2008 Woodie Awards
ROTC holds annual retreat to honor prisoners of war and those missing in action
Craig Dobbs
Issue date: 10/27/06 Section: News
"Training is the key to success," shouted Colonel Fred Cone, keeping with his tradition, to the ROTC cadets of Detachment 028, during the annual retreat honoring Prisoners of War and other soldiers Missing in Action.
This year's POW / MIA retreat for the ROTC cadets was held in the parking lot in front of the Air Force ROTC Building and started promptly at 1700 hours with an invocation by Cadet Byron Quine.
The retreat was an overall success with the rain holding off for the duration of the ceremony. However, there was an incident with two AFROTC cadets buckling while standing at attention. One, a female was helped to a nearby chair. The other, a male, after being helped to a nearby curb attempted to stand but could not and fell to the ground once again. A chair was then brought over for him to recover in. Both cadets were later okay.
After the invocation, Cone, a retired colonel in the United States Marine Corps, was introduced. Cone flew in Vietnam and was also a forward air controller.
During his inspirational speech, Cone talked about how one should "never think of your enemy as stupid or slow."
Cone continued with a story about his second year of the Vietnam Conflict: an incident where four F-4s were downed by a nighttime Vietcong ambush.
The Vietcong had placed truck headlights on planks to look like a convoy of 20 trucks on a known supply road of the Vietcong. When in fact there were anti-aircraft guns behind the lights attempting to shoot down the U.S. planes.
The retreat was ended with the retiring of the U.S. flag by a joint color guard of Army and Air Force ROTC cadets at 1730 hours.
This year's POW / MIA retreat for the ROTC cadets was held in the parking lot in front of the Air Force ROTC Building and started promptly at 1700 hours with an invocation by Cadet Byron Quine.
The retreat was an overall success with the rain holding off for the duration of the ceremony. However, there was an incident with two AFROTC cadets buckling while standing at attention. One, a female was helped to a nearby chair. The other, a male, after being helped to a nearby curb attempted to stand but could not and fell to the ground once again. A chair was then brought over for him to recover in. Both cadets were later okay.
After the invocation, Cone, a retired colonel in the United States Marine Corps, was introduced. Cone flew in Vietnam and was also a forward air controller.
During his inspirational speech, Cone talked about how one should "never think of your enemy as stupid or slow."
Cone continued with a story about his second year of the Vietnam Conflict: an incident where four F-4s were downed by a nighttime Vietcong ambush.
The Vietcong had placed truck headlights on planks to look like a convoy of 20 trucks on a known supply road of the Vietcong. When in fact there were anti-aircraft guns behind the lights attempting to shoot down the U.S. planes.
The retreat was ended with the retiring of the U.S. flag by a joint color guard of Army and Air Force ROTC cadets at 1730 hours.
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