Forty-one cadets from Ohio State’s Army ROTC program will be strapping on more than 60 pounds of equipment and sporting M-16 rifles as they occupy the wooded landscape of Camp Atterbury in Indiana.

The third-year cadets will be participating in a Joint Field Training Exercise from today until Sunday along with cadets from the University of Cincinnati and Ohio University.

“We’re not training them to go to war, we’re training them in basic skills to help them throughout their career,” said Cadet 2nd Lt. Leslie McBride. “These are skills we all need to be officers in the U.S. Army.”

But the security and intelligence major said the short-term goal of the training exercise is to prepare the cadets for the Leader Development and Assessment Course that occurs between their third and fourth years. The one-month course takes place at a camp in Ft. Lewis, Wash. It evaluates leadership abilities and determines what job a cadet could get in the Army after graduation.

During this weekend’s training exercise, cadets will spend much of their time doing land navigation exercises, McBride said. This consists of plotting grid coordinates with a protractor, then going into the woods and calculating what distance and direction the points are at.

To pass the exercise, cadets must receive five out of eight points during the daytime exercise and three out of five points for the night exercise.

Friday will consist of individual weapons qualification. To get more familiar with the M-16s, cadets will be given 40 rounds of ammunition and must shoot at 40 targets placed 300 meters away from them, McBride said.

A score of 23 out of 40 is required to pass the qualification.

McBride said the third-years have been preparing for the training exercise all year by learning to write orders and conducting patrols on West Campus.

Cadet Clay Yates, a third-year in Mandarin Chinese, compared the training exercise and leader course to an ACT standardized test for the Army because it “evaluates all cadets on the same level.”

Because McBride is a fourth-year, she participated in the training exercise in 2009, the first year the group went to Camp Atterbury.

“It was a boost of confidence before having to go to LDAC (Leader Development and Assessment Course) in the summer,” McBride said. “You’re put in groups of people you’ve never met before, and every school’s techniques are a little bit different. But you adjust to complete your task.”

Cadet Todd Dawson was a member of OSU’s Air Force ROTC program before switching to Army ROTC. He switched because he “likes to get down and dirty,” something he didn’t experience much of with the Air Force program.

“I’m nervous because we get graded on a lot. But I’m excited to gain the knowledge of what it’s like to be a soldier in the field and gain leadership experience,” said Dawson, a history major focusing on American military history.

McBride said she is ready to see the cadets demonstrate the knowledge they have learned throughout the year and for OSU to be represented with a good program.

“You’re on your own more than having anyone in the cadre yelling at you,” McBride said. “It all comes down to personal discipline. You’re expected to be a leader because you’re going to be leading the U.S. Army as soon as you graduate.”