Minn. Encampment Combines Fun, Discipline for Cadets: Photo Journal

2nd Lt. Joseph Calandra Jr.
Assistant Public Affairs Officer
Minnesota Wing

More than 70 Minnesota Wing cadets attended wing encampment this summer, participating in activities ranging from classroom instruction and physical training to a leader’s reaction course and an obstacle course that taught problem-solving under stressful conditions.

Cadet Senior Airman Megan Greshowak of the St. Cloud Composite Squadron shared her biggest takeaway from the activity at the Army National Guard’s Camp Ripley in Little Falls: “Having fun and being disciplined are not two completely different things. That’s what I thought before I came here, but now I know I can have fun and be disciplined at the same time.”

Her observation inspired the central theme of this photo essay, with each image showing ways Greshowak and cadets from other units around the wing learned the same lesson in different ways.

The cadet’s mother, Senior Member Jennifer Greshowak, expressed appreciation for daily updates with photos of encampment activities.

“This was the first time in 17 years that all three of my cadets were away from home all at once,” she said. “I got to send them emails every day, which was huge; but they couldn't reply to them and I couldn’t hear their voices on the phone or see them in person. So the fact that I literally got to see their faces every day having fun and learning discipline, seeing how their lives were being changed forever as that change was happening – that was huge and I’ll never forget it.”