Cadet chases Chinook dreams

Army News Service

FORT KNOX, Kentucky - As the sun beats down and the humidity makes her uniform stick to her skin, the cadet reviews the protective gear steps in her head. The instructor checks her gas mask to make sure the seal is tight and waves her into the gas chamber. As the clock ticks down, she and her fellow cadets take off their masks and feel the burn of tear gas in their eyes, throat and nose. She leads her team through the door and into the fresh air.

Cadet Rosalyn Page honed her leadership skills while going through the gas chamber; going through Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear training, or CBRN; land navigation; first aid; basic rifle marksmanship; and hand grenade during Cadet Summer Training Advanced Camp here.

Her goal is to become a Chinook pilot.

"The Chinook has some of the most incredible systems I've ever seen in an aircraft," said Cadet Rosalyn Page, who's a senior at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

During a summer internship, she spoke with pilots who performed humanitarian relief missions in Guatemala and helped with forest fires in Pennsylvania.

"I'm excited by the capabilities, both in combat and in domestic theaters that the Chinook provides," she said. "I absolutely love the community of the Chinook pilots. They are so knowledgeable, and the aircraft they fly is extremely advanced."

Page is seeking a bachelor's degree in aviation management with a minor in Chinese.

Total force

Page said she joined the Army because her father has been enlisted in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard for 27 years in infantry and as a recruiter.

"My entire life, I've had that military presence because of him," she said. "It's a great way to get my degree paid to pursue higher study and to follow his footsteps of being in the military."

While her dad didn't recruit her, she did go to enlisted basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri when she was 17, and then switched over to ROTC in college to become an officer.

I'm excited to travel more in the military, she said.

"I absolutely love to travel," Page said. "ROTC has given me the opportunity to go to Taiwan a few times to study Chinese for language proficiency, and I can't wait to travel with the military."

Her grandfather served in Army airborne in World War II, one uncle currently serves in the Army and the other uncle serves in the Navy.

Leadership training

Page attended Cadet Summer Training, or CST, the largest annual training event in the Army, at Fort Knox, in July. More than 8,000 Army ROTC cadets from across the country routinely attend Army ROTC Basic or Advanced Camp training every summer here.

She attended Advanced Camp, where she received senior leader briefs, took the Army Combat Fitness Test, went through the Field Leaders' Reaction Course, rappel tower, land navigation, first aid, basic rifle marksmanship, hand grenade, chemical warfare training, a field training exercise, peer reviews, and a 12-mile road march.

She said her favorite part of the course was the Field Leaders' Reaction Course.

"It was the first time as our squad, all nine of us had to work together and for quite a bit of it, we couldn't talk," Page said. "We were developing nonverbal cues, getting to know each other's strengths and weaknesses. We failed a few times but by the end of it, we were working well together and becoming better leaders."

She said having scenario-based leadership training is eye opening.

"It's one thing to be in school and take leadership classes but it's quite another when you're seeing it firsthand. This is how it's going to be in the real world. We're developing our critical thinking skills," she said. "When you have other people relying on you, this is the first time we're in the field, running the lanes, and there's eight other people relying on me to do my job. If I'm the platoon leader, there's 40 other people relying on me to do the job.

"Even though I know what to do in the classroom, this is the first time we get that hands-on experience and knowing what to do, relying on other people that we don't know. We have to trust they know how to do the job. They're trusting we know how to do our job," she said. "We have to trust each other."

Page said as a Chinook pilot, she would have 30 people relying on her to do her job and if she were downrange, she would be taking care of people in the field.

She said programs like this are essential.

"They've truly developed a special program that allows thousands of cadets from all over the country to learn to become the best officers who are going to be the next generation of leadership of the Army," Page said. "We're building important professional networking relationships here."

Sports

In high school, she played basketball, and softball and ran track and field. In college, she runs track and field and plays rugby. She's competed at regionals for track and field and competed at nationals for rugby.

Page said playing sports both in high school and college helped her learn to follow and lead.

"Being a leader is also learning how to be led," she said. "On the rugby field, you're not always going to be the leader of the pack or pod. I'm learning how to work with others, how to take cues from the coach, from other players and work well with them to support the team."

She said athletes learn followership and how to take constructive criticism.

"You learn how to build yourself up, to build your team up, to work on the skills to make yourself better and how that plays into the team goal and objective," Page said. "As a second lieutenant, I'm learning how to be led before I start leading."

She said it's not just about the mission objective but about the people as well.

"Take care of your people, and they'll take care of the mission," she said. "Everyone joins the military for different reasons. Everyone has a different background. We're all here to protect our country."

Whether it's competing in a rugby national championship or getting an Army fitness test score, Page is driven and can't wait to be an Army officer.

"What drives me is my loved ones, my family, following the footsteps of my father and the generations before me who've served," she said. "I'd love to continue the legacy and protect the fight for the ones I love."

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