Life of a Cadet

Johnathan Grigg

Ms. Smith

ERH 102-01

10-13-16

Broken Perfection

“Rats, meet your cadre!”, one of the first things heard on the first day of hell week. From this moment on I knew that the next 6-7 months of my life was going to be very different than what I had expected. For this I had my lovely cadre to thank. Little did I know that on my first day at VMI I would be stepping into the eyes of a community much bigger than anything I had ever been involved with and that my cadre would hold me to a higher standard than I had even held myself at times, causing me to push myself farther physically and mentally than I had ever gone before. Words like hateful, demeaning, arrogant are all words that could be used to describe Cadre but you learn that without them in your lives your chances of success at VMI would significantly decrease.

Cadre are meant to break you down to your core and strip out every piece of individuality within you and then from the bottom start to build you back up. In order to have the privilege breaking down rats you must first be selected to be cadre. With that being said it is not something that just anyone can do. To get selected to be cadre you generally need to have a good disciplinary record, good grades and a good physical fitness score. Additional to those requirements you must work well with others and have respect among the cadre community. Having respect from the current cadre community is perhaps the most important aspect for one to focus on when attempting to be initiated into the cadre community because it is your current cadre that will solely choose who becomes

corporals next year. you must also be picked as one of the best corporals out of hell week in order to advance. You begin hell week with 10 corporals and only 4 move on to become squad leaders. However with that being said the majority of the Cadre that isn’t called to be a squad leader after hell week still serves during the year as a corporal in the cadre. but instead of being a primary squad leader they are a reserve corporal and are used when one of the other four corporals can’t make it. After serving a year as a corporal if you wish to become a sergeant and receive an officer position you must go and have several meetings before the commandants staff and then you must submit a list of what roles you wish to have and the staff will deliberate over which position would work best for you and then you will be assigned your role as a officer. Therefore in the cadre community there are many different aspects of leadership roles in fact there are eight different leadership positions in cadre. All of which possess different roles and responsibilities. For example the most important role would be the CO or the commanding officer. The CO is in charge of the entire company and there is only one per company. One step down from the CO there is the XO and the FPL (first platoon lieutenant). You can not become a CO, XO or FPL if you are not a first class-men. The unique thing about Cadre is that every title you receive is earned and not given. By that I mean that in order to reach a position like CO you must prove yourself to be a leader during your time with cadre as a third and second. Becoming a member of cadre is no easy job and each member is held to an extremely high standard because they are mainly the ones that will be responsible for shaping the future of VMI.With that responsibility cadre are all granted a certain amount of respect from Rats.

Cadre receives respect from Rats primarily because they demand it however they also receive respect because they take literally hours out of their week and weeks out of

their summers in order to train us with the hopes of us one day being able to become cadets. Rats show cadre respect primarily in which they communicate with one another. From day one at VMI rats will here the phrase “don’t cut your eyes”. This merely means don’t look at anything other that what is directly in front of you. If you are able to achieve this task of not cutting your eyes it shows your cadre that you are listening to what they tell you to do no matter how big or small and it shows that you respect them. Believe it or not body language plays a huge part in communication and it lets someone know if the words coming out of there mouth are truly what they mean so doing simple things like standing at attention or displaying simple military discipline are all ways you can communicate with your cadre that you respect them and the system in which they are trying to push you through.

Cadre also show their own specialized way of communication (swales, 221) with the members of the community themselves. For example instead of referring to each other by first names they communicate to each other by there rank followed by there last name. Another example of how cadre communicate within the ranks they will say things like “corporals post” which communicates to the corporals that they need to get at the front of each squad.In addition to that they communicate with one another for some issues by going down a chain for command so by that I mean that a CO, XO or FPL will give an order to their sergeants and then the Sergeants will deliver that order to the corporals and then the corporals will help execute that order with the Rats.

Rats executing orders passed down through the chain of command by cadre is essentially the core of the ratline. The majority of the time the tools (Kain and Wardle, 277) that cadre uses in training rats is what seems to be a simple set of orders just passed down

to Rats and expected to be performed to perfection. An example of this would take place every Wednesday during cadre training time. Cadre training time is an exercise conducted every week with the hopes of an During these training sessions cadre will teach rats how to do things like break down and clean their rifles as well as set up various uniforms. After being instructed on how to do whatever the task at hand is the rats will be tested on what they had just learned and Rats will continue to be tested upon proper completion of the assignment. Cadre will often use the tool of what seems to be controlled chaos while asking a Rat to perform a test, by this I mean that Cadre will do things like yell or give you less time than needed to complete the assigned task. This is done because Cadre want Rats to understand the entirety of what they are doing and by making Rats perform in a chaotic environment it makes the people who don’t understand what they are doing stick out even more and this allows cadre to pull them to the side and give them more instruction on how to complete the task at hand.

