipment, or other resources please contact PMS