Leader's Training Course

The official news site for Operation Bold Leader

Safety represents cadre member’s job, passion

Posted on July 26, 2011 by PAO

By Noelle Wiehe
Staff writer

Watching over more than 800 Cadets on an Army post each summer is a considerable task. Just ask Lt. Col. Pat Johnson, whose focus is keeping them safe.

“Safety is the number one priority of this whole camp,” he said. “We want to train Cadets, but we want to train them safely.”

Johnson has been the LTC safety officer the past nine years. To keep coming back, he splits the job with another officer — Lt. Col. Craig Wells — and mans the office during the course’s second half.
The safety officer’s job is to oversee the moderate risk activities done throughout the course like land navigation and STX (squad tactical exercise) and make sure the proper precautions are being taken to ensure the well-being of the Cadets.

“Any resources that they need, I can usually get,” Johnson said. “If there is something unsafe going on, it goes right to the top of the priority list.”

Lt. Col. Pat Johnson talks to medics about cadre injuries this year at LTC. Photo by Bobby Ellis/LTC PAO

Johnson has been a regular at LTC since 2003. He was originally tasked to be the safety officer at the Army ROTC Leader Development and Assessment Course at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. When he heard a position for saftey officer was open at LTC, he thought to himself, “Hell, I’ve got a little experience doing that.” He has held the position ever since.

Johnson admits he truly loves his job at LTC, and it seems his efforts have helped keep Cadets safe. Only two this summer were sent home due to injuries, one having fractured his tibia at the Fitness Factory and the other having dislocated his shoulder at the Teamwork Development Course.

After such situations, Johnson’s job is to coordinate with the Cadets’ companies, medics who were on site and the Cadet to outline in detailed writing what happened. In the case of the fractured tibia, where the Charlie Co. Cadet could not pivot his planted foot while attempting to jump a hurdle, Johnson’s recommendation to make the site safer by putting down more gravel down which could allow for Cadets’ feet to pivot through pebbles rather than twist against the pavement.

Small details are most pertinent to Cadet safety at training, but those small details can have a big impact. Heat remains one of the biggest threats to safety at LTC.

“Especially when it is really hot and nasty out at moderate risk training sites, that is when I try to get out there and make sure they are hydrating, checking the wet bulb and the cadre are doing all the right things,” said Johnson, an assistant professor of military science at Kansas State University.

The Kentucky heat is what keeps Johnson and the medics attentive because heat injuries are preventable with proper hydration and the work/rest guide laid out in the heat injury prevention guide. Should a heat injury be confirmed, Johnson must help figure out the cumulative factors that might have had a hand in the incident, such as what the Cadet was doing the day before or if he or she was on a medication that might have contributed.

“(Johnson) pays a lot of attention to detail, he asks a lot of questions and he knows all of the different data points which come together to find the root cause of the problem,” said Lt. Col. Mary Krupa, who oversees the Reserve medics participating in LTC this summer. “He is very focused on, not only what occurred, but how to prevent it in the future. He is so proactive in his approach to prevention, and that is what it’s all about.”

Unforeseeable injuries such a lightning strike last year that took one Cadet’s life, however, are what Johnson and others in charge of safety look to prevent in the field. In response to that event, Johnson and the other cadre involved in site safety strategically placed defibrillators throughout the training areas at LTC and ensured medics were trained to use them.

“I’m the only one who has the title, but every cadre here is a safety officer,” he said.

Before Cadets set foot on post, cadre perform timed emergency situation rehearsals to help prepare them for incidents that may require an evacuation or hospital visit. After the lightning incident, Johnson said he and the other cadre pay extremely close attention to the details of the severe weather rehearsal on the sites.

“Rehearsals are key,” Johnson said. “If they get that piece right, it is going to do a lot of good as far as when things start rolling.”

Cadre member serves as Cadet advocate in new role

Posted on July 22, 2011 by PAO

By Thomas Gounley
Staff writer

Lt. Col. Richard Ruffin might be best viewed as proof that Cadets at the Leader’s Training Course have a little more power over things than they might originally think.

“It went up the chain, they told us to give them their cell phones back and so they got their cell phones back” said Sgt. 1st Class George Reitz, a drill sergeant with Charlie Company.