As each task is completed Rats move closer and closer to completing cadres main objective which is to turn rats into model cadets. At VMI cadre will consistently speak to Rats saying that everything is done for a purpose. With that being said, during hell week my CO, Mr.Stuart told me, “The Rat line is not a sprint but a Marathon”. This resonated with me because it made me realize that although Cadres final goal is for the Rats to become model cadets, I realized that there are many other goals we must meet in our rat line as there are many checkpoints in a long marathon before we can reach the final destination. When Cadre feels that the Rats have properly met all of the goals placed before them and that they are ready to come together as a class and be recognized as cadets at the institute they have one final challenge that we must accomplish. The final challenge is called “Breakout”.

This challenge consists of is a day long event and it is essentially meant to be the most difficult workout of your life. Breakout will challenge you physically and mentally and if you can accomplish it you will have successfully broken out of the rat line and completed the ultimate objective of your cadre which is being recognized as a model cadet that has been prepared for four successful years at the Virginia Military Institute.

Breaking you down to your core and rebuilding you from your brokenness. That is essentially What Cadre does. It is a community that contains a tremendous amount of responsibility at VMI. When interviewing a Cadre member I asked him why did you choose to join the cadre after your rat year. He responded by telling me that he saw becoming apart of the Cadre community as a way to improve his future because he knew that having the background of leading cadets would make his résumé much more attractive to future. Everything at this institute is earned not given and He wanted to ensure that the Rat Mass of 2017+3 would have the long and painstaking marathon required in order to earn the title of a VMI cadet.

Garrett Grigg

Ms. Smith

ERH 101-01

11-13-16

Same Facts Different Story

Medical Marijuana, perhaps one of the most popular and controversial medical topics of our generation. With that being known, America is a nation that is made great by essentially allowing the people to choose their own futures whether that’s how they are medicated, cared for etc.. However although it is the peoples choice that does not mean that there will not be media available that will attempt to expose certain facts to the general public and persuade opinions from being for something to being against it. When referring to a controversial topic especially in in the field of medical science it becomes evident that articles written are generally slanted to either being for or being against something and the incentive behind writing the article can be different for each writer.

When looking at an article one of the first things each reader should look at is whether or not the article is coming from a credible source. One of the first things I did when analyzing an article that CNN put out on Medical Marijuana was to see who wrote it and what their qualifications were. The author of the article “Its time for a medical marijuana revolution” was Dr. Sanjay Gupta who also happened to be a chief medical correspondent for CNN. After doing some research I was able to find out that Dr.Gupta is a practicing neurosurgeon who had spent years learning about marijuana before writing the article. So with that being said I knew it was safe to conclude that he was certainly entitled to having his own opinion on the topic. However that did not mean that everything he said was an absolute fact.

After finding out the writers qualifications it is important to know what audience the author is trying to reach and whether or not the author has a bias or not upon writing the article. In the article Dr. Gupta wrote it becomes rather evident that he is trying to reach out to a younger audience predominantly people 18-34. My reasoning behind this number is that the article he wrote was essentially a conclusion to a show that he was a feature on CNN’s prime time documentary “WEED”, this award winning documentary was the No.1 show on cable t.v in its timeslot and it controlled most of the younger crowd and according to the national data from Nielsen. so naturally a concluding article would certainly be for the main audience of the show. Secondly with Dr. Gupta having a message to send to the younger crowd you must wonder what he wants them to do or if perhaps he is simply telling them something that he knows they already believe in, in order to gain popularity. In order to see if the author for the article has a bias or not we must look at things like the vocabulary or phrases included in the article that are put there in an attempt to persuade the reader one way or the other. In the article “time for a medical marijuana revolution” it becomes extremely evident that the author of the article is for medical marijuana and thinks that it should be legalized. One of the reasons we can be sure about this is because the very last sentence of his article was So, here it is “We should legalize medical marijuana. We should do it nationally. And, we should do it now.”. However even if there was not that quote at the end of his article and even if the title of the article was different we would still as readers be able to identify his position on the topic based off of his rhetoric that took place during his article. Throughout the entirety of the article Dr. Gupta primarily focuses on success stories of medical marijuana and does not list any of the possible risks or dangers that have to do with the drug.With that being said this does not mean what Dr. Gupta is wrong nor does it mean that he is a poor journalist. All it means is that basically he favors the legalization of medical marijuana and that it in turn affects his literary style when writing on the topic.

