Spartan Daily

Run before you soar: SJSU's Air Force ROTC trains body and spirit

ROTC1 Air Force ROTC Cadets participate in an early morning physical training session Tuesday November 29, 2011 at the 7th Street garage. Photo by Jesse Jones / Spartan Daily

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“It’s a program intended to get cadets ready for the fitness assessment training,” said Rajan Bansal, the cadet wing commander of Detachment 045. “It truly gauges their physical fitness abilities, which then makes them stratified among their peers nationwide according to their fitness scores, so it’s really important that we prepare them for that test.”

Daniel Monroe, a senior political science major and a cadet lieutenant colonel, said physical training, or P.T., is mandatory every Tuesday morning at 6 a.m.

“It’s a mandatory formation where we all come together as a formation and work out together,” he said. “The goal is to instill the word ‘ethos,’ as well as an idea of togetherness.”

He said more than anything, the training is more of a bonding experience with the cadets.

“It’s not the most fun time to be out there,” said Erik Peyton, a justice studies major and a cadet lieutenant colonel of Detachment 045.  “But it’s good to be out there together and boost our physical training.”

Peyton said he was first interested in the military when he was in high school.

“My grandpas had both been in the military,” he said. “I knew it was something I wanted to do.  I did not know what I wanted to do, Air Force or Army, but I looked it up on the Internet and found SJSU, and it has been a good fit.”

Bansal said he was not sure either coming out of high school, but found his way to SJSU as well, thanks to a friend who was already enlisted in the ROTC.

“I explored my options as to enlist in the military,” he said. “I tried college out, did the military part time (at SJSU) and I fell in love with it.”

Monroe said not many students regret the decision to become a part of the ROTC, and P.T. only helps build that sense of bonding with the cadets.

Bansal said the cadets line up in four flights according to what conditioning level they are at, and then work out at their own pace throughout the hour-long workout period.

Detachment 045 then goes through a series of exercises and workouts that encompass the 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. physical training period.

“It takes a lot of time,” Peyton said. “You have to be out here, and there is also a lot of work behind the scenes that we do.”

He said he enlisted in the ROTC at SJSU with a career in the Air Force on his mind.

“I have a pilot slot, so I have at least 12 years,” Peyton said. “Not everyone has a career in the Air Force in mind, but they come in with the mindset that they want to make a career in this.”

Monroe said he already knows what he will be doing in 2012 when he graduates from SJSU.

“I have actually been designated as a contracting officer in the Air Force,” he said. “So I will be working with the Air Force and the Department of Defense and other defense contracting companies.”

All three cadets said they do not regret the decision to join the ROTC, and plan on continuing the experience well into the future.

“It’s all about instilling a sense of camaraderie,” Monroe said. “You really do come together and bond out there.”