Although Cadets in Charlie and Delta companies were originally just allowed to use their cell phones at night on certain days, a recent decision by course commanders made it so they had access to them each night, as Alpha and Bravo Cadets originally did. Ruffin, a quality assurance officer at LTC who serves as the go-between Cadets and course leadership when it comes to their requests, relayed the cell phone complaints.

“That’s a typical example of the process,” Ruffin said of the decision.

Lt. Col. Richard Ruffin talks to Pfc. Andrew Gowen, a medic, about Cadet injuries out at the squad tactical exercise. It is Ruffin's first year at LTC, where he is serving as the quality assurance officer. Photo by Bobby Ellis/LTC PAO

As part of his role, Ruffin meets with Cadets from all companies several times to solicit feedback, and goes to training sites to observe them in action. As the final companies enter the graduation stage, he is trying to determine what could be improved about the course in upcoming years.

“We just collect feedback through a formal process,” he said.

On Tuesday, Ruffin met in small groups with Charlie Cadets as they prepared for their out-briefing that afternoon. Cadets completed a survey on their training, and then Ruffin talked to them about common complaints, from the number of washers and dryers in the barracks (too few) to the intensity of physical training (not hard enough) to frustrating equipment failures.

While he collects the data, Ruffin emphasizes that he doesn’t make the final call.

“Once the command gets the feedback, they make the decision,” he said.

This is his first year working as part of LTC after spending six consecutive summers at the Leader Development and Assessment Course at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., the latest step in a long Army career. Ruffin completed ROTC at Alabama A&M University and joined the Army after graduating in 1979. He served on active duty as an ordnance logistics officer for 21 years, then returned to his alma mater to work with the ROTC program as a contractor.

By surveying all the LTC companies both at the beginning and at the end, Ruffin is in a unique position to see how their perspectives change.

“We’re the ones who find out what’s really happening,” he said.

Notably, Ruffin said many Cadets already planned on contracting when they came to Fort Knox, unlike past years, when many decided to contract midway through the course. It’s a change he attributed to the smaller field of attendees at LTC this year.

“When they came here, they were dead set on contracting,” he said. “The schools are sending people that want to do this.”

Ruffin, who refers to himself as a “regular guy,” has racked up 30 years of service with the Army, as well as 30 years with his wife at Huntsville.

“My claim to fame is simple consistency,” he said.

At land nav, officer shows creative flair

Posted on July 21, 2011 by PAO

Second Lt. Ian Kirst, who commissioned from Xavier University in Ohio, spent his first several weeks at LTC perfecting the land navigation sand table to be a mini-version of the land navigation course. To produce the mock-up, he even ventured onto the course to clip samples from trees to use as replicas of the real thing. Photo by Heather Cortright/ LTC PAO.

By Caitlin VanOverberghe
Staff writer

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Northern Kentucky University and commissioning from Xavier University, 2nd Lt. Ian Kirst never thought his first assignment as an Army officer would be more or less an “art project.”

When he came to the Leader’s Training Course to work as a cadre member, he figured to be a squad tactical officer or work one of the situational training exercise lanes. He was placed with the land navigation committee, and his first task was to create a sand table — a mock-up of the terrain at the site.

“Putting together the sand table was basically like a fifth-grade art project where you take a picture and lay a grid over it, and do one grid at a time,” Kirst said. “Every day, I did something a little different.”

He spent one day laying out the grid he would follow. Another, he painted all the colors and laid out the roads. He built up mounds of sand to represent hills and created dips in the earth. He even lined its edge with Popsicle sticks to signify engineer tape cadre use to show to border the actual course.

In total, the sand table measures 18 feet by 18 feet and was built atop a flat surface at the land navigation site. Usually, it is destroyed after each LTC ends and a new one created at the start of each year. But this year, Kirst’s creation will live an extended life so Reserve unit that will use the site for their training in the next few months.

For years, sand tables have been used to assist in military planning. By duplicating a map or area, Soldiers are given the ability to see a terrain up close before encountering it.

The sand table at the LTC land navigation site helps Cadets do much the same thing. Rather than pointing to every individual’s map, Kirst could show Cadets certain points using the miniature version.

