Focused Training and Phased Foundations
By Deputy Commandant of Cadets Lt. Col. Travis Sheets, '05, U.S. Air Force (retired) and Katie Mallory, '03, Communications Director
In late April this year, with New Cadet Week and the arrival of the Class of 2026 just a few months away, commanders and cadre members for this fall were chosen. Past COVID restrictions impacted the training cycle for both classes, so with an influx of new staff members and the unique challenge of stepping past a pandemic, it was a good opportunity to make a few changes to cadet training.
The first substantial change: a pre-Cadre Week online summer training course for commanders and cadre. Corps of Cadets staff members collaborated to create the required online course covering topics ranging from bystander intervention and sexual assault prevention to FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and personally identifiable information policy compliance. Commanders were also required to complete Mental Health First Aid, a daylong course that teaches participants how to identify and support someone advancing toward a mental health or substance abuse crisis.
Cadre and commanders also participated in discussion boards on articles about hazing prevention and how to create positive cultural shifts. In their required sexual assault prevention training, which was adapted from U.S. Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office guidance, cadets learned how to discuss sexual assault prevention with those under their command and debated ways to apply those principles as cadet leaders.
"The intent of the course was to get our cadet leaders into the source documents as much as possible. The course was also a method for Corps staff to know where there are holes in the training or identify areas where we need to exert more time and energy,” said 2nd Battalion’s senior enlisted advisor, retired U.S. Navy Command Master Chief Richard Curtis Jr.
With the required course underway, cadets were able to move back to campus for the second part of their training: Cadre Week.
While portions of Cadre Week are used to polish marching skills and cadence calling, the same hard-hitting topics from the mandatory summer online course continued once cadets reached campus. Partners from University Legal and Student Conduct visited Upper Quad to further the conversation on hazing prevention. Hokie Wellness (a campus partner based in the Division of Student Affairs), in collaboration with Women's Center staff and Corps community members, conducted an additional sexual violence prevention training that was fine-tuned for a military audience, complete with breakout sessions and guided discussions.
“The programming that Hokie Wellness created for the cadre was a combination of best practices in sexual violence prevention, bystander intervention, and our stakeholder model. Our goal was to create programming that was tailored specifically to the needs of our cadre and Corps students,” said Chelsea Cleary, Hokie Wellness’ sexual violence prevention specialist.
According to exit surveys from the training, 94 percent of cadre members reported that they felt better equipped to talk about sexual violence prevention in their units after the presentation.
“The training was very successful thanks to our former and current cadre members’ assistance in facilitating the training with their colleagues. As a trainer, seeing how current cadre members were able to connect with the material because someone from their community was involved in sharing that material with them was so inspiring,” Cleary said.
The alarming rise in nationwide suicide rates and increased mental health stigma were not ignored when tailoring cadre training. At the request of the Corps staff, Hokie Wellness brought to Cadre Week its Helping Friends in Distress workshop that taught cadre members to identify escalating levels of stress, from homesickness experienced by new cadets to suicidal ideation crises. Throughout New Cadet Week, cadet leaders were challenged to know when to toe the line on strict discipline or take a concerned approach with a new cadet in distress.
Corps staff and cadets rounded out the on-campus week of training with small group discussions on gender equality amongst cadre, review of the Corps of Cadets regulations manual, basic first aid, and the cadet honor code.
The training schedule intentionally took a broad approach to societal issues this year while focusing on cadre leadership development with a heavy nod to team building. The intent of the training was for cadre to share skills with new cadets beyond those solely military in nature and to guide the newest members of the Corps to focus on teamwork and service to others. Mental health was heavily hit in the curriculum to encourage cadets to tune into others around them in the hope of erasing mental health stigma. Sexual violence prevention and bystander intervention taught cadets to look out for one another and enforce the importance of setting an appropriate climate. Even military drill – the most visible cadet training on campus - had a purpose in leadership instruction: to teach discipline and followership as the first steps toward being a successful leader.
