BY CLAIRE ARONSON
It was a dark, misty morning. The normally, highly trafficked area surrounding the IU
Memorial Stadium was deserted. The sole source of light was coming from the football
stadium lights.
About 100 men and women, all freshman, sophomores and juniors, were awake for 6
a.m. weekday Reserve Officers’ Training Corps personal training.
The underclassmen began doing abdominal stretches and other exercises in Knothole
Park. Many of the cadets slowed down their pace as the intensity increased. However,
freshman Tucker Warner did the opposite. As the pace increased, he became more
focused. Warner has a PT score of 299. He is one sit-up short of a perfect 300, a mark
that many of the seniors haven’t reached yet.
After a short water break, the cadets were instructed to weave up and down both sides of
the stadium bleachers.
Beginning at section 32, they ran until section 21, running up, across the top and then
down the next flight of stairs. At the top of every section, the cadets were instructed to
scream ‘Hoosiers.’
The cadets lined up from quickest in front to slowest in back. Warner began at the 20th
position.
Running up the steps on the way up, the space between the fastest and slowest cadets
widens as the leaders maintain their pace while the slower ones begin to get tired.
The steps were covered with rain and the cadets descended with a fast pace walk. Warner
passed people as the workout progressed. While other cadets slowed, Warner remained
focused and progressed to the front of the pack. He just wants to do his best. He doesn’t
necessarily crave perfection but each time he wants to work one step closer to perfection.
He doesn’t believe in dwelling on the past. To Warner, this is the first mistake.
“Come on it is not a walk,” the leader yells. “Get a comfortable pace on the way down
but don’t walk.”
The intensity of the “Hoosier” chant also decreased as the cadets approach the end.
***
The ROTC is a support system. From day one, Warner has looked up to the seniors who
know what is going on and are running the program.
Everyone in the program is willing to help everyone out even if it is just for a ride
somewhere or if one of the cadets needs advice.
“I haven’t met someone who wouldn’t stop what they were doing and take care of me,”
Warner says.
Warner is practicing for the Ranger Buddy Competition. He goes to the Bloomington
Army National Guard Armory at 9 a.m. Friday to practice assembling and disassembling
the M16 rifle.
A red Ford pulls into the parking lot of the armory. Four cadets exit the car with their full
Army camouflage on. Warner is sewed on the back of his hat and over the right side of
his uniform.
Two officers on a smoke break unlock the door and let the cadets into the building. Upon
entering the facility, they immediately remove their caps and fold them into their pant
pocket.
The basketball court is dark. The four IU cadets are the only noise heard. They are
waiting to be able to check out the rifles.
Warner asks Cadet Thompson, a senior, if Ranger Buddy wasn’t the same weekend as
Little 500, if he would be competing. He answers yes.
Warner has black gloves on. He says his hands are still cold from the early morning
workout. The gun vault door with the Do Not Enter sign opens and the cadets are
instructed into the room to pick up their rifles. They head to the classroom to practice for
the competition. The two freshmen stand on one side of the long, brown table and the
seniors face them on the opposite side.
The classroom is fitting as they are learning from the two senior cadets who finished this
part of the competition in 23 seconds.
Warner is nervous. He is having trouble getting all the pieces reassembled quickly. He
has to remove all the pieces of the rifle first and lay them on the table. He is crouched at
the long, brown table and he is bouncing up and down at the knees.
The senior cadet starts the stopwatch on the black, watch and Warner’s hands begin
quickly moving to disassemble the rifle.
The pieces aren’t allowed to touch each other. He removes each piece and places them
on the table, carefully making sure none of the pieces are touching. When he is finished
disassembling the rifle, he steps back and throws his hands up.
He uses muscle memory for this drill. He knows the names for everything – charging
handle, bullet and the firing and retention pin. He knows if he wants to do it less than 30
seconds that he must do it real fast. Warner is able to do it blindfolded. He sometimes sits
in class and runs through the drill in his head.
“As long as you do it faster than the other guys,” senior Cadet Andrew Waits says to
Warner. “If he gets it done earlier, it is expected because he has fewer parts. But you both
need to do well.”
The score is a composite of Warner and freshman Cadet Ryan Lambert’s assembling and
disassembling of the rifles. Their success depends on a fast time by both of them.
Warner wants to be able to sit when he is competing. He is 6’4’. He needs a higher table.
Instead, he bends his knees slightly and dives into the assembling process.
Waits says not to get flustered under pressure.
Warner says he is just pissed with his time. He doesn’t have all the kinks worked out yet.
Warner got his best time disassembling the rifle.
“I am all ralled up because I know you had a .12 on the disassembling so I knew it was
going to be a good one,” Lambert says.
