By Bryon Wells
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 3, 1997

Class teaches civilians military skills

Photo by Bryon Wells Arizona Daily Wildcat Mike Burguyone (standing at left) and Cabel Whorton assist Jesse Cox down from the "one-roped bridge," a simulated river-crossing technique taught in Sgt. 1st Class Lee Thayer's Ranger Tactics Course at South Hall. The exercise is just one of the techniques students learn to prepare for an upcoming competition.

A single rope connects two sides of a river.

Hanging from the rope upside-down, men and women in green shimmy towards the other side, pulling themselves forward as if they were climbing a rope horizontally.

They make their way across carefully, confidently.

This is not an ROTC exercise.

In fact, you don't have to be in the ROTC to be all that you can be.

Courses in Military Science available to all students teach the mental and physical exercises and tactics used by members of the United States special forces.

Two courses, Tactics and Ranger Challenge, taught by Army Sgt. 1st Class Lee Thayer, can be combined for a total of three lower-division credit hours.

Thayer said the courses (ML S 210 and 211) build physical strength, as well as self-confidence and leadership skills through hands-on application of actual Army Ranger tactics.

According to Thayer, navigation skills, weapons training, patrolling and obstacle negotiation are part of the curriculum, and all these skills will be used in a regional competition that is included in the Ranger Challenge course.

Seventeen men and women in Thayer's class practice at 7 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays for a chance to be part of the 10 member team that will go to the Ranger Challenge.

The competition regulates the teams to nine primary members and one alternate, so Thayer said a selection process will take place.

He said he hopes to select the team that will compete by Oct. 10, and then intensify the training up until the competition, which will be held Nov. 7 in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

The Ranger Challenge will be a six-event contest.

Competitors will do a timed weapons assembly and disassembly, maneuver through a hand-grenade assault course, a navigation course, complete a 6.2 mile road march, a physical fitness test, patrolling exam and overcome an obstacle called the one-rope bridge, Thayer said.

The one-rope bridge is a simulated river crossing technique using a rope tied between two stationary objects, which borrows techniques used in rock-climbing.

Tonya Cutrone, a political science junior, who had only been with the team for about two weeks, crossed the "river" with ease.

"It's a lot of fun," she said.

Thayer said the one-rope bridge is a timed event.

To achieve a good score, Thayer said the team must complete the whole process in about 1 minute, 20 seconds.

Most of the cadets are confident about their performance on the obstacle.

"It's just a matter of getting the timing right. It's not that hard," said Mike Burguyone, a junior majoring in political science.