Platoon Tactical Challenge pushes cadets physically and mentally

Today the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets is conducting platoon tactical challenge. So, once every spring semester, we have an entire day of tactical challenges. People transiting to different stations and doing obstacles that challenge both their mental capacity and also their physical capacity. You will first go to the rappel tower. And what you're doing at the rappel tower is you're ascending a 20 foot tower after you're running up a slant wall. And then you have to descend down a 40 foot tower. Then moving on to the second station, that is where the Ranger station is. Through Army ROTC, they are conducting a series of obstacles, one including a memory game. "Let's go. Come on now. Hey, come on now, let's go." They're also doing a humvee push, where they're testing strength and pushing a humvee provided by the National Guard. And then they are also conducting some skedco drags and some litter carries which are equipment used in Army for carrying casualties and transporting people. Moving on to that, they go to the raider station. The raider station is the Marine Corps option through Navy ROTC here at Tech. There they go through a simulation of taking on an enemy contact and figuring out how to combat that. Upon completing that, they'll move and they have to do a crawl through some mud and water which is under some barbed wire. The fourth station that is the ASOP station. So that is the Air Force Special Operations here at Tech. That organization is conducting gunship call for fire. "Target 30 meters, danger close North, Northwest. How copy?" They're using both their land navigation skills and communication skills to be able to fire water balloons for the simulation. And hit tarps that are laid out in the field. We're actually at the fifth station right now. This is the O Course station. The fun part of this is the brain game kind of added into it. The cadets are asked to remember a code that they see based on a color that they're given. It is a series of physical and mental challenges here at the O Course. What you're getting out of it is tactical training and also experience from each organization that gets the opportunity to run a station. So getting exposed to something that's out of your comfort zone, getting this experience can only benefit us as future leaders.