New GMC cadets experience military camp in Milledgeville

Published 3:30 pm Saturday, August 15, 2020

The COVID-19 global pandemic has affected everything this year, including military summer camp for the new cadets at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville.

Through the years, cadets have gained experience during military field exercises at Fort Knox in Kentucky, but due to the virus, the summer cadet training program was canceled. Maj. Gen. John Evans, who heads the Army Cadet Command, cited health and safety of the cadets, as well as cadre, and civilians as the reason for the decision.

Despite the cancelation of the summer camp, ranking members of the Georgia National Guard and officials at GMC found another way to introduce new cadets to the experiences of a military form of life in the field.

They didn’t have to look very far.

Fortunately, the school has property near the entrance of Bartram Forest, located off Carl Vinson Road in Baldwin County, and for the past two weeks, military field exercises have been conducted there, as well as in the classroom.

Capt. Jared Smith, who serves active-duty with the Georgia Army National Guard, said advanced camps and basic camps were moved to host institutions across the country. Smith, who is currently stationed at GMC, is assigned to the school’s science department where he works as an assistant professor of military science.

Smith, a 2007 graduate of GMC, is also an attachment commander for the Georgia Officers Training Site with the Georgia Guard and a liaison officer between the Georgia National Guard and GMC. 

“So, what we did here at Georgia Military College is we facilitated an advance camp and basic camp, also known as Agile Leader,” Smith said, after leading the cadets on a military outing Wednesday afternoon where temperatures sweltered into the mid-90s. “We’ve been conducting a basic camp where we have a number of cadets on ground with a number of cadre from Virginia Military Institute (VMI), the University of North Georgia, the Georgia Army National Guard, along with our drill sergeants.”

Smith said cadets have undergone classroom instruction, as well as propel towers, and a seven-day field exercise.

During field exercises Wednesday afternoon, the young cadets were involved in helicopter operations.

“We provided orientation flights, etc.,” Smith said.

Earlier in the day Wednesday, cadets were taken on buses from the GMC campus in downtown Milledgeville to the Baldwin County Regional Airport where they boarded helicopters for another learning experience.

For many of them, it was their first helicopter flying experience.

Jonathan Bradley, an 18-year-old recent graduate of GMC Prep lives in Milledgeville with his parents.

“It’s been pretty fun,” Bradley said of the summer military camp. “It’s been more fun out in the field. The training has been fun and the classes have been kinda of interesting.”

Bradley, who plans to join the Georgia National Guard, said he was considering going into either artillery or aviation.

“I think either one of those fields would be a lot of fun and interesting,” Bradley said. “This camp has really opened my eyes up a lot about a lot of different things.”

 Bradley said he also enjoyed meeting other cadets and becoming friends.

“I’ve met a lot of people,” Bradley said, noting there was not one cadet in his squad who hailed from Georgia. “As far as I know I was one of only a few from here in Georgia who attended the camp.”

Bradley, who aspires to become a high school principal someday, said he hoped to gain more discipline through the camp experience.

“Discipline has been a problem for me all of my life,” Bradley admitted. “But I feel like I’ve come a long way with my discipline weakness in the last couple of weeks.”

Sgt. Maj. Dean Welch, who is with the active component of the Army and duties at GMC with its ROTC program, said one of the fascinating things about this year’s summer camp was that it started out with 49 cadets, and many of them had much experience. He said many of them were never involved in JROTC programs.

Bradley was one of the exceptions.

“We found some that adapted well and we found some that said, ‘Hey, this isn’t me,’” Welch said. “So, we lost a couple of kids who decided that this wasn’t what they wanted to do.”

Welch said such was understandable in some instances.

“We’re not asking them to commit to anything right now, just experience a little of what being a soldier would be all about,” Welch said.

Over the years, there have been cadets who have gone through the camp and decided they liked the military, but they didn’t want to become an officer, Welch said.

He said the ROTC was specifically designed to make officers out of cadets.

“The kids in this program are designed to make officers, leaders of men and women, and sons and daughters of America,” Welch said. “We’re looking for them to think on their feet and to make decisions. It’s all a gradual process, and these cadets have two years in which to go through this program and then commission at the end of the second year.”

Once that happens, with a bachelor’s degree in hand, then the Army places them into an officer leadership course before eventually sending them into the active component or the National Guard if that is what they desire.

“This is just the first step in a four or five and a half year process,” Welch said. 

Smith said the military summer camp exercises that began July 29 will conclude this Sunday.

“We’ve had great exercise,” Smith told The Union-Recorder after three helicopters landed in a field Wednesday not far from the Georgia Department of Driver Services office.

Asked what he hopes cadets will take away from this year’s military summer camp, Smith didn’t hesitate to reply.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about them identifying themselves as leaders, what their limitations are, and being able to build on them in the future to make them more successful,” Smith said.

The cadets involved in the GMC summer camp were all recent graduates from high schools across the country.

“For most of them, this was their very first military exposure to anything,” Smith said. “We put stresses on them, and put them in different leadership positions so they could identify where their strengths and weaknesses are.”

Smith said ultimately, throughout the next couple of years, those strengths and weaknesses will be identified.

“We will then take them and mold them so that when they do commission as a guard or military officer after two years. They can then go on and complete their degree in the next two years at another institution. They are then ready to get into the formation of becoming soldiers,” Smith said. 

He said for the cadets interested in pursuing a military career, the experience has tremendous benefits.

“This serves as their base foundation for the next two years.”