Though New Cadet Week is their busiest time, the cadre maintain their trainer role for the first six weeks of the semester, known as Red Phase. Cadet commanders serve in their role for the whole semester, while also serving as Student Leaders (formerly known as residential advisors) in the newly created Residential Well-Being model that now separates residential experiences from Housing. The dual role of cadet commander and Student Leader doubles the training – cadet commanders are required to complete Residential WellBeing Student Leader training as well as Cadre Week. For Cadet Michael Stanley, a senior majoring in building construction and Golf Company commander, Cadre Week prepared him for the challenge of leading during New Cadet Week and the school year.
“The training during Cadre Week has made me more comfortable going into New Cadet Week in my role of company commander. I have more confidence in myself, and I am more confident in my team knowing that they’ve completed this training. I know that we can address whatever may come up during cadet training and the semester. We are ready,” said Stanley.
Their Cadre Week training complete, cadet leaders welcomed 441 new cadets to Upper Quad on August 11.
The week was demanding by design with early morning wakeups and days filled with drill, briefings, physical challenges at the obstacle course and rappel tower, basic cadet instructions, and plenty of time getting to know the Guidon. New this year to the schedule: Hokies on Track sessions, which were incorporated as part of the university’s new Weeks of Welcome, which took the place of summer orientation. At the end of the week, new cadets demonstrated their blossoming skills during the New Cadet Parade on Thursday, August 18, and then headed into a weekend of oncampus Weeks of Welcome events run by Student Affairs.
Cadre Week and New Cadet Week were over, but training was not. Ahead of the Class of 2026 are three phases of training: Red Phase, White Phase, and Blue Phase, a gradual building process to transform first-year cadets into sophomore cadet leaders.
Red Phase began with the first day of classes. Six weeks of college instruction, formation, football games, and cadet life mingled together as the cadre maintained their focus on polishing basic cadet skills in their first-year cadets during on-line training sessions and weekend training events. Symbolically, the end of Red Phase is marked by the completion of first half of the Caldwell March by the new cadets and their cadre. With Red Phase over, the full chain of command engaged for the next portion of cadet training: White Phase.
During White Phase, first-year cadets were incorporated into the company chain of command structure. The training they receive during this phase is conducted by fire-team leaders, squad leaders, platoon sergeants and the rest of the cadet chain of command. This allows first-year cadets to see other leaders in addition to their cadre team and to operate as a member of larger organization. It also gives upperclass cadets the opportunity to practice their leadership skills. The purpose of White Phase training is to develop critical thinking skills, foster teamwork, develop peer leadership while enforcing basic college skills for academic success, and to educate new cadets about campus resources available to them.
This is done through leadership reaction challenges, experiences, and educational sessions that are designed to educate the entire chain of command, not just first-year cadets. In the later part of this phase, classroom instruction for first-year cadets shifts from how to succeed in college to how to identify personal strengths and weaknesses, which serves as a smooth transition to the upcoming Blue Phase. Sophomore classroom instruction at this point in the year focuses on ethical and honorable leadership, the evolution of leadership and its theories, conflict and appropriate corrective actions, and cultural self-awareness. White Phase ends each year at Military Ball in February as the cadets enter Blue Phase.
Blue Phase training for first-year cadets focuses on honing what they will bring to the regiment in their second year by preparing them to be fireteam leaders. Blue phase also focuses on preparing sophomore cadets to be squad leaders and cadre for their upcoming junior year.
During Blue Phase, first-year cadets are taught to lead small groups, encouraged to develop an understanding of themselves and their leadership style, and instructed on how to be effective and productive upperclass cadets. Blue Phase is marked with a few big events, such as Platoon Tactical Challenge and the second half of Caldwell March. Classroom instruction in this phase focuses specifically on how to become an effective fire team leader and wraps up with fire team leader selections for the upcoming fall semester. Corps labs in the spring for sophomores focus on squad leader preparation while their classroom sessions will include many of the same topics included in the cadre summer training course. The best among the first-year cadets will have the opportunity to serve as Cadet Training Assistants (a logistical support role) as sophomores during Cadre Week and New Cadet Week, and then have one more year of training as sophomores before they are able enter the cadre training program.
