By Henry Nickerson | Associate Editor
On the weekend of February 24th, a Battalion consisting of Roger Williams University, Rhode Island University, and Salve Regina University contracted ROTC cadets drove to URI’s Alton Jones campus to participate in the fourth annual “Frozen Ram”. The exercise is meant to provide contracted ROTC cadets with the most realistic portrayal of combat as possible. Taking place in the woods outside of the Alton Jones campus, the multi-school battalion was separated into two platoons; The Special Purpose Forces and the U.S. Forces. The teams were given two missions to complete over the weekend, which featured simulated combat with M16 rifles and simulator bullets. The bullets are meant to provide the sensation of being shot without the wound.
Contracted cadet, Freshman MS1 Timothy Bilello, gave account of the intense weekend.
Bilello, a psychology major and 4-Year National Scholarship winner, got to experience the Frozen Ram for the first time as a member of the Special Purpose Forces. “I heard from a lot of older cadets how hard the weekend was going to be, but it was hard for reasons I didn’t expect,” said Bilello. After the battalion arrived at URI, each squad broke up and consolidated with a team of National Guards. After a night of sleeping in the dorms, the cadets were woken up Saturday morning at the crack of dawn for a three-mile ruck to the point at which they would begin the first exercise. “It was a lot of organizing and waiting,” Bilello recalled. “By the end of all the preparation, you aren’t really in the fighting mood.” However, Bilello and his squad were able to get in the mood, completing the first mission as quickly as it had started. The Special Forces objective for the first exercise was to seize a fake village (fully furnished with high school ROTC recruits acting as civilians), and defend it from the U.S. Forces. After strategically placing claymores around their base, along with a slight up-hill advantage, the Special Purpose Forces took down the U.S. Forces within minutes.
After the mission concluded, the cadets were faced with perhaps the hardest task of their weekend; sleeping outside in the middle of Winter. “Oh, it sucked,” remarked Bilello, “It was the only part of the weekend that put my faith in wanting to do ROTC to the test. But after hours of being cold and tired, there would be moments that everyone worked together and achieved a goal. Those were the times I was reminded why I wanted to do ROTC in the first place.”
Sunday’s mission was not successful for the Special Purpose Forces or the U.S. Forces due to a mix-up in instructions. The platoons were given a location at which they were to find and defend a weapons cache, but they were given false coordinates, so combat never ensued. “Me and my partner arrived at the cache and waited there for a long time. Eventually they called off the mission. It goes to show how much planning is required for this type of thing,” said Bilello.
The battalions returned to their respective schools Sunday night, some with battle scars and some just down-right freezing. “Words cannot describe how good that shower felt after I got back to my room,” said Bilello.
