Let's Get Muddy! - Army ROTC - Texas Christian University

Frog Strong
Leaders Made Here!
Official Horned Frog Battalion Newsletter
ISSUE 01 VOLUME 02
Special Thanks
Special thanks to everyone who helped out with the football games and JROTC events!
Way to represent your battalion!
In this Issue:
BC Blurb p.2
Record APFT p.2
Mud Run p.3
Ranger Challenge p.4
FTX p.5
Dining In p.6
Facebook p.6
Calendar of Events p.7

A Word from Our BC!
c/LTC Jerica Korte
CDT Battalion
Commander
Record APFT!
I would like to thank all the Cadets in the 61 st Horned Frog Battalion for putting forth a tremendous
effort this semester! Everything from 0615 PT formations, weekly labs, Fall FTX and all the way to the
end with the APFT has contributed to a successful semester. It has been a pleasure getting to meet all
the new cadets and I hope you all feel a part of the ROTC family because you most certainly are.
MSIIIs: I encourage you to remember to stay sharp over winter break. Enjoy the time with your family
and friends; however, remember you have a mission that still needs to be completed…Warrior Forge
’12. The biggest thing you can do over break to help you accomplish this mission is PT. The more fit you
are coming into the second semester, the more you will be able to focus on other leadership tasks, STX
lanes and perfecting your Land Navigation skills. MS Is & IIs: I hope you have had a semester of
challenges that you conquered, but at the same time had fun overcoming. Whether that challenge is
passing a class, or tackling Land Navigation during Fall FTX, I hope you pushed through it and are
getting ready for bigger challenges next semester. I would encourage you to continue to do those
things that got you into the ROTC program in the first place. If you do, I guarantee you will learn
invaluable leadership skills, and military disciplines that will help you become a better person, student,
and future leader. To the seniors graduating, I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors as
Army Officers! Go forth, do great things, and show the Army that the Horned Frog Battalion produces
top of the line officers! It has been both an honor and pleasure serving as your Cadet Battalion
Commander this semester and I look forward to seeing you grow as future leaders in the upcoming
months. I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season and come back ready to have another fun
filled semester. As always…I say HOOAH!
c/LTC Korte
Currently the MS IIIs are leading the Horned Frog Battalion by a good margin with the highest
average in the Army Physical Fitness Test. These fine leaders have taken the test three times
this semester and have shown improvement each month. August had the lowest average of
235. Ouch! September showed improvement at 257 and October, after the Fall FTX, finally, a
respectable 261. Not bad but we still have room to go and personally, I'm looking forward to
the spring semester where the intensity level will increase. That's guaranteed! MS IIIs, I'm
envisioning an average of 285 by April so get on board! There is still tons of room for growth for
sure. Our MS I record APFT average was a 244, MS IIs a 235, MS IIIs a 264, and MS IVs a 248.
These scores are about 30 points higher than last year’s averages! AWESOME JOB! MS IIIs are
still way out in front so catch them if you can! With the holidays quickly coming up it’s easy to
trade your morning run for a long snooze and plate of fat! Make sure you push yourself and give
100% each and every time you work out and reward yourself with some much needed R&R,
too!
Highest Male and Female
APFT Scores:
MSI
Branson Chandler-284
Alex Chartrand-284
Courtney Taylor-274
MSII
James Bowhay-300
Annie Bowe-289
MSIII
Karl Bjorn-300
Robin Cole-293
MSIV
Matt Warner-285
Dezi Bennett-277

