Last Thursday, San Diego State became the figurative classroom for future soldiers. SDSU had the honor of hosting a drill and ceremony training operation for the SDSU Army ROTC.

ENS field became a landscape filled with future servicemen and women. The approximately 170 cadets involved in the program are divided into four companies: Alpha and Bravo from SDSU, Delta from University of San Diego and Echo from Point Loma Nazarene University.

The segmentation allows for a more hands-on learning experience between the leading cadre, officers assigned to the program and the ROTC pupils.

The training cadets range from freshmen to graduate students, and are an increasingly diverse group. The basic military techniques practiced serve as a useful tool to graduating seniors whose skills will soon be tested at the Leader Development and Assessment Course.

The holler of chants such as “They put me on a silver jet, that I know I won’t forget; they put me in a barber chair, I turned around and had no hair,” sung out by husky voices kept the atmosphere light and fun instead of strenuous.

This mood carried into the drill competition, when at the end of the session the different companies were pinned against each other. SDSU’s Alpha Company took the title along with a respectable streamer for its company flag.

Because of SDSU’s military friendly environment, this will not be the last these fields see of these dedicated students.