It is 10 a.m. Waits says they have a couple more run-throughs before they have to leave
for breakfast burritos at Qdoba.
Waits says they must get less than 30 seconds for a perfect score.
On the second to last run-through, Warner and Lambert get 29 seconds.
“Woo. There it is,” Warner says.
“I taught you too well and I didn’t teach you all my tricks,” Waits says.
Warner wants to do one more run-through and asks Waits to film him on his iPhone to
send to his dad.
“I thought you were joking,” Waits says.
Warner got 27 seconds. It was the best assembly he’s ever done and he decided to end on
that one.
The seniors aren’t the only ones guiding the freshman. The sophomore and juniors are
willing to be leaders. Since they have recently gone through what Warner is
experiencing, they are able to help him stay focused and motivated in his school work,
ROTC training and preparation for placement tests for the Army. This support group has
helped Warner make the adjustment to college life.
“When you have a solid support group that I didn’t even know I had until I had fallen on
it and I kind of really figured it out then,” he says. “It was really helpful.”
This support system helps match cadets with the same teachers to study together and
helps motivate everyone to get good grades. The program has set-up mentors for the
freshman to help make this transition even easier.
Senior Adam Young is Warner’s mentor.
“He is a great guy,” Warner says. “I can always go to him for anything. It makes the
transition so much easier. It is just the same like any other college freshman coming in.”
As a mentor, Young is responsible to keep the freshman cadets on track as far as grades
and physical fitness. The program also serves as a way to monitor how they are adjusting
to college life.
This year, Young mentors three people. Warner, however, makes Young’s life as a
mentor very easy.
“He maintains great grades and maxes his army fitness test,” Young says. “We meet up a
few times a year to go over his progress and he maintains his superb standings.”
Two weekends ago, the junior cadets were required to go to the Crane Land Navigation
course. The freshmen and sophomores had the option of going. Warner was one of only
three people who chose to come.
Young says Warner is very dedicated to bettering himself. He has had to mentor Warner
very little so far.
“He is far above where he needs to be right now and his future in ROTC looks bright,”
Warner says. “Each progressing year he will get more and more responsibility.”
However, with Young commissioning at the end of this year, it will be up to Warner to
maintain his grades and personal training for the next three years.
“I see no reason why he should not excel,” Young says.
However, to everyone else not in ROTC at IU, Warner is viewed as just an ordinary
college student actively involved in an extracurricular activity. Nobody really
understands what he is doing outside of those who are in the program. They think he is
just in a special club.
He says he thinks his friends who are at West Point think Warner is a cop out since they
are in the military lifestyle 24/7. However, Warner knows they will realize the
seriousness of the IU ROTC program when they all start wearing the same rank of second
lieutenant and are given the same responsibilities. Right now, he says it is annoying that
they think they are on such a high horse since they have the same army training. Warner
continues to put himself in as much as possible to do his best as he is preparing for this
competition, going to physical training everyday and taking 19 credits.
“That is fine,” Warner says. “They can think what they want. I get to enjoy the weather,
hang out with friends and go home on the weekends if I want. That is another reason why
I really think I am doing the right thing instead of going to West Point.”
IU has been a blessing in disguise to Warner so far. He didn’t realize this right away. He
is a better-rounded person by coming to IU and he loves it. He is able to interact and be
friends with people who come from different backgrounds than him. He knows he
wouldn’t be exposed to this well-rounded experience at West Point. He is able to pick
what classes he can take and hang out with people outside of the program.
He is a better communicator because of the relationships he’s developed with the older
cadets and he feels like he can better relate to a soldier because of the more diverse
experiences available at IU.
***
It is 8 a.m. Wednesday. Tucker walks up the steps to Ballantine Hall wearing a red, IU
ROTC t-shirt. He has his freshman ROTC class. He enters the classroom, 003, grabs a
pen out of his leather folder and signs the attendance sheet. After grabbing a map and a
protractor, he takes a seat in a desk.
The freshman cadets are awake as they had PT before the class. Warner jokes with the
other cadets seated around him. One of his classmates gives him an army field manual
with platoon and squad tactics. He says it is like Christmas because of how excited he
was to receive this book. He loves reading about the army. This manual teaches him ways
to win in a war, which is ultimately what he wants to be a part of. He reads it for
pleasure, as he loves the topic.
The lesson was on land navigation. The professor instructed the importance of writing
things down in map reading and land navigation unless they could do it in their heads. All
the cadets have a military, topographic map of Tenino, Washington. The Leadership
Development and Assessment is located in Tenino where the Fort Lewis base is. Warner
will complete this course the summer after his junior year. It helps with land navigation
training. If the navigation system fails, Warner says they must know how to get around a
base with a compass and a protractor.