However although the article for CNN was written by a medical professional that does not mean that the article was a essentially a medical review of the effectiveness of medical Marijuana. A good example of an article that puts out a medical review of the drug would be an article titled “medical marijuana and the mind”. This article was published by the Harvard health publications which is also the same publishing that is used for all articles put out for the Harvard medical school. The article is composed of data collected from several different articles including the “The Science of Marijuana, Second Edition” which was published by the oxford university press in 2008 along with “Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine” which was published by Yale in 1997. Without question the data listen in the article can be concluded to be accurate do to the extraneous s vetting system done by the Yale and Oxford publishing companies before putting there name on it. The main difference between the CNN article on medical marijuana vs, the Harvard article is that the Harvard article seems to portray a much more neutral stance that is more factually based. This can be seen in the Harvard article because there are valid points made supporting each side. An example of this can be seen at the beginning of the article when it speaks on the problem with research in medical marijuana in itself. Harvard addresses the fact that the majority of the research that has been conducted on marijuana was done on people that had been smoking it recreationally vs. Just for medical purposes. This type of research can produce confusing results because marijuana is going to have much less of an impact on a healthy person that is a regular consumer vs . An unhealthy person that has never used the substance before. With that being said the article continues to go on and state that medical marijuana can be proven to be very effective when someone is experiencing nerve pain or chemotherapy nausea. Medical marijuana was also proven to be effective in increasing ones appetite and helping people with AIDS wasting syndrome. Although medical marijuana was proven to be useful for the medical conditions listed above the Harvard article goes on to say that medical marijuana is not a safe form of medication in regards to psychiatric disorders. Contrary to the popular belief that medical marijuana can be used to treat psychiatric

disorders such as PTSD or Bi-polar disorder, The Harvard article proves tries to point out that it is more of a risk than a reward to try and implement the use of marijuana as a medication for these disorders. One of the main reasons for their argument that marijuana should not be used to treat psychiatric disorders is because the majority of the studies done with marijuana in regards to psychiatric disorders are found to be inconclusive and the reasoning behind why they are all inconclusive is because the human brain is affected differently by the drug based on the dosage of marijuana that is consumed. Additionally, the effect of marijuana on each person can be different for each person due to their inborn genetic vulnerability.

With that being said, when analyzing the articles next to each other it is clear that there are many similarities and differences that can be found in them. One of the first differences you can notice in the articles is not a small difference in a certain fact or a simple disagreement between the two. The primary difference in these two articles is the way in which they are fundamentally written and the intent behind writing them. Dr. Sanjay Gupta from CNN had been more focused on writing a article that would inspire people to joining the medical marijuana revolution and due to that he primarily focused on sharing success stories and the pros of medical marijuana without really bringing the cons into question. Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s article was more of a statement of how popular culture is changing into the support of medical marijuana. Contrary to Dr. Guptas article for CNN. The Harvard health publications put out a article that was primarily neutral. The intent of the article was not to persuade people in one direction or the other and it was not to comment on how popular culture now felt about the substance. The article from the Harvard health publications was simply a published list of facts that weighed the pros and cons of marijuana in order to determine whether or not it would be an effective drug for physical and psychiatric disorders and illnesses.

How is it that two articles that both contain similar facts be so different? This is taken place through the rhetoric used within each article. The rhetoric that an author uses is crucial to the message

conveyed to readers because your rhetoric is essentially everything from your vocabulary to your sentence structure which in turn creates a tone which then in turn creates a clear message that the author wants his readers to understand. In the case of these two articles it was clear that one author was trying to inspire a revolution and the other author was just trying to formulate an opinion bases off of scientific facts, although they both highlighted medical details about the substance it was due to the rhetoric contained within them that they were both able to reach out to such different audiences.

