Tough indoctrination for companies

Mountain Cold Weather and Ranger Company had the toughest indoctrination ever held at Norwich University this year, according to several company members.

"This year it started out that you needed to pass a physical fitness test and if you failed you were cut immediately, that was different; last year was just a diagnostic at beginning of indoc and only had to pass it at end of indoc," said Ryan Van Noordt who is a ranger company cat eye.

Van Noordt, 20, a junior political science major form Lynchburg, Va., said, "There were between 75 to 80 candidates that went out for Ranger Company this year and they are now down to about 37 and expect 20 to 30 will make rangers."

Ranger Company is designed for Army cadets to get prepared for the Leadership Development and Assessment Course also known as LDAC and they are tested on their skills.

Cadets in Ranger Company receive Cat Eyes. The company is split into two platoons: One trains the candidates and the other is possibly going to be working with Mountain Cold Weather Company this year, according to Van Noordt.

The Mountain Cold Weather Company trains three times a week.

Andrew Mascola, 20, a junior mechanical engineering major from Atkins N.H., said, "MCW trains cadets for mountain warfare and cold weather survival as well as mountaineering techniques."

One day of training teaches freshmen and sophomores the basics of mountain and cold weather fighting. The other two days of training are platoon training days where they conduct training that supports their missions.

One major reason for the tougher indoctrination was that freshmen were not allowed to go out for Simper Fi Society, leaving the Mountain Cold Weather and Rangers the only options. Both special units make indoctrination difficult to weed out the people out who didn't want to be there, said Van Noordt.

According to Mascola, Mountain Cold Weather Company has never had indoctrination until this year. With a massive increase of rooks, the company needed to reduce the number of people.

Those who train cadets in MCW need to earn a black hat, which involves monthlong training.

The trainers were 11 Rescue Team members and eight squad leaders.

Mountain Cold Weather Rescue Team has eight black hats, all juniors and seniors. Rescue Team conducts search and rescue operations at any time of year under any climatic condition, according to Matt McClellan, who is the Rescue Team executive officer.

Simon Frederick Hugh, 20, international studies major from Miami, Fla., said, "As a ranger candidate (he) basically went through a smoke show and did physical training for two weeks straight as part of indoc."

Hugh compared his experience as a candidate to his experience this past summer as a candidate at air assault school. He mentioned that air assault would conduct a lot of physical training, but Ranger indoc was physically harder then air assault.

Ranger Company started with 90 candidates and now they are down to about 20, according to Hugh.

According to Ranger Company candidates who are juniors, the number one reason why they are doing Rangers is to prepare for LDAC. Juniors who go through rangers learn a lot of skills and tactics that will be useful at LDAC and in an Army career.

Zachary Shultis, 20, history major from Longvalley, N.J., said, "As a candidate in MCW indoc (I) would go through two hours a day of training."  They would do a lot of physical training and knowledge and knot tying as well.

Being a candidate for the first-ever indoctrination of Mountain Cold Weather was "pretty cool," said Shultis. He enjoyed his experience and wants to be able to learn some cool cold weather survival and knot-tying.