Let’s Get Muddy!
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On the 29th of October 17 Cadets from the 61st Horned Frog
Battalion ran the DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) Mud Run. The Mud
Run is a mud covered 10k (six miles) with military style
obstacles dotted throughout the course. The DFW Mud Run
takes place on a section of the Trinity River. Cadets competed
in a number of different categories: competitive, noncompetitive,
and individual teams.
Team Snorkels comprised of Cadets Courtney Ingram, Molly
Collins, Douglas Hale, David Sanchez, and Courtney Taylor.
Team Snorkels ran the Mud Run as a non-competitive team.
Team Woodchucks made up of Cadets Abby Drew, Robin Cole,
Kristy Wilson, and Paul Mackey also ran in the non-competitive
division with a time of about one hour and fifty minutes. Team
It Wasn’t Me… Cadets Sara Bach and Jean Willits ran noncompetitively
as well as Bryan Courtney who ran in the
individual runner category. On the competitive side of things
Team Cool Beans Limousine took third place with Cadet
Competitors Karl Bjorn, Paul Petrie, Will McGrath, Chase
McPherson, and Andrew Huffaker. Team Cool Beans Limousine
ran a time of 1 hour and 42 minutes.
Mud run obstacles this year included Jacobs ladder, a six foot
wall, rope swing, a 10 foot drop, three points where you cross
the Trinity River, cargo net climb, low crawl and high crawl
obstacles, as well many muddy hills to scale and slide down into
a muddy pit. The obstacles were all heavily covered in mud and
muddy water from the Trinity.
The Mud Run is sponsored by the Young Marines. Throughout
the 10k young Marines were positioned in key places in order
to “motivate” you to obstacle success. Horned Frog Cadet Hank
Manson was there as a part of the young Marines helping to
inspire fellow Cadets on to complete the course. Horned Frog
Cadets participation in the Mud Run helped raise money for the
National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Way to go Horned Frogs!!
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Ranger Challenge
Ranger Challenge is an annual competition that takes place with twelve
different schools down near San Antonio at Camp Bullis. This year Ranger
challenge had 6 events, which included the one rope bridge, 10k Foot “March”,
Assess a casualty, M16 Weapons Assembly Disassembly, Obstacle course, and the
“Commanders Event” which was a stress shoot this year.
The One Rope Bridge consists of tying a rope, with correct knots, on both
sides of a ravine, tightening the rope, and then crossing via swiss seats, with a
dummy M16, LBV, and MOLLE Rucksack. For this year, the males completed the
One Rope Bridge in 8:06, and the females completed in 14:22.
The 10KM Foot “March” is a timed event in which competitors must
complete the course with all required gear in under 1:30:00 in order to receive a
go. I put “March” in parenthesis due to the fact that generally speaking most
teams are not marching, they are in fact running. Due to injury setbacks this year
the male team completed in 1:28:33 and the females right around the 1:38:00
Marker.
The assess a casualty event is a timed event in which directly proceeding
the ruck march the Ranger Challenge team creates a 360 and then the Team
Leader and one recorder come into the center and assess a dummy casualty,
properly bandage and tourniquet the casualty while assessing for shock and create
a proper 9 line to send up to higher.
The M16 Weapons Assembly Disassembly is a timed event in which
competitors must completely disassemble their weapon, reassemble it, and
perform a proper functions check in less than 2 minutes.
The Obstacle course is an event where teams negotiate a course with
nine obstacles ranging from a rope swing, to monkey bars, to pushing a van, the
team to complete the obstacle course the fastest wins. The males finished the
Obstacle course in 5:15 and the females completed it in 7:48.
The Commanders event this year was a stress shoot. The stress shoot
consisted of being led to an ORP by a “foreign national” at the ORP the Ranger
Challenge team then set up security and the team leader then created a hasty plan
to set up a blocking position and to navigate across a Linear danger area. Upon
crossing the Linear danger area the SL positioned his team as he/she saw fit on the
firing line, setting up sectors of fire, distributing ammunition within his squad and
then having the entire team calling out targets as they appeared. The scoring for
this event was whichever team scored the most hits on the targets. The male
team won first place for this event, and the females won second.
All in all the teams did very well this year. The Female team placed
second overall and the male team placed third. It was a huge improvement for the
males from last year in which we placed last place. The teams worked incredibly
hard from the start of the school year doing PT Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, and then Ruck marches on Saturday. Our success can also be
contributed to the guidance of Cadet Lindert, our MSV in charge who helped guide
us to success. The Male team this year was comprised of seven males, Cadet Bjorn
(OIC of RC), Cadet Liu, Cadet Carson, Cadet Lowe, Cadet Chandler, Cadet Huffaker,
and Cadet McPherson. The female team consisted of Cadet Wilson, Kara (Female
OIC), Cadet Willits, Cadet Bach, Cadet Drew, Cadet Bowe, and Cadet Jennings.

