The Joint Military Leadership Center Newsletter
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THE JOINT MILITARY LEADERSHIP CENTER NEWSLETTER 2013 Friends of The Joint Military Leadership Center Brighten the Halls of CW Bill Young Hall Thanks to generous supporters of the JMLC and the ROTC programs at USF, two new magnifi- cent prints adorn the hallways of C.W. Bill Young Hall. The first was donated by the Clearwater Chapter of the Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW). At an Air Force ROTC Leadership Lab on September 13, 2012, Gerald C. “Bud” Berry, Army Air Corps, World War II veteran, led a group of MOWW Clearwater Chapter members to present a framed print of “The Eagle’s Nest—The Band of Brothers and the War’s Last Prize”. The John Shaw print depicts E Compa- ny, 101st Airborne Division celebrating the end of World War II at the Eagle’s Nest. The MOWW supports the ROTC programs every year with “Award of Merit” medals to outstanding cadets. On December 5, 2013, Bill and Suzy Eickhoff presented the JMLC with a framed printed copy of famed aviation artist Sam Lyon's "Angels Over Annapolis". The Eickhoffs have been big supporters of USF Athletics over the years and were thrilled to have this opportunity to contrib- ute to our facility. Both of these exquisite prints are on display on the second floor of C.W. Bill 2 TABLE of CONTENTS Donations to JMLC cover 1 Suncoast Battalion cont.. page 7 Friendly Competition page 2 NAVAL ROTC page 8 JMLC in Action page 3 NAVAL ROTC cont. page 9 JMLC in Action page 4 AFROTC Detachment 158 page 10 JMLC in Action cont. page 5 AFROTC cont. page 11 Suncoast Battalion News page 6 About The JMLC page 12 Friendly Competition Several Joint athletic/physical training events were planned and executed during the academic year. A Joint Field Day assembled about 25 – 30 cadets of the Army and “Joint” Field Day participants. Air Force ROTC programs on a Saturday morning just prior to the last week of the Fall semester, to play soccer, flag football and ultimate Frisbee on a beautiful Saturday morning. The goal was for the ROTC students to get together in a recreational and social atmosphere, play some sports and have fun. This was the first time sport teams were organized with students from more than one service in- stead of Army vs. Air Force. The students enjoyed their time and had the opportunity to get to know ROTC stu- dents from another service. The entire event was well organized and executed seamlessly. WELL DONE to Air Force Cadets Kristopher Wasielewski and Galen Abrams for taking the lead in organizing the event. Also, WELL DONE to Army Cadet Rosaneli Ledesma for assisting and coordinat- ing Army participation. Cadet Abrams also deserves credit for the initial Cadets and Midshipmen prepare to start the Joint Run. concept for this Joint Field Day. The annual Joint ROTC Run was held on Tuesday, December 4. After initially forming up within their respective units, the 400 plus ROTC stu- dents re-assembled as three companies with members of each service integrated within each company for the 2 mile run around campus. The running formation was led by Army ROTC Cadet Stephanie Germeroth, Naval ROTC Midshipman Benjamin Bontrager and Air Force Cadet Sean Tracey. The “joint” platoons ran in formation with students from each service taking turns leading the cadence and moti- vational songs. Upon completion of the Joint Run, the units reassem- bled in the track and field stadium to hear a few words from the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Dr. Robert Sul- lins. He took a few minutes to thank the ROTC students for their service and stated how proud he was of them for their dedication. Col Kevin McElroy (AFROTC), CAPT Kevin Ken- ney (NROTC) and MAJ Scott Dunkle (AROTC) then addressed the Cadets John Kelley, Jason Moore and Neli Ledesma at students about the importance of “Jointness” - working effectively with the Joint Field Day the other military services and understanding their capabilities, limita- tions and service culture. A “mini” Commander’s Cup event was held on Friday, April 12. Orga- nized by Army Cadet Alexandra Espinel and Air Force Cadet Mat- thew LaRue, it was Army versus Air Force in a cadre (3 on 3) basketball challenge, and cadet competition in ultimate frisbee, flag football and basketball. A full scale Commander’s Cup was unable to be conducted due to scheduling conflicts, so Army retains the coveted Commander’s Cup for another year. 3 Welcome to New ROTC Commanders For the Joint Military Leadership Center (JMLC) and the Army, Naval and Air Force ROTC programs at the Universi- ty of South Florida, the 2012-2013 Academic Year started out like any other, with a sprint… and did not slow down until after the last Spring 2013 Commissioning Ceremony was over. To start off the year, each ROTC unit welcomed a new Commander. Welcome aboard to CAPT Kevin Kenney, Commanding Officer