The Dutch Navy is a very small with only eight conventional ships, four submarines, ten mine hunters, four support ships and various others; with a grand total of 55. The entire Navy is based out of one single town in the Northern part of the country and as such provides for an organization that is rather close-knit. The people of the Netherlands are very accommodating, personable and willing to help out in any way possible.

Some of her experiences included, but were not limited to: learning to weld, driving a rescue boat, riding in a landing craft, changing pipes and oil filters on the diesel engines, standing watches in the technical center and on the bridge, participating in search and rescue operations and assisting various departments with their duties. The culmination of this experience provided an amazing opportunity for such a young officer-to-be to learn about numerous aspects of Naval operations and to grow in her ability to lead.
When asked what she thought about this experience MIDN Lustgraaf said, “Being onboard the HNLMS Rotterdam was a great opportunity to experience the different culture of the Dutch and for young ROTC members like me to be given the opportunity to explore how a foreign Navy runs. I was extremely blessed to be given this once-in-a-lifetime chance and I am extremely happy that I was able to go!”

Today I looked into a man’s eyes that had been in the same seat as me, only 59 years ago. It was 1950, the President was Harry Truman and the New York Yankees had just started their season which would win them the World Series. George Tanner was the Battalion Commanding Officer of the University of Idaho NROTC unit which was only three years old. His class was small, consisting of only one other member but the commitments were the same. He had been on three summer cruises on three separate ships, (USS Iowa, USS Princeton, USS Hamner), taking him from San Diego, to Hawaii, to the Galapagos, to Panama and back. Upon his graduation, ENS Tanner received orders to report to the USS Boxer to start his career then on to COMNAV Far East Tokyo where he finished up his commitment. At this point, Mr. Tanner decided to chase his dream and applied to medical school in Salt Lake. He was accepted, moved and eventually met the woman to whom he wed. Dr Tanner still lives in Salt Lake but was in the Moscow area with his daughter on their way to visit his sister in Seattle when he stopped in to check on the Unit. As Mr. Tanner and his daughter left the building, I couldn’t help but think about all the events that have happened in front of his eyes since he was the Battalion Commanding Officer and wonder, what will happen in front of mine.

-OC Goss (BNCO 2009)

The first ceremony was for POW/MIA Appreciation Day held on September 18, 2009, in which 24 members from the NROTC battalion stood in formation to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country.  The formation was led by the Battalion Executive Officer, Midshipman Amy Link, and Sergeant Scott Suess participated in a joint color guard.  The ceremony included a speech from the President of the University of Idaho as well as a speech from guest speaker Colonel Robert Wakefield.  Everyone in attendance was invited to a reception after completion of the ceremony.

On September 19, 2009, members of the battalion participated in a ceremony during the opening ceremony at the first Vandals home football game.  During the opening ceremony, Navy, Marine, Air Force and Army personnel marched out to the center of the football field while carrying a large American flag.  The participants unfurled the flag as the National Anthem began and recovered the flag at the conclusion of the Anthem.  The flag carriers marched off the field and back down the tunnel as they received the cheers from the home crowd after the impressive pre-game display.

Navy students tossed spinning rifles back and forth in a choreographed Z as audience members sat back in silence at the annual Northwest Navy competition hosted by the U during the weekend.

The U’s Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps students received high marks at the rifle and pistol matches Saturday, but at the end of the day, the University of Idaho teamed with Washington State University and took home the overall trophy for the day’s events.

“I loved the fact that when the soldiers, sailors and Marines were out there really exerting themselves, it didn’t matter what school they were for, people were cheering them on,” said Capt. Phillip Kessler, commanding officer of the U’s unit. “I think that really exemplifies the spirit of the competition.”

The competition provided an opportunity for NROTC students from the U, Oregon State University, the University of Washington, the University of Idaho and Washington State University to demonstrate their teamwork capabilities and gave individual students the opportunity to showcase their talents and skills.

Military students participated in 11 events Saturday, including team sports such as basketball and soccer, an academic biathlon and military-specific competitions.

Many participants were excited to compete in the Combat Fitness Test, new to the competition this year. The CFT is a new part of the Marine Corps physical fitness test and consists of three segments, including an 880-yard run, lifting 30-pound ammunition cans from their chins straight up with as many repetitions as possible in two minutes and a 300-yard shuttle run. The shuttle run included low and high crawls, carrying or dragging a buddy, ammunition resupply, grenade throwing and agility running.

Despite the U’s efforts, the University of Washington took home the trophy for the new event.

Students and officers considered the drill competition the most important event because commanding and executive officers look for the incorporated skills in their students. Participants in the regulation drill competition must stand stock-still for long periods of time while officers observe how soldiers conduct themselves, inspecting each detail of the soldier’s appearance from hair to pant length, said Jeff Horgan, a freshman in business at the University of Idaho. Participants also have to answer various military questions about general orders and codes of conduct.

“You have the stress of the drill instructors walking around you, and you hear your buddies next to you getting inspected and the adrenaline starts pumping so it gets harder to maintain your bearings,” Horgan said. After inspection, the groups march in formation, testing their ability to follow shouted direction from a team leader.

