Fox Cities News

The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh's Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) team recently achieved second place in the Task Force McCoy Ranger Challenge, a competition held at Fort McCoy. The event, which took place from October 18 to 19, included coed teams with Army ROTC Detachments from various regions including Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Led by team captain Cadet Emily Rivero, UW-Oshkosh's team secured the runner-up position behind Marquette University of Milwaukee. The third-place spot was claimed by UW-Madison. Rivero is a senior majoring in psychology from Skokie, Illinois. Another key member of the team is Cadet Rylee Radtke, a sophomore nursing student from Mukwonago.

Other cadets participating in the challenge were Joshua Martin, an international studies junior from Oshkosh; Coleman McDonagh, a political science sophomore from Chicago; Jack Brouder, a sociology sophomore also from Chicago; Bradshaw Morel, an accounting senior from Milwaukee; and Noah Kircher, a freshman studying sociology from De Pere.

The Ranger Challenge is described as the "varsity sport" of Army ROTC on its website. Teams begin forming early in the semester and engage in rigorous training almost daily. Events at the challenge included a conditioning course, rope bridge and knots test, call for fire event, tactical combat casualty care and medvac exercise, hand grenade qualification course event and land navigation.

UW-Oshkosh hosts the Wisconsin Oshkosh Fox Valley ROTC Battalion which includes cadets not only from UWO but also St. Norbert College, Ripon College, Marian University and UW-Green Bay. Through Army ROTC programs like this one, college students can become commissioned officers either part-time or full-time in the U.S. Army.

Fort McCoy is noted as the only U.S. Army installation within Wisconsin providing support for over 100,000 military personnel annually through both field and classroom training facilities.