USF Naval ROTC, Col Kev- in McElroy, Commander Air Force ROTC Detachment 158, and LTC Alexander Espinosa, Commander, USF Army CAPT Kevin Kenney Col Kevin McElroy LTC Alexander Espinosa ROTC! Army Cadet Rosaneli Ledesma Midshipman Robert Riggs Air Force Cadet Cody Campbell USF ROTC Students Participate in Leadership and Foreign Affairs Conferences This academic year’s recipients of the CPT Jason Ellis Holbrook Memorial Leadership Award were Army Cadet Rosaneli Ledesma, Midshipman Robert Riggs (Clearwater Christian College), and Air Force Cadet Cody Campbell. Cadet Ledesma and Midshipman Riggs attended the West Point National Conference on Ethics in America (NCEA) in October and Cadet Cody attended the Air Force Academy’s National Character and Leadership Symposium (NCLS) in February. Through the USF Foundation, Mr. John Harper and his wife, Cindy, established the CPT Jason Ellis Holbrook Memorial Leadership Award, in honor of their daughter’s (Heather) hus- band, U.S. Army Captain Jason Holbrook, who was killed in the line of duty at Tsagay, Afghanistan in July of 2010. The scholarship provides funds for ROTC students to attend a nationally recognized leadership confer- ence. In future years, the CPT Holbrook Award will support sending six ROTC students to leadership confer- ences every year. In addition to the CPT Holbrook Award recipients, the JMLC provided support to other ROTC students to repre- sent USF at conferences. Air Force Cadet Malory Duerr (University of Tampa) accompanied Cadet Campbell to the Air Force Academy’s NCLS and Midshipman Kyle Mako attended the Notre Dame Leadership Weekend. Attendance at any one of these leadership conferences is a once in a lifetime experience for these students as they hear from many prominent leaders in the military, civilian government, business, sports and academic fields while interacting with fellow college students from all over the country. Army Cadet Stephanie Germeroth was one of two USF students selected to represent USF at the annual Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference (NAFAC) in Annapolis, MD. NAFAC is the premier undergraduate foreign affairs conference in the country. It is a unique opportunity to meet with over 120 students from prestigious uni- versities/colleges from around the country and abroad to discuss various global issues that directly affect U.S. in- terests and national security. 4 ROTC Living Learning Center After a very successful inaugural year, the ROTC Living Learning Community (LLC) doubled in size and for its second year occupies the first two floors in the Maple A Residence Hall. With 12 return- ing residents, we welcomed 38 incoming freshmen ROTC students from all services into the LLC. We had a much better representation of each service ROTC within the LLC this year. Some new features and programs were also introduced to improve the quality of life based on feedback re- ceived from ROTC residents the previous year – addition of tables and chairs in the kitchen areas to provide quiet study areas for individual and small group study; brand new flat screen TVs on each floor; a large white board in the common area of each floor to leave messages or other infor- mation; addition of new furniture in the common areas and several board games and cards for re- laxation and group activities. Several new events were added to last year’s programming to further improve the social interaction between the residents and their cultural awareness. As part of the Week of Welcome, newly arriv- ing residents had the opportunity to get to know each other during a pizza social hosted by the JMLC in the Joint Student Lounge in C.W. Bill Young Hall. Then, to close out the Fall Semester and provide relief during Final Exams before the Winter Break, another social was hosted with re- freshments for the ROTC residents and the opportunity to spend time honing their weapons han- dling skills on the EST 2000 small arms weapons simulator. To increase the cultural awareness of the ROTC residents, the JMLC in partnership with the U.S. Central Command’s Coalition Partners, hosted a presentation by Swedish Army Major Tor Bengtsson. During his presentation, ROTC residents were treated to Pepparkakor (Swedish gin- ger cookies) and Glogg Apple (Swedish spiced apple drink). Major Bengtsson connected very readily with our students and gave a short, very informative overview of Sweden, its culture and people, military/government, and security concerns. In line with the university’s goal to have every student partici- pate in some sort of Education Abroad experience during their time at USF, the Education Abroad Office visited the Maple Residence Hall classroom and provided interested ROTC resi- dents an overview of education abroad programs available. In- cluded were current students who had recently returned from an education abroad program to talk about their experiences and answer questions.