2009-2010: Seth Larimore

Junior Ring Ball

Hello,

Sorry about the delay of my post, its been a busy week.  Junior Ring Ball was this weekend, it was a great time.  On Friday the juniors in the Corps had their Junior Ring Ceremony dinner where they get their rings.  Before the dinner there was a retreat parade on the UP and the cadre members when the juniors this year were freshman come back and march the original companies down to the dinner.  It is a very special event and only people who have attended the event actually know what happens.  Then Saturday evening was the ball.  It's similar to Regimental Ball, except instead of the seniors walking through the arc of swords, it is the juniors.  Since it really is all about the juniors all of the seniors and anyone else attending who has already had their junior ring, take off their rings, so only the junior are wearing them.  I went with one of my rook buddy's friends from home, Taylor.  We had a great time, I put pictures at the bottom of the post.

Like I said, this week is crazy, I have a project, tests, and papers to work on.  Next week is the last week of classes before finals, so people are trying to get everything done.  I have 5 finals, two take home and 3 scheduled.  Everyone is talking about next year and the jobs in the corps and next year's class.  I applied for one, so we'll see.

Vermont is a crazy state as far as weather, so those of you coming should be prepared, when I woke up this morning, 28 April, 2 weeks from summer vacation, there was at least 2 inches of snow on the ground.  Last weekend it was also in the upper 70's, which is what it's supposed to be again this weekend, so it will be gone, but I had never seen snow this late in the year before.

Well, I'm going to get some ready for tomorrow and go to bed.

Thanks for reading,

Seth

 

(L-R) Myself and Taylor, and Jon and Caitlin (Myself and some Connecti-cats)

    

Back(L-R)Jordan Mizioch, Neil Crowley, Jonathan Bermudez, Kevin Bassney, Me, Josh Kernan, Justin Kubu, Don Arterburn, Ross Bolewski

Middle(L-R)Colton Martin, Garrick Lizotte, Tom Huntley, Peter Kingston, Jacob Barnett

Front(L-R)Joanie Emerson, Brittany Burns, Andrea Lishen

My rook brothers and sisters that went to Jr. Ring Ball

FTX Weekend

Hello,

This weekend and last weekend were the spring FTX weekends.  FTX stand for Field Training Exercise.  Each ROTC branch does something different, Navy went to the Maritime Academy in Massachusetts, Marine Corps went to Camp Edwards in Cape Cod, Army sophomores and juniors went to Fort Ethan Allen in Northern Vermont, Army Freshman and Seniors went to Payne Mountain just across State Road 12 here in Northfield, and Air Force went to Colchester, VT.  For our FTX we got to go do paintball for the day yesterday.  It was a lot of fun, I had never done it before.  It rained and was muddy, but that made it a little more challenging when running behind all the structures trying to avoid getting hit.  There were speed ball courses that we played elimination on, which is just until one side wins by eliminating all of the opponents.  We were broken into four teams by flights, until the end when we had two sides on a hill and you went until you were either out of paint-balls or were tired of being hit.

The juniors in AFROTC also found out what their jobs would be upon commissioning.  From what I've heard this is earlier than the other branches, some not finding out till their senior year, and others not until after they have commissioned.  This year there were about 4 or 5 pilots, a couple of nuclear engineers, a couple of space and missile officers, as well as other jobs.  In the Air Force, there are many career fields, medical, maintenance, public affairs, developmental engineering, communications, logistics, intelligence, pilots, security forces, as well as others.  For those of you considering the Air Force, but don't know what jobs there are besides pilots, check out afrotc.com or contact an AFROTC detachment.  Another great thing about AFROTC is that if there is not a detachment at a school you are considering, check to see if the university has a cross-town program, which is when you can go to another nearby university to take ROTC classes.

This week I think is going to be mostly tests over the most recent material covered and preparation for projects.  Well I have to go work on a paper, but I'll probably post after Junior Ring weekend this weekend.

Thanks for Reading,

Seth

Hello,

This weekend and last weekend were the spring FTX weekends.  FTX stand for Field Training Exercise.  Each ROTC branch does something different, Navy went to the Maritime Academy in Massachusetts, Marine Corps went to Camp Edwards in Cape Cod, Army sophomores and juniors went to Fort Ethan Allen in Northern Vermont, Army Freshman and Seniors went to Payne Mountain just across State Road 12 here in Northfield, and Air Force went to Colchester, VT.  For our FTX we got to go do paintball for the day yesterday.  It was a lot of fun, I had never done it before.  It rained and was muddy, but that made it a little more challenging when running behind all the structures trying to avoid getting hit.  There were speed ball courses that we played elimination on, which is just until one side wins by eliminating all of the opponents.  We were broken into four teams by flights, until the end when we had two sides on a hill and you went until you were either out of paint-balls or were tired of being hit.

