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Dinner party strengthens bonds
December 07, 2007
Laughter filled Chris Knutzen Hall during the Reserve Officer Training Corps’ Dining In on Nov. 30.
The formal dinner party included humorous skits and lots of teasing, but its main focus was on introducing cadets to the military traditions.
“It’s to teach cadets the military traditions, esprit de corps and camaraderie,” explained senior Melissa Fuller, who co-organized the event with senior Darcy Copeland.
The event was last hosted on campus three years ago. Only members of the unit, which includes the cadets and cadre, along with special guests, are in attendance at Dining Ins. Cadets were required to wear their dress greens, their most formal military attire.
Prior to the event, cadets were given a list detailing the “rules of the mess,” which include things like asking permission to leave the dining hall and eating with your right hand.
The night began with a cocktail hour and receiving line of the PLU cadre and special guest speaker Lt. Col. Steven Donaldson from Fort Lewis. Receiving lines are common in military life, so learning how to correctly proceed through one will be especially helpful to cadets in the future, Fuller said.
“The evening started out really tight,” Fuller said, as this was the first Dining In for most of the cadets and no one was sure what to expect.
The mood quickly changed as dinner got underway and a special punch, called grog, was mixed. It contained about 10 ingredients, with each tied to a specific war or the life of a soldier.
For example, the mix included Tabasco sauce to represent the sting of battle; punch for the spilled blood of soldiers; coffee grounds for the sleepless nights; sticky rice for fight through the rice paddies in the Vietnam War; cane sugar poured from a boot for the Iraq War and the soldiers lost; and a sock for the training the cadets have completed.
Sophomore Ryan York was appointed Mr. Vice, a sort of master of ceremonies. During dinner, York would penalize cadets who failed to follow the rules of the mess or weren’t dressed correctly. Penalties ranged from drinking a glass of grog to singing “I’m a Little Teapot.”
“He did a great job,” Fuller said. “He’d make you do ridiculous stuff.”
The strong camaraderie of the PLU battalion was apparent during dinner, Fuller said. As cadets were called out for breaking the rules, others who were also at fault would voluntary participate in the penalty.
Each class performed a skit after dinner that poked fun at the next class up. For example, the freshman class parodied the sophomore class and so on. The senior class poked fun at the cadre, and the cadre brought it full circle to parody the freshman.
“Because of our camaraderie, you feel like you can make fun of people on a personal level,” Fuller explained. “It helped everyone loosen up.”
The seniors focused their skit on Lt. Col. Gillian Boice, director of the ROTC program. Boice is always telling the cadets how much she loves her husband, so the seniors played off of that, Fuller said.
Donaldson was the guest speaker at the event, and he spoke to the importance of camaraderie in the military. He also commented on the strong bonds he saw between PLU’s cadets.
While the military can be very structured, the cadets often joke around and poke fun at each other during training events, Fuller said.
“If you have those people there with you, you can push through anything,” she said.
University Communications staff writer Megan Haley compiled this report. Comments, questions, ideas? Please contact her at ext. 8691 or at haleymk@plu.edu. Photo by University Photographer Jordan Hartman.
“It’s to teach cadets the military traditions, esprit de corps and camaraderie,” explained senior Melissa Fuller, who co-organized the event with senior Darcy Copeland.
The event was last hosted on campus three years ago. Only members of the unit, which includes the cadets and cadre, along with special guests, are in attendance at Dining Ins. Cadets were required to wear their dress greens, their most formal military attire.
Prior to the event, cadets were given a list detailing the “rules of the mess,” which include things like asking permission to leave the dining hall and eating with your right hand.
The night began with a cocktail hour and receiving line of the PLU cadre and special guest speaker Lt. Col. Steven Donaldson from Fort Lewis. Receiving lines are common in military life, so learning how to correctly proceed through one will be especially helpful to cadets in the future, Fuller said.
“The evening started out really tight,” Fuller said, as this was the first Dining In for most of the cadets and no one was sure what to expect.
The mood quickly changed as dinner got underway and a special punch, called grog, was mixed. It contained about 10 ingredients, with each tied to a specific war or the life of a soldier.
For example, the mix included Tabasco sauce to represent the sting of battle; punch for the spilled blood of soldiers; coffee grounds for the sleepless nights; sticky rice for fight through the rice paddies in the Vietnam War; cane sugar poured from a boot for the Iraq War and the soldiers lost; and a sock for the training the cadets have completed.
Sophomore Ryan York was appointed Mr. Vice, a sort of master of ceremonies. During dinner, York would penalize cadets who failed to follow the rules of the mess or weren’t dressed correctly. Penalties ranged from drinking a glass of grog to singing “I’m a Little Teapot.”
“He did a great job,” Fuller said. “He’d make you do ridiculous stuff.”
The strong camaraderie of the PLU battalion was apparent during dinner, Fuller said. As cadets were called out for breaking the rules, others who were also at fault would voluntary participate in the penalty.
Each class performed a skit after dinner that poked fun at the next class up. For example, the freshman class parodied the sophomore class and so on. The senior class poked fun at the cadre, and the cadre brought it full circle to parody the freshman.
“Because of our camaraderie, you feel like you can make fun of people on a personal level,” Fuller explained. “It helped everyone loosen up.”
The seniors focused their skit on Lt. Col. Gillian Boice, director of the ROTC program. Boice is always telling the cadets how much she loves her husband, so the seniors played off of that, Fuller said.
Donaldson was the guest speaker at the event, and he spoke to the importance of camaraderie in the military. He also commented on the strong bonds he saw between PLU’s cadets.
While the military can be very structured, the cadets often joke around and poke fun at each other during training events, Fuller said.
“If you have those people there with you, you can push through anything,” she said.
University Communications staff writer Megan Haley compiled this report. Comments, questions, ideas? Please contact her at ext. 8691 or at haleymk@plu.edu. Photo by University Photographer Jordan Hartman.