FORT KNOX, Ky. (May 27, 2014) -- Fort Knox is preparing to host almost 8,000 "guests" this summer.
For the first time, the U.S. Army Cadet Command is consolidating its senior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) summer training here, to improve the effectiveness and quality of the Cadet Leader Development Program and the quality of future Army officers.
The consolidation relocates the Leader Development and Assessment Course (LDAC) from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, to Fort Knox.
Cadet Command already conducts its Leader's Training Course (LTC) each summer at Fort Knox.
Conducting both leader development courses at Fort Knox will allow the Army to adapt educational and developmental systems and resources to provide the best training to its future leaders. Between the two courses, there will be approximately 11,000 cadets and supporting staff from colleges across the nation training at Fort Knox during the summer.
Cadets will begin arriving at the post during the first week of June. There will be almost 1,500 cadets, divided into six regiments, going through the four-week LTC. The last regiment will graduate on Aug. 12.
LTC is four weeks of intense classroom and field training. This course is an accelerated version of the initial two years of the Army ROTC curriculum. Attendees at LTC are introduced to the Army, grouped into squads and platoons, and given the opportunity to experience all leadership roles while being coached and mentored by Army commissioned and non-commissioned officers. The course is progressive, with the focus starting with basic soldier skills like drill and ceremony and military customs, through individual skills to collective skills while placing cadets in leadership positions throughout.
Attendees who successfully complete LTC could earn scholarships, and are eligible to sign contracts agreeing to serve as Army officers upon graduation and commissioning.
LDAC is the "capstone" training event for Army ROTC cadets. All cadets attend LDAC during the summer between their junior and senior years in college. They must graduate from LDAC as one of the requirements to be commissioned as Army officers. Its curriculum focuses on putting the cadets in leadership positions in which they direct squads and platoons of their peers in completing exercises and conducting operations. Officers and non-commissioned officers monitor, coach and evaluate their performance, since the LDAC curriculum concentrates on develoing the critical thinking skills the cadets will need as leaders in the complex environments the Army will face in the future.
Approximately 6,200 cadets, divided into 13 regiments, will go through the four-week LDAC. The last LDAC regiment will graduate on Aug. 11.
The U.S. Army Cadet Command is the largest single source of new officers for the Army, commissioning the majority of the Army's new officers each year through the senior ROTC program.
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