The juniors in AFROTC also found out what their jobs would be upon commissioning.  From what I've heard this is earlier than the other branches, some not finding out till their senior year, and others not until after they have commissioned.  This year there were about 4 or 5 pilots, a couple of nuclear engineers, a couple of space and missile officers, as well as other jobs.  In the Air Force, there are many career fields, medical, maintenance, public affairs, developmental engineering, communications, logistics, intelligence, pilots, security forces, as well as others.  For those of you considering the Air Force, but don't know what jobs there are besides pilots, check out afrotc.com or contact an AFROTC detachment.  Another great thing about AFROTC is that if there is not a detachment at a school you are considering, check to see if the university has a cross-town program, which is when you can go to another nearby university to take ROTC classes.

This week I think is going to be mostly tests over the most recent material covered and preparation for projects.  Well I have to go work on a paper, but I'll probably post after Junior Ring weekend this weekend.

Thanks for Reading,

Seth

The Last Stretch

Hello,

Wow, I can't believe how fast this year has gone.  Right now I just started my last project for engineering and I am getting ready to finish my English final which is a research paper.  This weekend the school held the annual NU-101 open house for next year's incoming freshmen.  The had different activities and we had over 200 future students staying in the dorms over the weekend to get a bit of the experience of being a resident in either the civilian or corps lifestyle.  I helped on Saturday morning to recruit more bloggers for next year.  I am planning to be a blogger again next year, so you can read about my experience as a sophomore in the Corps of Cadets.

Having full privileges is nice.  Unlike before we now can go into town whenever, and we can also wear civilian clothes after 1700, which makes the evenings a little more relaxed, and one of my favorites, listen to music.  The weekends we also have to ourselves.  Most weekends there aren't corps obligations, but if there are we have to participate, but other than that we can hang out, go out to town, go out with friends to Burlington, whatever.  This past weekend was the Marine Corps, Navy, and Sophomore/Junior Army FTX's.  An FTX is a field training exercise.  The Army Freshmen/Senior and Air Force FTX.  I don't know much about what the other branches did, but Air Force is going to do paintball, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Last week and this week Norwich is trying online class registration.  This means that instead of the massive lines and paperwork, we use our online accounts to add classes for next semester.  For the most part the new system is working, but as with anything new, there are a few glitches, like none of next years sophomores can register for Air Force classes and some other classes are giving fits, but we are all learning to be patient with technology and the registrar's office is working to fix it.

Well I have to go to lunch and couple of classes.

Thanks for reading,

Seth

An Exciting Week

Hello,

This week was the week that the freshman in the Corps of Cadet got all of our privileges.  By this I mean that now we can use pockets, shoulder-straps on bags, listen to music, wear civilian clothes after 5 pm everyday and when we leave campus, which we can whenever now.  We can use the Mill at the Wise Campus Center, go visit friends in other dorms, and some other stuff too.  Wednesday afternoon we had what the corps called the "Culminating Event" which was a series of different challenges that we had to complete as a platoon.  We did group PT with the Semper Fi group, a knowledge relay, tire flips/buddy carries/buddy drags, and a race up Payne Mountain to see which platoon could make it the farthest in 12 minutes.  Then after that we formed up in front of Jackman Hall and Cadet Colonel Lanz addressed us, saying that we have come a long way since rook week and that we have a lot ahead of us in the next three years, and then she gave us our new privileges.  So far, everything has been going smoothly, my rook buddies and I took advantage of the Mill privilege the first night, and its been nice having a more relaxed atmosphere.  We still do all of our corps activities, but now we can more like regular college students when not doing corps stuff.

Thursday, the engineering department took the freshmen engineers on a trip to see the new Stowe Mountain Ski Resort.  It is coming along real nice, we got to tour the almost complete Phase II of the lodges and also we got to see the preforming arts center that they are also building.  Then we went up to Burlington and after having lunch at the waterfront, we went to Fletcher-Allen Medical Center and toured the new oncology center that they are building for the hospital.

This weekend is pretty quiet around campus, most of the students went home for Easter.  This weekend I am staying here and getting caught up on some homework and hanging out with friends and enjoying the 70 degree weather we are having.

Thanks for reading,

Seth