The Black Wolves Battalion of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) conducted a mission at the Western Historic Trails Center in Council Bluffs, IA on Tuesday afternoon, in which they performed a practice squad attack.

The Black Wolves Battalion is made up of cadets from Creighton University, the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Bellevue University, as well as their cadres, otherwise known as instructors.

“In the sports world, this is the equivalent of a practice,” said Mason Diller, a senior in the College of Business and a cadet in the battalion. “Each mission has three phases: the crawl, the walk and the run, and today’s event is the run.”

The crawl, as it is called, is an on-campus whiteboard session in which the mission is explained in a classroom setting. Next, the walk is a rough hands-on walkthrough of the mission to get the cadets familiar with the decisions they will be required to make while actually performing the mission. Finally, the run is conducted, in which cadets are evaluated on their decision-making skills and how well they execute the mission.

“Today, the juniors are preparing to go to national camp,” said Morgan Day, a senior cadet majoring in healthcare administration and policy. “When we are here for lab, we watch them run through their lanes and evaluate them on their leadership and the choices that they make so we can give them guidance to help prepare for them to go to camp.”

National camp is held annually in Fort Knox, KT, and rising-senior cadets attend the 35-day session to participate in a number of exercises and tests in order to evaluate and maintain the national standard for all ROTC battalions. Cadets run missions, take an army fitness test, practice at a shooting range and go on a ruck march among many other things.

“Each battalion is ranked based on every individual cadet’s national ranking,” said Will Herrin, a senior cadet in the College of Business. “Your percentage of how well your cadets do determine where the battalion sits in the national percentile, and the Black Wolves tend to place very well.”

Herrin was one of two cadets, of the 15 who attended last summer’s national camp, to achieve the title of “recondo,” which means he scored in the top 15% of all cadets in attendance. The only Black Wolves cadet who placed higher than him was Elaina Dwinal, a senior majoring in criminal justice.

“I’ve never seen a group of individuals wake up so early in the morning and have such high morale,” Dwinal said about her fellow cadets. “Standard schedule for cadets is Monday, Wednesday, Friday, so cadets have to be up before 5 a.m. on a consistent basis, but this group loves it and is happy to be here.”

The history of ROTC at Creighton dates back to 1990 and boasts numerous decorated alumni, including one Medal of Honor recipient. National Guard 1st Lt. Mikaela Harvey, who is a 2018 Black Wolves alum and current military science instructor for the battalion, cites the deep history of the program, as well as its growth in recent years to the commitment and excellence of the cadets.

“They dedicate so much more time and energy into what they do, which is what makes them different from many other battalions,” she said. “They are very dynamic and well rounded. They work on-campus jobs, play intramural sports, play club sports, they volunteer, go home and see their families, they make time for their friends, they are involved in fraternities and sororities, they do well in school, and they still show up here and give it their all.”

This tradition of excellence stems from the ROTC’s mission to train leaders capable of taking care of people’s lives and making decisions under pressure, which also ties into Creighton’s mission to nurture men and women for others.

“Our black wolf is the black wolf off the shield of St. Ignatius, so we are rooted in Creighton’s traditions as well,” said Harvey.

If you are interested in learning about Creighton’s ROTC battalion, visit https:// www.creighton.edu/groups/armyrotc or give them a follow on Instagram @blackwolvesrotc.