The newest Iowa State University (ISU) Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) midshipmen started the Fall semester going through their New Student Orientation (NSO) Navy and Marine Corps style, learning the ropes of Naval ROTC Sept. 17-19.

"It's no longer all about you," said Capt. Ricks W. Polk, ISU NROTC commanding officer. "When you join the Navy or Marine Corps, you're committing to service above self."

Polk also stressed that orientation week was not boot camp, nor one of the service academies. There were no screaming Drill Instructors, but they would be challenged in plenty of other ways.

Their first big challenge was the PFA (Physical Fitness Assessment for the Navy) and the PFT (Physical Fitness Test for the Marines). In this test, the Navy Option mids were tested on their abilities at curl-ups, push-ups and a mile-and-a-half run, while the Marine Option mids completed pull-ups, curl-ups and a three-mile run.

"The PFA turned out to be harder than I expected, but it was also a great motivator for me to improve my fitness and get better at it," said Midshipman 4th Class Zachary Moolenaar, 18, Escondido, California.

Later in the week students were tested in a different physical area with swim qualifications. If you're going to be joining the Navy, it should be expected that you will get in the water at some point, and it is no different in landlocked Iowa. The students were tested on their ability to swim using four different strokes, use a uniform item as an improvised personal flotation device and execute abandon ship procedures by jumping off a 10-meter platform.

Despite the time spent on physical fitness, NROTC places the heaviest emphasis on academics. The mission here is to get good grades and commission as officers, which is especially important for "college program" students competing for a Navy or Marine Corps scholarship. The class of 2019 is the largest freshman class in six years for Iowa State NROTC. With 22 of 31 freshmen participating in the college program, competition for scholarships is keen.

On Wednesday, students traveled south to the National Guard Base at Camp Dodge to demonstrate leadership and teambuilding on the Leadership Reaction Course (LRC). This course consists of several open air rooms littered with obstacles. Each room presented a different objective that each team of midshipmen had to plan, organize and work to complete.

"The LRC was the best part of the week for me," said freshman Midshipman 4th Class George Peterson. "I was expecting it to be a normal obstacle course, but it was really all about problem solving, team building and leading that team. It did a great job of opening dialogue between us."

In the military it is important to balance family life alongside a military career, so the students were treated to a barbecue with their families to reinforce this tenant. Many of the midshipmen have family members that served in the military themselves.

Midshipman 4th Class McKinley Spading's father Rob Spading served eight years enlisted in the Navy and comes from a family with a long military history. "I love what I've seen of the unit so far. I was impressed with how upbeat and positive all my interactions with the staff were. The CO also made an effort to talk to every one of the parents before we dropped off our son."

The final challenge for the new midshipmen came on Thursday, when they headed to the firing range to conduct weapons familiarization. This is the first time in many years that midshipmen have received firearms training. The support provided by a new local facility and alumni funding allowed the staff to incorporate this element. It is generally expected that men and women joining the military will be taught how to handle a weapon, so showing these new students how to do this right at the start was an exciting opportunity for all.

Even though some of the students had not fired a weapon before, by the end of the day they the opportunity to shoot the AR-15 rifle and were well-versed in the four laws of weapon safety: treat every weapon as if it were loaded, never point your weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot, keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you are ready to fire and keep the weapon on safe until you intend to fire.

The lessons learned this week marked the beginning of a four-year transformation process for these freshmen. They began to form a team and the current senior midshipman and chain of command hopes the NSO prepared the new midshipmen for the journey of shaping the future of the Iowa State NROTC unit, and future Naval and Marine Corps officers.

The NROTC program, overseen by Rear Adm. Steven C. Evans, commander, Naval Service Training Command (NSTC) at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois, was established to develop midshipmen mentally, morally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, loyalty and Navy core values in order to commission college graduates as Naval officers who possess a basic professional background, are motivated toward careers in the Naval service and have a potential for future development in mind and character so as to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.

NSTC oversees 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy's Citizenship Development program. NSTC includes Recruit Training Command (RTC), NROTC units at more than 160 colleges and universities, Officer Training Command (OTC) at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, and Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NNDCC) citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.

For more information on NROTC visit https://www.nrotc.navy.mil/.

For more information on NSTC visit http://www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/ or visit the NSTC Facebook page.

For more news from Naval Service Training Command visit www.navy.mil/.