LEXINGTON, Va. (WFXR) — A team of cadets from the Virginia Military Institute recently traveled to Wales to compete in the internationally renowned competition… the Cambrian Patrol. This is the first time in history that an Army ROTC team has accepted the challenge and competed in the grueling event.

It is an annual October tradition in the Welsh mountains of the United Kingdom. Soldiers from more than 30 countries compete in the Cambrian Patrol. The exercise has been around since the 1960’s. This year, VMI became the first school to have an ROTC squad participate in the challenge.

“It doesn’t really feel like it. We were lucky enough for the the chance to get to go. I remember last year when they told us we were going and then it did feel real. in the weeks leading up prior to training and stuff it didn’t feel real like we were going traveling to another country to compete and in an international competition and we were there it still didn’t feel real. We were sitting around and joking you know what are we doing here? How did we end up here? Afterward it was pretty surreal with what we did. It was an awesome feeling,” said VMI Army ROTC Cadet Cody McGuire.

A group of eight VMI Army ROTC Cadets trained for nearly a year for the Cambrian Patrol.
It is a mission-focused, scenario-based exercise where teams conduct a 48-hour patrol through the Welsh Mountains while being assessed on their war fighting skills. The cadets traversed more than 60 kilometers, or about 37 miles, while carrying roughly 70 pounds of gear, and fully immersed themselves into this hyper realistic exercise to complete their assessment. For the VMI crew, there was one thing that got them through the mission.

“I would say resilience it is probably one of the the most important things. The team of guys we had, there was nothing that could stop us. Everybody was super close. There was sometimes we didn’t take it to seriously. Someone would fall down the hill and we would get up and started laughing again. So there is something special about the group of guys that went,” said VMI Army ROTC Cadet Kevin Garroway.

Each team’s patrol performance was assessed and graded on four standards categories: Gold, silver, bronze and certificate of completion. For the VMI team, they earned bronze. They were also the only team to have all of their members complete the exercise.

“I think we were kind of nervous. We really didn’t know what to expect. Like I said it was our firs time doing it. So really we had no parameters for what a grade looked like. But getting that medal was such a great feeling. I don’t think it can like be replicated again,” said VMI Army ROTC Cadet Frederic Riemann.