Without picking up his pen, Warner raises his hand and says the correct answer: 312. He
twirls his protractor with his fingers.
The professor gives the 13 cadets in the class one last problem to figure out the grid
convergence, grid-magnetic angle and location of a place he has to get to or something he
has to find. When it comes down to it, Warner will have to react and go right away.
While almost everyone else asks questions, Warner remains focused and is the first one
to get the correct answer.
Warner gets up and helps his fellow freshman to get the right answer. His friend sitting
diagonally to the left of him high fives Warner after he successfully figures out the
correct answer.
The following week, Warner had a quiz in this class about tactic situation problems. The
question gave the scenario of what to do in an air defense utility unit. The answer would
tell the cadets when to fire a rifle and when to move in. It is important to be accurate and
precise because once the trigger is pulled, it can’t be reversed.
It is about pinpoint accuracy. Warner didn’t think the quiz was hard as the professor put it
into real time terms so it made sense. Warner says while some may think it was hard, he
didn’t, as he is pretty good at that.
While Warner tries to maintain the schedule of a typical college student as much as
possible, he has had to make small sacrifices for his betterment in the program.
Warner says it sometimes sucks and tough at times but it is worth it.
He goes to bed at pretty much just the same time as any other freshman on his floor. He
doesn’t have to wake up too early Tuesday or Thursday. However, because of his nearly
perfect PT score, Warner sometimes doesn’t have to go to Monday, Wednesday and
Friday morning workouts. Warner, instead, works out on his own as he is training for the
Ranger Buddy Competition.
Sometimes Warner has to pull all-nighters because of school. He sometimes may get a
nap later if he doesn’t sleep. But usually, he just pulls right through the day, as that is just
how it is.
“You are in ROTC training to be an officer,” Warner says. “You can’t really let little
things like that affect you. When you think of it in the grand scheme of things, yeah you
are going to pull some all-nighters, you are going to do some things that suck but it will
be worth it in the end.”
Warner is committed to success in the program. He is trying to get involved as much as
possible to better himself and to get the most out the program. He is forgoing Little 500
this year to compete in the Ranger Buddy Competition.
He recognizes that he is only a freshman competing in the competition against seniors.
He is representing IU ROTC and by knowing who trained him and where he is coming
from, he is motivated to do his personal best as that is all there is. He wants to make a
name for IU but he knows it will be difficult because it is two freshman cadets
competing.
Warner’s love for ROTC helps him wake up in the morning. He tries to keep working
hard everyday since it is a good feeling. He wants to be in the front lines fighting for the
United States of America.
“I wouldn’t say I have any different drive or passion that anyone else but that is just what
mine is directed at,” Warner says.
He already sees the bigger picture of the importance of every single workout and lab.
“Everything in the end will just make you better for it,” he says. “Pressure makes
diamonds and the more pressure I am under I feel like the better I am for it and my work
can be better too when I am under that pressure. When it comes down to it, you are going
to be leading sons and daughters of America and that is a big responsibility so you can’t
really take that lightly.”
Right now, Warner continues to focus on being in college but this career path is very
future-oriented. He realizes that as he continues in the program not just the training and
school will get more serious, but also the idea.
At the end of next spring, Warner will officially sign into the program and make the
commitment of serving a minimum of five years in the Army. He knows he has to think
about the seriousness of that contract and what it means.
“It will change that but in a good way because it is what I want to do,” he says. “It will
make it a bigger deal.”
The whole service to the country is the biggest deal for Warner. He respects everyone he
has known out of the Army so unbelievably and just knew it was a really good fit for
himself.
When Warner sits back and looks at the big picture that is the greatest motivation.
“I tell myself, ‘Hey man, you are going to be in charge of 40 guys in a couple years and
you aren’t busting ass right now.’ There are consequences to that and if I don’t do an
extra push-up right now, you think of it that it adds up and I won’t be as high caliber of
an officer,” Warner says.
However, Warner realizes that he is only a freshman so he technically has no idea what
he is talking about. Being in the Army is a very mature and serious concept and if one
seriously and genuinely cares and believes in the cause, Warner says it is kind of a
special and huge honor.
“As of right now, I like the idea and I know I am capable of doing it effectively and that
self confidence helps me a lot,” he says. “Maybe if I am arrogant, that is a good thing.”
Warner says he joined knowing that the United States was a nation at war. He wants to
make a difference in the world and being in the army is his way of doing so. The military
utilizes his personality traits and characteristics. He knows how to lead people. He likes
doing push-ups until he can’t and waking up early in the morning to wear the uniform.
“I dig the pride and patriotism in my country,” he says. “I just love that stuff.”
