Training the military’s next generation

The Army gets the call: There’s an active shooter holding someone hostage.

In groups of four or five, children as young as 12 make their way through the building, searching bathrooms and under beds.

They stick together in formation, guns at the ready, and make their way safely through each door until they reach their target.

It’s just a drill, of course, and the weapons are actually plastic replicas. But it’s preparing these children for an urban scenario they might face if they go into the military in a few years.

The Wisconsin Army Cadets are just one of many military Explorer groups across the United States. There are also Explorer groups for other fields of work, including law enforcement, health care and government. These nonprofits are part of the Learning for Life program, which is affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America and gives young people the opportunity to explore a career path that they might be interested in.

“A lot of the kids that go to the cadet program really want a career in the Army after they graduate,” said Sarah Blesener, who recently photographed a weekend of their training in Appleton, Wisconsin. “Almost every single student I talked to, that was what they wanted to do. And they join these programs to kind of get a one-up or a head start in their career.”

The Army Explorer programs are taught by active or former military members. Once a month, the youngsters meet up for a weekend of training.

For the Explorers in Wisconsin, last month’s theme was urban operations. They went to Fox Valley Technical College, which has a training center used by military members and police officers, and they learned how to clear buildings, search them and confront hostile people if necessary.

The environments varied in scale and were rigged with traps and clues. A one-story house, for example, had a fake meth lab in the basement — as well as hollow walls and trap doors — that the students had to identify.

“I've been to other programs that use (virtual reality), but I thought that this one was even more intense because they kind of simulated real-life scenarios,” Blesener said.

While in the Wisconsin Army Cadets, students also are able to learn basic marksmanship and other skills such as first aid, hand-to-hand combat and how to read maps and navigate terrain.

Blesener interviewed many of the students she photographed, and they told her how much confidence they had gained.

“My friends give me a lot of crap for being in this program, making fun of it a bit, saying it’s like the Boy Scouts,” said Skylor Maynard, 15. “But this is not like the Boy Scouts. They have no idea.”

Bobbi Bruehl, one of the two girls in the group Blesener interviewed, said the cadet training became a talking point in February after the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

“Classmates ask us, ‘Well, what would you do if that happened here?’ They know we have training and look to us for answers,” the 16-year-old said. “People trust us, which is something to be really proud of. We are taught that kind of leadership, and we want to be able to take action, even though that’s the worst-case scenario.

“I can’t say for sure what I would do if that actually happened, but I know I’d do anything to help those around me. I’d put them first.”

Peter Wang was putting others first, holding the door for his fellow students to escape, when he was killed in the Parkland shooting. The 15-year-old was a member of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps — a national youth program similar to the Army Explorers.

Another Parkland student, Colton Haab, had also received training as part of his school’s Junior ROTC program, and when the shooting started he grabbed Kevlar sheets, generally used for marksmanship training, to shield dozens of his classmates.

“The shootings that are going around the country make you look at school a different way, and at people a different way,” said Cameron Fields, a 17-year-old member of the Wisconsin Army Cadets. “You have to go to school worried whether or not it will happen.

“Being in this program makes you feel prepared though. Look at Florida. The JROTC students were making barricades. They used their Kevlar mats to block the doors. They had just finished training and knew what to do.”

But school shootings aren’t the reason these young people joined the Wisconsin Army Cadets.

Many told Blesener that military service is a family tradition and that they feel a strong sense of duty.

“Both sides of my family have farms, but if I join the military, I’ll be the sixth generation to do so,” said Gavin Neuman, 15. “A lot of this for us has to do with heritage and somewhat of a family tradition. And other people in my family can take over the farm. If there wasn’t, I’d stay and help with it.”

Bruehl plans to join the Air Force after high school. “Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to give back to my country,” she said.

Blesener has been photographing similar youth groups around the country, including Junior ROTC and Young Marines, for a long-term documentary project she’s working on.

Before that, she had shot photos of cadet programs in Russia.

“I did this project in Russia for a year, and I found the response in the States to be so interesting,” she said. “I published the photo series in Time, of these kids training at camps, and the American public was saying, ‘Wow, you know, Russians are so nationalistic. It's so crazy what they're doing.’ And for me, I thought that was quite interesting because we have the exact same programs here.

“I think I found it a bit hypocritical. If anyone else does it, it's nationalistic. But if we do it, it's just patriotic.”

Not all of the Wisconsin students Blesener talked to will be joining the military.

But for many of them, there’s nothing they’d be prouder to do.

“Sometimes I walk into gas stations with this uniform on, and this lady comes up behind me and thanks me for my service,” Fields said. “I had to kindly say, ‘Ma’am, I’m not in the service, but thank you.’ It was hilarious.

“Someday I’d love to actually be in the service and just say thank you with no apology.”