Dixon attends cadet program

For most college students taking the summer off between their sophomore and junior years, life is usually filled with a summer job, time at the beach or a little extra time in front of their favorite video game.

Drew Dixon, son of Fallbrook residents Duane R. and Sylvia Dixon, is an Air Force ROTC cadet going through a boot camp (of sorts) at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.

The program is a three-week physical and mental challenge designed to prepare more than 2,300 cadets nationwide for eventual commissioning as a second lieutenant. This is the first year that cadets have converged on a single location for their training.

For Dixon, it’s the toughest challenge he’ll face during his ROTC stint.

“The toughest part of boot camp is keeping the motivation to push through and finish,” said Dixon, who is a 2006 graduate of Fallbrook Union High School. “It is as tough as I thought it would be.”

The ROTC field training course is divided into three phases. The first 11 days of the training is primarily devoted to classroom work, leadership, marching and problem-solving.

Each group of about 350 cadets then moves into a more intense, six-day training at the “Blue Thunder” camp, a tent city set up at Maxwell. There, the cadets learn hand-to-hand combat, land navigation, tactical communication, face leadership reaction obstacles and qualify at the small arms range on the 9 mm pistol.

For the first time, cadets wrapped up their training with a six-day exercise at the Joint Forces Training Center at Hattiesburg, MS, in an environment that gives them a safe look at what they might face if deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Reacting to roadside bombs, conducting convoy operations, learning small arms tactics and getting their first look at urban warfare situations are some of the challenges the cadets will deal with.

“I will take home and to the Air Force the leadership, people and mental skills that I have sharpened here,” Dixon said.

Dixon is currently attending Fresno State University, pursuing a degree in kinesiology. “I plan on becoming a chaplain in the Air Force after commissioning in the year 2010,” he said.

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