Bryce Christensen, a sophomore in economics at the U, participated in last year’s Northwest Navy competition at Oregon State University. He said all the events were held in an indoor football arena, which provided more room than the HPER east gym, where the drill events were held this year.

“Here, a lot of (the events) are indoors, but it’s relatively the same. We try to keep it pretty much the same event, the same style, the same rules,” said Christensen, who competed in the volleyball tournament early Saturday morning. “We could afford to make a mistake at Oregon State, but here, you call it on the wrong foot, you’re going to go out of bounds and so it’s all about timing. The person in charge has to know when to make the call, and has to do it quick. He doesn’t have a lot of time to mess around.”

Besides being a competition, the Northwest Navy event is an opportunity for students to form organizational skills as future officers in the Navy or Marine Corps, and to increase camaraderie between the schools, said 2nd Lt. Isaac Goodrich, the coordinator for this year’s competition.

“It’s also an opportunity for the midshipmen to interact with active duty and midshipmen from other units, so they can understand that they’re not alone here,” Goodrich said. “Salt Lake’s pretty isolated, so it’s good for them to see other people doing the same thing that they’re doing.”

The U has the smallest NROTC unit of the four that competed, with only 59 members. It partnered with the Junior Naval ROTC from West High School, who helped with scoring, set-up and preparing meals.

For listings of all events and final scores, visit www.nrotc.utah.edu/nwn/index.html.

k.mather@chronicle.utah.edu

by: Ken Kingery -Uidaho Website

While exploring rainforests in Olympic National Park, waterfalls in Hawaii and lakes in Glacier National Park, Liam Dorney always wondered what forces and processes were acting behind the beautiful scenes. Now, after three years at the University of Idaho earning both a bachelor’s and master’s in geology, he knows. Dorney was born in Denver but soon moved to Calgary, Alberta. Always eager to return to the United States, he enlisted in the Navy directly out of high school in 1997. His nine-year career took him from New York to Bremerton to San Diego and Hawaii, while performing duties ranging from maintenance on aircraft carrier nuclear power generators to oversight of retrofitting fast attack submarines. When he learned about the Navy’s Seamen to Admirals program that provides enlisted standouts an annual $10,000 for three years to go to college, he jumped at the opportunity. “The University of Idaho is what I call the best sleeper university in the country; a diamond in the rough” says Dorney, who chose Idaho over four other institutions of higher learning. “And both the geology department and Navy ROTC program are leaps and bounds ahead of most others.” While stationed at Pearl Harbor, Dorney took several college courses at night on top of a 60-hour work week, all while making time for his wife and three children. The courses gave him a better shot at the scholarship, which he eventually earned. It is an opportunity he has not wasted. While at the University of Idaho, Dorney met Professor Judy Parrish and learned of a summer research opportunity studying carbonate mounds at the Navajo Sandstone formation in Utah. Dorney and Parrish hope the mounds will reveal which ancient environmental processes caused a system of lakes to suddenly form for hundreds of years in the middle of a desert that was larger than the Sahara. While in the field, Dorney discovered his experience could be applied toward a graduate degree. Not one to back down from a challenge, he applied and was accepted to a seven-week field study of the North Anatolian Fault located in western Turkey later that same summer, which would earn him six more credit hours in the field, which are necessary to complete his undergraduate degree. “The experience I gained was irreplaceable and priceless,” says Dorney. “Students from the University of Idaho were so much further ahead than other students there because the faculty here are among the country’s best. They really want to expose you to the geology, to get out and see it instead of spending all your time in a book.” Dorney has spent the past year balancing both undergraduate and graduate courses, ROTC responsibilities, geology field trips and his family that now includes four children. He claims his two oldest are looking forward to returning to Moscow and, “Getting that legacy going.” Even though his three years is technically up, the Navy is allowing him to remain in school for the summer to complete his graduate degree. Afterwards, Dorney will be stationed in Augusta, Ga., where he will be deployed with various aircraft carriers and submarines to gather intelligence using the Arabic skills he acquired in night school in Hawaii. Meanwhile, he plans to attend local geology conferences regularly and perhaps even begin work on his doctorate at the nearby University of South Carolina. “I’ve accomplished a lot, but I hope to do more and more,” says Dorney. “But everything I’ve accomplished here at the University of Idaho could not have been done without the support of Captain Scott Rider and the geology faculty, especially Mickey Gunter and Judy Parrish. In an accelerated program, you don’t always hit the classes you need when you can fit them in your schedule, and everyone has gone out of their way to accommodate my schedule so I can graduate in three years.”

In order to spread the word of what is happening at the University of Idaho and Washington State University NRTOC Unit Located in Moscow Idaho, we have created the first online NROTC newsletter available to the public. Here you will find information about the current and past staff, graduated students, news updates, and more. Stay tuned for further updates that are soon to come and don’t forget to visit our main site at : navy.uidaho.edu

Again, Welcome!

-OC Adams