***
Warner’s family hasn’t taken the idea lightly. His younger sister cries because she thinks
her older brother is shipping off to war. She thinks because he is going overseas, he is
going to die. Warner disagrees. People die in car wrecks. Joining the army is a risk but it
is a risk Warner thinks is worth taking.
His family respects him for it. Warner, himself sometimes gets scared.
“Courage is not being scared. It is being scared and doing it anyway,” Warner says.
There is no real reason for Warner not to be scared. It is frightening. It is a risk. He will
be away in a couple years, but that is then and this is now.
“I’ve got a life to live right now,” he says. “I am making sure I am as prepared as
possible to make sure nothing bad happens.”
Jan Williamson is Warner’s second mom. Because his parents live in Wisconsin,
Williamson is able to be that parent figure since she has known him since he was born.
Williamson is a family friend and met Warner’s father when he was 12.
In September, after he first moved to Bloomington, Warner went to Williamson’s home
every weekend. He would bring his laundry, do homework and talk with Williamson. It
was a great retreat for him and his quiet place. However, as fall progressed, life for them
both picked up and his visits became less regular. He was adjusting to college, being
away from home and the rigors of the ROTC program.
While Williamson views herself as a second mom, she makes sure she doesn’t crowd
Warner. She understands that he is in a very rigorous program and while he is not in an
average college program, Williamson says he really enjoys it.
She knows that someday he will be high ranking officer. She hopes he will remember
freshman year and all the things they did together.
Williamson says Warner is self-motivated and completely focused on the military. Last
semester, he would come over and sit at the kitchen island and teach her terms while she
did the dishes. She says it was a good review for him and felt like a mom and son in high
school as he would be tested and she would learn the material.
“He has always had a love affair with the military,” Williamson says.
Williamson had never seen Warner in his full camouflage before she went to watch him
do color guard at an IU men’s basketball game last semester. Warner came to dinner at
her house and then Williamson dropped him by Read Residence Center to change into
uniform. She drove him to Assembly Hall since he doesn’t have a car in Bloomington. It
was the first time she saw him in dress uniform.
“What a sense of pride I had to see him out there,” Williamson says. “He will be a true
leader among men. He is so focused on those around him.”
Williamson says he is interested in other people’s lives and will always ask questions. He
will do very well in this career.
Williamson has an edge of concern with him entering this career but hopes nothing will
happen to him.
“A person should live their dream and this is his dream,” Williamson says. “I don’t have
that great of fear of him being anything short of successful.”
Warner grew up with three sisters – two older and one younger. Because of this, he has
an understanding side. He is very caring of his sisters yet at times, he had to stand up for
himself.
Williamson says his care for people plays out in the people he meets. He is very
respectful of adults.
“It is refreshing,” she says.
Warner’s family means the world to him. He is not leaving them behind. Instead, he is
just following the career path that he choosing and it is the life he chooses to life.
“They just have to deal with it because it is not changing whatever they think,” Warner
says. “I don’t know how to talk to my sister about this. It is definitely a tricky situation.
Hope to God nothing bad happens.”
***
Warner has been training for the Ranger Buddy Competition – a competition that
measures his physical strength, skill and ability.
In addition to his mandatory workout schedule, Warner works out extra and practices the
different parts of the competition.
This Saturday, Warner arrived at 4 a.m. to get things ready for the day ahead. One of the
competitions would be a PT test. While currently one sit-up short of a perfect score,
Warner is hungry for perfection. He will have to do push-ups, sit-ups and a two-mile run.
Dressed in his camouflage, Warner was able to max out every category and then some.
He scored a 308 – a score eight points higher than perfect. Because Warner maxed out
every event first with a 100, he completed the events again. For every extra push-up, situp and five-second decrease of time on the run, Warner receives an additional point.
Warner performed better so his score was registered to an extended scale.
He says his training for this competition helped him earn such a good PT score.
Warner, however, didn’t fare as well with the rifles. He didn’t know the timing started as
soon as his hands touched the table. He found out right before he went. This threw him
off and he wasn’t able to fully recover. He had to clear the rifle and take the buffer spring
out. This step was something he wasn’t used to doing. It took him longer than his best
time of 27 seconds. He doesn’t know his exact time from the competition.
IU placed 10th overall in the competition. While not first, Warner is happy about their
performance.
“We had a lot of heart and it showed,” he says.
They advanced six spots after the Rock Run securing them a position in the top ten. He
says that even if they placed last, it wouldn’t have been time wasted.
He says they screwed up in a few events but overall, it went pretty well.
Warner hopes to be the one training other cadets next year.
“We were right there,” he says. “It was just little things we didn’t excel at. I could be in a
lot better shape.”