WSU’s Army ROTC battalion sent four cadets to Army airborne school, one to Army Ranger school, and 22 cadets to summer camp at Fort Riley, Kansas, during the summer.

Cadet Dale Harber spent 9 weeks at the Army Ranger school learning rappelling (a mountain-climbing technique), small unit tactics, guerrilla warfare, and counter-insurgency techniques.

Asked about his Ranger training experiences, Harber said he “learned there were many things I could that I thought I couldn’t do, or was afraid to do before.”

Four senior cadets, Dave Cook, Al Martinez, Jack Weiss and Clyde Vasey spent three weeks at the Army Airborne school at the Army Airborne school at Fort Benning, Georgia, in addition to their six weeks at Fort Riley.

Clyde Vasey came back with some very definite feelings towards parachuting.

“The first jump I made I was the first man out of the aircraft,” said Vasey. “You stand in the door for 15 or 20 seconds listening to the loudest noise you’ve ever heard, and watch the ground shooting by. You really have second thoughts about jumping out.”

“When you do jump,” Vasey related, “the blast of air picks you up and throws you sideways. In a few seconds, after the chute has opened, it gets completely quiet and you notice the fantastic green of the Alabama landscape you’re jumping into. It has to be the most outstanding feeling in the world.”

Twenty-two cadets from WSU participated in the Fort Riley six-week summer camp where they underwent a rigorous physical training program, studied map-reading, unit tactics, and became thoroughly acquainted with Army life.