“It was great so the Cadets could really relate to what they were getting into,” said Lt. Col. Michael Wise, the land navigation chief who gave Kirst the model assignment. “They could see the severity of some of the inclines and hills and water areas.”

Kirst worked nearly 14 hours total on the project, changing things almost every day to the point that the model looked completely different at the end from when he was first given the assignment.

He has been told by those who have worked at LTC before that the sand table he produced is the most detailed the course has seen.

“I look at it and know that I could do better,” Kirst said. “But all it is is attention to detail. You just look at things on the map and copy them. It’s not hard to do, it’s just tedious.”

While he’s always been artistic, he had never pursued the skill in any way. Kirst had done similar models before, but nothing of this scale.

“At LDAC (Leader Development and Assessment Course), I did terrain kits for the STX (squad tactical exercise) lanes and I tried to replicate the terrain out there as best I could,” he said. “Those were much smaller and much more simplistic. This was much more in-depth.”

Working at the site has help Kirst hone his own land navigation skills.

“When you teach something, you learn it better yourself,” he said. “Working at a land nav course always improves your abilities. It just reinforces what you already know.”

Deployment experiences of cadre influences past, present Soldiers

Posted on July 18, 2011 by PAO

By Sara Nahrwold
Staff writer

With four deployments, Sgt. 1st Class David Barberet has seen acts of bravery from Soldiers in his 12-year military career. But one Soldier stands out.

Barberet was a new squad leader in Afghanistan in 2005, and then-Spc. Salvatore Giunta was one of his Soldiers.

During one mission, he remembers Giunta saying, “I saw Josh up there, another guy in the same platoon, I thought he had a good rock to hide behind so I was going to go up there and hide behind the rock with him.”

What Giunta did instead was deserving of the Medal of Honor, the first to be awarded to a living Solider since the Vietnam War.

“What he really ended up doing was running up there and shooting a couple Taliban guys and pulling Josh back as they’re trying to drag Josh away,” Barberet said. “And he got recognized for it, and he’s very deserving of it. I’ve actually never seen someone run up there and shoot a couple guys and drag one of their comrades back.”

Soldiers like Giunta inspire Barberet to this day.

“These are the guys I’m leading,” he said. “If they’re going to do it, I have to do it for them, too. You see what that guy does for that guy motivates you and motivates everyone else, reinforcing what they already know — that their buddies will always come get them.”

Besides Giunta’s heroic move, Barberet has seen many other Soldiers do amazing deeds on the battlefield.

“Guys go out of their way for everyone because in the end, all that matters is the guys that are there with you,” he said. “You only care that they’re all coming back, and you’re coming back. That’s it.”

Some purposely put themselves in harm’s way to help their buddy, he said.

Through his deployments and leading Soldiers, he learned how to become a solid leader in the Army.

“I’ve just learned so many little things that you’re not going to see in any book especially with the cultures,” he said. “Anyone can tell you how it is, but you don’t understand until you see it firsthand. Seeing it for about 40 months all together, you just pick up on little things.”

One thing he found changed over the years from his deployments is his patience.

“When I was younger, it was like move faster, get there quick, but now I’ve learned over time you’ve got to let a situation build,” Barberet said. “You have to see the whole picture because if you just run head on into things, that’s when you’re focused on your front but you’re not focused on your left or right. If you let it build just a little bit, you can figure it out and get a better picture.”

As a cadre member at Call of the Wild at the Leader’s Training Course, his main influence is on the newly commissioned second lieutenants serving as fellow cadre members, not the Cadets.

“We get to really focus on these lieutenants and give them advice,” Barberet said. “We help them, show them how it’s done, what they can expect.”

The place he does have influence over Cadets is in the classroom. He teaches military science at the University of Southern Mississippi to third-year ROTC students, getting Cadets ready to attend the Leader Development and Assessment Course.

One second lieutenant at LTC was taught by Barberet as a junior.

“He sticks to regulations and makes sure everything is done the right way,” 2nd Lt. Calvin Wu said. “He’s a constant professional.”

Wu didn’t know how to swim, and Barberet took it upon himself to teach him his senior year of college so he could make it through LTC’s water training sessions, Call of the Wild and combat water survival training.

“I wouldn’t be a lieutenant without him,” he said.