Garrett Grigg Help Received:

Ms. Smith

Writing and Rhetoric

September 13th 2016

Authentic

November 5th 2012, I was 14 years old and had just started typing my first research paper. After hitting roadblock after roadblock, I finally conceded into asking my dad for some advice. The only advice he gave me was three words “Do you care?”. To this day I have applied that same question to just about everything I do. It came to my knowledge that if you truly can find some way to care about whatever that task at hand is, then in will show through your effort as well as improve your literary skills.

Anyways, back to the story after hearing this advice from my father the first thing I did with my current research paper was to move it into my trash folder on my computer because I realized that if I didn’t even believe in the importance of what I was typing than why on earth would anyone else. When I started fresh on my research paper, I dug deeper for facts that I thought were truly relevant to the topic. Through doing this it increased my interest in the topic and I found that it generally resulted in better and more credible sources rather than just clicking on the first google website that had popped up. After compiling my facts together and putting them into research paper format the paper was ready to submit. Before turning in the paper I realized that it was one of the first times I was able to say that I was proud of the paper that was sitting before me. After turning it in I ended up only getting a C on that paper but it was mostly for grammatical errors not so much for the content within. However, although I only got a C, I

knew from that point on it did not matter what the topic was but if I could just find a way to find an interest in what I was writing that it would help me tremendously in both writing the paper itself along with educating myself on the topic.

Fast forward down the road, I’m a junior in high school and I am told to write a four page paper on what writing is to me. After not being able to find even remotely find a place to start, I again conceded into asking my father for advice. just as he had done three years ago he looked at me and said three simple words “do you care?”. I looked at my father and said well of course I care about getting a good grade on this paper it counts for 15% of my final grade. My father laughed and he said “ok son well forget the grades, do you care about writing?”. This question made me stop and think for a second, I responded by saying yea I guess I kind of do and my dad said “very well then just write about why you care about it”. I continued on writing that paper and I discussed what writing meant to me, specifically I wrote the paper on how writing to me was an outlet for self expression and individuality. I talked about how writing could make you go from feeling like a cow in a pasture to a horse in a race. By this I mean that writing can add purpose and motivation to ones life. This really was one of the first times that I truly loved what I was writing because I was able to freely voice my own thoughts. Some of my peers struggled with this but because of that one question my dad had asked me when I was 14 years old my own thoughts came just spewed out of me rather easily. By the time that paper was over I ended up needing more than five pages to talk about what all writing meant to me. I ended up getting a B+ on that paper and my teacher told me that she thought I had a very unique outlook on life and I will never forget that being one of my most favorite compliments ever receiving.

Furthermore, I would consider my father one of the greatest literary sponsors of all time not because of what he taught me but because of what he showed me. My father did not put

ideas in my head or show me a specific style to write he simply asked me a basic question that he knew would open my eyes to the limitless possibilities that lay within the literary world and that all I had to do was stop trying to make my papers live up to someone else’s standards but just make them live up to your own because the majority of the time you yourself are your hardest critic. Fast forward` again, it’s been just about two years since my junior year paper and I am now currently a freshmen in college and I have just received my first writing assignment. The class was told to find there own literary sponsor and write a paper talking about how they affected their everyday writing. So for the first time in my 18 years here on earth instead of asking myself “do you care” when starting my paper. I asked myself well who made you care? The answer to that question was easy and I have always known that it was my father. However then a second question came to me and it was why do you write what you write. In other words what part of your life has the most influence on you when it comes to the material you put forth and the voice you portray in your writings? Believe it or not I would have to give the credit to my parents for having me born as a middle child. Being the middle child in my family served as a literary sponsor in itself because it made me a very open and un-biased writer. When you are known for being the mediator in your family and you live in a family which virtually disagrees on everything you learn to see multiple sides of each story and instead of trying to argue with someone over there beliefs on a certain topic.

When writing today I consistently find myself just trying to understand where certain people are coming from more and more each day. Additionally I also find myself looking into a variety of different topics each day whether it be in class or in my free time and asking myself how this topic could apply to me and why I should care about the topic at hand.This however, applies directly to my literary writing style because it has taught me that sometimes the most

conventional way of doing something may not always be the best way for you and that you should stay open to other peoples thoughts and suggestions when it comes to writing but at the same time remain true to the authenticity that your own voice holds.