Staff writer
LTC was designed for college students who needed a crash course to prepare for life as an Army officer. Most Cadets arrive at Fort Knox with little or no military experience and have to fit more than 230 years of history, tradition and values into 29 days.
However, for some like Brandon Buscher, Petrina Macauley and Manuel Vandermelon, LTC is more of a refresher course.
This summer, a little more than a dozen Cadets with prior military service came to LTC to expand their leadership skills.
At just 24 years old, Buscher has served with the Marine Corps and has been on three deployments to Iraq.
Having served as an NCO in the Marines, Buscher may have more experience than most of the squad tactical officers at LTC. But he is at Fort Knox because he says he has much to learn.
“I knew that side of leadership, but I wanted to come here and learn the officer side of it and see what that would entail,” Buscher said.
Buscher joined the Marine Corps right out of high school with a couple of his schoolmates. He didn’t really have a plan for college or a desire to go and did not feel like wasting his parents’ money.
After four years, he decided he wanted to try new things and learn the transition to being a Soldier. LTC seemed like the best place to do that.
“It’s refining my own base of knowledge and all the techniques,” Buscher said.
With his experience, Buscher has become a leader by example and Cadets and cadre have noticed.
“We only have 28 days to turn these Cadets into Soldiers, so it’s great to have him here,” said Staff Sgt. Mark Taylor, a Delta Co. drill sergeant. “When we’re done, he (Buscher) can reinforce what they’ve learned.”
Today, Buscher is a student at Marian University in Indianapolis.
This summer, Buscher is not the only one feeling the pressure of leading his fellow Cadets.
Petrina Macauley, also from Delta Co., was in uniform on 9/11. She was a corporal, working about an hour away from the Pentagon at the time as an Army recruiter. She said that day affected her both professionally and personally.
“Professionally, it really made me proud being in uniform,” she said, “because I was a part of an organization that was devastated but yet can help people.”
Personally, however, it was a different story.
Macauley’s mother was in the Pentagon at the time. No one could find her for more than 10 hours.
Macauley joined the Army in 1998 in hopes of traveling and receiving money for school. Her best friend enlisted before her and told her all about it. Mcauley quickly followed suit.
“I had heard the Army takes you places.” Mcauley said.
One of her first assignments was a year-long deployment to
After her four years, Macauley went back to school and got a degree in business management. After a three-year hiatus from the military, she decided she wanted to become an officer and hopefully branch in the medical field as a physician assistant.
Like Buscher, she is now excelling at LTC, which she attributes to her past experiences.
“LTC does a good job at giving a snapshot of the military,” Mcauley said. “But I would say the military is so much more.”
Co. A 1/46th Inf. (Co. 6) Cadet Manuel Vandermelon is also used to answering questions.
“From day one, a lot of people would come to me and say, ‘How we do we do this?’ ” Vandermelon said. “A lot of people looked up to me.”
Vandermelon comes from a family of military men and was a member of the National Guard for two years.
A student at Wentworth Military Academy, he was not required to attend LTC but came anyway because he thought it would help him.
“As a private, you are always told what to do,” Vandermelon said. “Here you maneuver your own squad, so it has its challenges.”
One thing he has noticed of other Cadets at LTC is a lot of them believe that to get a commission, it needs to be given to them and he likes to remind them otherwise.
“It needs to be earned,” said Vandermelon, who hopes to contract and branch infantry. “One day, you will be leading men and women in battle. So if you can’t make it here, what makes you think you will make it out there?”