Drill finds different ways to motivate Delta

Posted on July 18, 2011 by PAO

Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Rugg quizzes the members of fourth platoon from Delta Company on the history of the United States. Those who answered a question incorrectly had to do push-ups. Photo by Sammy Jo Hester/ LTC PAO

By Alex Aspacher
Staff writer

Although he has four children of his own at home, Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Rugg agreed to leave his family behind to take on the responsibility of grooming Cadets into potential Soldiers.

Rugg, who has 15 years of Army experience, was stationed at Fort Knox while he was mobilized as a scout from 2004-06. He returned after he was asked earlier this year to serve as a cadre member at the Leader’s Training Course.

Rugg brought with him some of the tools that make him a successful parent, he said. There are similarities between the way he has raised his children and the methods he’s using to motivate the Cadets of Delta Company’s fourth platoon as one of its drill sergeants.

He calls one of those tools the “daddy’s disappointed game,” which he resorts to when yelling and forced physical training doesn’t get the message across.

“Yesterday, the platoon just went to hell in a handcart,” Rugg said. “They started to figure out that we don’t have a lot of traditional control because they’re not really in the Army.”

Cadets are not yet bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and some of them see Rugg’s yelling as the worst punishment he can dish out, he said. Sometimes he and other cadre members enter “whatever mode,” in which they demonstrate apathy and disappointment toward a lack of motivation or success.

“We just started pouting around them, and we noticed a bit of a difference in them today,” Rugg said. “Today they were respectful and quiet, and they were doing what they were supposed to. If we can get them to do that when nobody’s looking, which is integrity, one of the Army Values, then we’ve done our job. Sometimes we have to play that head game … to get them back into the swing of things.”

The other cadre members in Delta Company don’t just approve of that method; they sometimes use it themselves. Sgt. 1st Class Jason Vanderpool, one of the company’s drill sergeants, said Rugg’s instruction and leadership are invaluable, and he can sometimes rely upon him to be the “acting platoon sergeant.”

“He has been a vital asset to this platoon,” Vanderpool said. “When we have to make the brains of this platoon work, he can step in and do it or I can do it, but he’s just as capable as I am. … If I was gone he would be fully capable of running this platoon.”

When Rugg is finished at LTC, he’ll return to his responsibilities as an Army Reservist out of Lexington, Ky., and police officer in the nearby town of Nicholasville. He said he wanted to work in law enforcement ever since he completed basic training.

Rugg, who has been a police officer for nearly 12 years and a SWAT member since 2006, has many stories from that experience. The one he remembers most was the first time he had to assert his authority as an officer, he said.

“I dealt with a guy who was high on methamphetamine and cocaine and was punching out car windows with his bare hands,” he said. “I was the first unit on the scene, and when I got out of the car, he was screaming at people on a balcony.”

The man then turned his attention to Rugg, who drew his weapon.

“He turned and looked at me and said, ‘You’ve got two options. You’re gonna kill me, or let me go,’ ” he said.

After calling for backup, Rugg used his pepper spray and “ended up shooting him right in the mouth.”

The man immediately spit out the pepper spray and replied, “Now you pissed me off,” Rugg said. Now in a “drugged-out frenzy,” the man began violently shaking a truck back-and-forth while Rugg attempted to subdue him with his baton.

Another officer finally arrived, and he stood 6-feet, 10-inches tall. The duo got the suspect on the ground, but he began doing push-ups with both men on his back, Rugg said.

More backup eventually arrived, but not until the man “mule kicked” Rugg and cracked three of his ribs. It took nine officers to finally capture him because of the increased strength and tolerance for pain that can come with methamphetamine use, Rugg said.

“I took a trip to the hospital, and he went to jail,” Rugg said. “The funny part about it was that, a few days later, he showed up at the police department and asked to speak to me. He said that I probably saved his life, because he had been on a three-day methamphetamine and cocaine binge.”

Rugg said the experience both built his confidence and validated his motives for entering law enforcement almost 12 years ago.

“I wouldn’t trade jobs with anybody,” Rugg said. “Being a police officer is very rewarding. It’s not just about writing tickets. You get to help people and catch the bad guys. It’s not because of the adrenaline rush or anything like that. It’s because I feel like I’m making a difference.”