A night to remember

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Welcome back, Pointers!

Every year during the fall semester UW-Stevens Point ROTC holds an event called Dining In/Warrior Night. This night is one of the best and most fun nights that ROTC is associated with. There are games, class videos, awards, grog, and of course, dinner.

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CDT Vanderloop calling the mess to order.

Dining In goes a little something like this: We get there and have about a half hour of social hour where we go around get to know all of our honorary guests. After we are asked to take our seats, the mess president (our Cadet Lieutenant Colonel CDT Vanderloop) says a few ceremonial words to kick off the night. Soon after, the wonderful concoction of grog is created by the grog master (Cadet Captain CDT Bandfield).

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The MSIII (junior) class about to sample the “delicious” grog.
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CDT Schultz adding in the “sweat and tears” of the Cadets to the grog.

The grog is an interesting, and usually disgusting, type of beverage. The grog master and all of the other seniors add in ingredients that symbolize the obstacles cadets must go through in order to be successful. This year some of the ingredients included an unknown blue liquid to represent the blue skies we never get to see because we are always at PT before the sun even rises, cool whip to represent the cold winters we endure and get through together, a brown sugar type substance (I still don’t really know what it was, but my best guess is brown sugar) to represent all of the dirt and mud our uniforms will go through in order to be successful, and get this, there was a sock soaked in some type of liquid added as well to represent the sweat and tears that are shed while in ROTC.

Once all the ingredients have all been mixed in, every class is invited up to taste the wonderful delicacy that is the grog. I must say, it was not as bad as you would think.

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After drinking the grog, per tradition, we turn the cup upside down over our heads to prove that it’s empty … I guess mine wasn’t quite empty.

After the grog, dinner is served and class videos are played. This is one of the best parts of Dining In. Each class makes a video making fun of the class ahead of them. So, I’m a junior so my class and I made a video making fun of the seniors. Our video this year was a spin-off of “Forrest Gump.” We did the opening bus scene where Forrest is confronted with the dilemma of not having a place to sit on the bus. Each of the seniors said something along the lines of, “You can’t sit here” and then the film broke off into little skits for each senior making fun of them for something. It went over pretty well.

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CDT Lewis participating in the NERF gun challenge.

rilee20151112aAfter the videos were done and the food was eaten, the games began. There were four different games that we all went around to: A NERF shooting range, Pictionary, a fun fact sheet where we had to match a fun fact to a cadet, and finally a modified version of pong.

The winners of each rotation were accounted for and the overall winner at the end of the night won a big ol’ sense of pride and accomplishment.

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CDT Irish and me shaking hands after he presented me with my gift and awarded me “Outstanding Ranger” for 2015.

After the games there was a ceremony to recognize the Ranger Challenge team. During this time, the captain of the team, CDT Irish, explains what we all did and then he hands out small gag gifts to each of the participants based off of something that happened during Ranger Challenge. For example, CDT Irish said that I was like the mother of the group, always making sure that everyone had everything they needed and that no one was hurt, so he got me a little plastic doctors set.

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CDT Ulrich getting his denture cream and 5-Hour Energy from CDT Irish.

Another example is CDT Ulrich. He is prior service (Navy), married, and a few years older than all of us. He was the oldest guy on the team, so we all joked around the whole weekend about if his joints were holding up, you know, typical old people stuff. CDT Irish got him denture cream and a 5-hour energy just in case his old self felt a little tired. Along with CDT Irish getting us presents, CDT Dombeck and I surprised him, our coach CDT Foster, and SFC Smith with presents. We got CDT Irish and CDT Foster a variety of gifts that all symbolized how appreciative we were of all of their support and help along the way. SFC Smith’s gift, however, was a little different.

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SFC Smith and me after I presented him with his gift as a token of appreciation for all of his dedication and hard work.

This is SFC Smith’s last ever Ranger Challenge with the UWSP ROTC Pointer Battalion, so we thought we would make it special. We got him a shadowbox complete with a multitude of things representing how amazing of a leader he is and how appreciative we are of him and all his efforts. The shadowbox had things like a picture of all of the team members so that he never forgets our smiling faces, keys because he not only literally drove us everywhere we needed to go, but also drove us in motivation, a number 4 for him assisting us in the highest ever placing Ranger Challenge has ever placed in UWSP history (4th place), and a quote that said “Save the Best for Last” suggesting that we are the best Ranger Challenge team he’s ever been a part of and the last. I think he really liked it. He really means a lot to our battalion so he deserves any and every recognition he can get.

After the Ranger Challenge ceremony, CDT Vanderloop closed the mess and we were released to go home. It was a blast and I look forward to my last Dining In next year. I cannot wait to see what my class comes up with next year, and what the classes below me have in store. One more year in the books, one more to go.

Until next time! Pointers Lead the Way!
Cadet Newell

Rilee Newell is a cadet in the UW-Stevens Point ROTC program. She is majoring in sociology with an emphasis in deviance and social control with minors in military science and peace studies.