Fall FTX
This year's fall Field Training Exercise for the TCU Horned Frog and
UNT Mean Green cadets and cadre took place at Fort Wolters, Texas
on 14-16 October. Without a doubt, the words best describing the
weekend were "Land Navigation Training, Thank you, May I have
some more!" Training started quickly mid-day Friday with UNT's
advance party setting up and starting the MS IIIs, IIs and Is on a dayinto-night
land navigation course. Afterwards, everyone slept
outdoors for a few hours that night. Saturday morning started well
before sun-up with the MS IIIs and IIs organized and moving out as
infantry squads running through seven different Situational Training
Exercise lanes fighting the tough, black-shirted, SAPA enemy
forces. The MS Is, in separate training, honed their small team
leadership skills by participating in paint-ball force-on-force, "Capture
the Flag" training. Fortunately, they were able to also participate in
an "Attack-Point, Buddy-Team, Land Navigation Course" as well. You
can never get enough "Land Navigation!" Saturday evening, cadre
and MS IV cadets made a strong effort to get everyone bedded down
quickly due to an early morning rise Sunday to start for the third
time, another "Land Navigation Training Course. “ This time, training
went from night to day. Once the weekend's training was complete,
cadets gave feedback that they were thoroughly exhausted with sore
and some blistered feet but overall pleased with the focus and effort
to provide multiple land navigation opportunities. All in all, across
the board, Horned Frog and Mean Green Battalion cadets left the
weekend with a much stronger grasp and individual confidence in
land navigation! Leaders Developed Here!
Joel Coleman
Courtney Ingram (MSIII) -"I received
great training and now feel much
more confident in doing land
navigation."
Kelsi Holland (MSII) - FTX was a great
experience for me because I was able
to get more acquainted with Land
Navigation. This FTX was my third
time attending and I could adapt and
understand what was going on. I
found that it enhanced my ability to
take orders and gave me a more
hands on experience."
Kyle Weinerth (MSI) - FTX was full of
"delicious" MREs and blistered feet,
but was overall a great learning
experience.

Dining In 2011
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The 61st TCU Horned Frog Battalion Dining-In was a
great way to promote cordiality, comradeship, and
esprit de corps in the unit. The cadets and cadre
came together to have a formal dinner followed by
entertainment in the form of jokes and point of
orders. The night culminated with a skit to poke fun
of the seniors who will soon graduate. Dining-In is a
long standing tradition in the military and will
continue to be one of the Horned Frog Battalions
most important events of the year.
-CDT Liu
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Calendar of Events
Facebook
Upcoming Events:
Dec 12-16 Finals Week
Dec 16 Commissioning-1000
3 rd floor BLUU
Dec 17- Jan 17 Christmas Break
Jan 17 Spring semester starts
With social media on the rise, social networking sites
have changed the channels of communication between
organizations, communities, and even between
individuals. By 'liking' the 'Texas Christian University
Army ROTC' page on Facebook, cadre, cadets, alum,
and parents alike can join the social media revolution.
The page frequently updates current events, videos,
and photos of the Horned Frog Battalion in action.
Check us out!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/TCUArmyROTC
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Please feel free to contact us with any
news or articles you wish to see in the
next newsletter!
-Thanks!
Contact c/CPT Meagan Zimmerman
at: m.zimmerman@tcu.edu with your
news.
http://www.facebook.com/TCUArmy
ROTC
(copy/paste the URL into your
browser)