Cadet Abhi Guntaka (left), Cadet Brandon Pajarin (center) and Cadet Mackenzie Grohn (right) stretch in unison as the sun rises on Edwards Track on March 10. Credit: Sophia Bella Cutino
On a university campus with a history defined by anti-war student protests, UC Berkeley’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program moves to its own rhythm. Early mornings, repeated drills and synchronized movements prepare undergraduate students for careers leading the nation’s soldiers.
This story was produced for a documentary photography course at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Four days a week, cadets of the Golden Bears Battalion meet before classes and the sun at 6 a.m. for physical and tactical training until dispersing into lecture halls and part-time jobs. The program trains students to become Army officers after graduation, requiring a balance between military structure and the demands of student life.
The contrast between the university’s legacy and a military training program initially drew me in, but my focus quickly shifted to the humanity beneath the uniform, the in-between moments unseen by the rest of campus.
Cadet Jackson Hau sits in the grass with camouflaged face paint and a helmet, listening closely for an approaching enemy to start their practiced ambush attack at the Big C vista point above the UC Berkeley campus on April 16. Credit: Sophia Bella Cutino
I photographed their morning miles on Edwards Track, weightlifting under the bleachers in a bunker-like gym, securing the perimeter of the Foothill parking lot and quietly marching up the trail to the Big C vista point, using only hand signals to communicate. Camouflaging in tall grass amid campus eucalyptus groves, only the bright orange tips of their dummy rifles are visible. A group of seniors will signal the start of the attack by yelling, “Bang, bang, bang, bang!” The rest of the cadets verbally return fire and the seniors respond by lying on their backs, playing dead.
Combined with Combat Casualty Care and Military Science classes, this is the grueling routine that they return to day after day. Watching closely, you can see the discipline subtly built in small gestures, as hands brush their faces with paint, briskly tighten their laces and clasp together motionlessly behind their backs.
But there is also a softness inside that structure. Their youthfulness (they are 18 to 22) and individuality, initially obscured by the formal pageantry of regiment and nation, is overheard in conversations about weekend plans or stress over final exams. You see it in missed steps and exhausted expressions, but also in encouragement and vivacity that counteracts the institutional rigidity.
Each student has a different reason for joining. Some say it’s their opportunity to pursue the American Dream of upward mobility and get a free college education. Others that they’re upholding family traditions. Some simply think it’s cool.
Through repetition and training, the cadets learn to move together. Between commands and cadence, sweaty unscripted moments show how the military mindset moves out of language and into practice.
Senior Cadet Mackenzie Grohn stretches with group after physical training on Edwards Track on March 6. Credit: Sophia Bella Cutino
Cadet Lucas Park camouflages in tall grass with his handheld radio, waiting for the queue to return down the mountain after the ambush training is over at the Big C vista point on April 16. Credit: Sophia Bella Cutino
Cadet Miwa Gudmundsen secures the perimeter with a training rifle while the other cadets prepare to conduct an ambush lane at Foothill Parking Lot overlooking the UC Berkeley campus on March 12. Credit: Sophia Bella Cutino
Cadet Loren Liu spots Cadet Jackson Hau lifting weights in a make-shift gym underneath the bleachers at Edwards Stadium on March 10. Credit: Sophia Bella Cutino
Cadet Miwa Gudmundsen salutes the American flag during morning flag detail outside of ROTC headquarters at Hearst Gymnasium for Women on March 19. Credit: Sophia Bella Cutino
A cadet stands at parade rest during final formation after running multiple miles around Edwards Track on March 6. Credit: Sophia Bella Cutino
Senior Cadets Dan Nguyen and Chris Jung review their presentations before their Leadership Lab class at Hearst Gymnasium for Women on March 6. Credit: Sophia Bella Cutino
Cadets Abhi Guntaka (left), Siena Florence (Center) and Brandon Pajarin (right) stand in line to debrief a training on ambush tactics at Foothill Lot on April 16. Credit: Sophia Bella Cutino
Cadet Fernando Martinez prepares his squad to conduct ambush training in the Foothill Lot on April 16. Credit: Sophia Bella Cutino
Cadets (clockwise from left) Jackson Hau, Gerrard Atkinson, Isshin Shiraishi, Chris Jung, Hyungjin Kim and Fernando Martinez kneel and strategize an ambush attack in the grass near the Big C vista point on March 12. Credit: Sophia Bella Cutino
Sophia Bella Cutino is a documentary photographer and second-year student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. She photographed the university’s Army ROTC program for the Realeyes Magazine documentary photography class with professor Ken Light.
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