When Caleb Grossman\u2019s \u201926 grandfather learned of his grandson\u2019s desire to serve his country in the military, he was supportive.<\/p>\n
Actually, the Air Force veteran was downright elated.<\/p>\n
However, Grossman\u2019s grandfather, Henry Cebrick, who died during Grossman\u2019s freshman year at The University of Scranton, also wanted more for his grandson.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted me to go to college and get an education,\u201d Grossman said. \u201cThat was a huge motivator for me to come to The University of Scranton and he was thrilled when he found out that I was doing college and the Army.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grossman, an international studies major from Swoyersville and a member of Scranton\u2019s Reserve Officers\u2019 Training Corps (ROTC) program, recently completed the U.S. Army\u2019s Sapper Leader Course in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.<\/p>\n
It is an extremely challenging 28-day leadership course for combat engineers. According to Grossman, his unit had a 71% attrition rate; 16 of 55 earned the Sapper tab.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first two weeks were general skills: learning explosives, building explosives, conducting breechings on roads, bridges and buildings, learning mountaineering, rappelling off of 130-foot cliffs, water operations, jumping out of helicopters and chinooks into the water,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThe last two weeks were patrolling in the Ozark Mountains, conducting missions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The course tested Grossman in every sense, including physical exhaustion from sleeping as little as 30 minutes and no more than a few hours per night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were times when I\u2019d wake up from that 30-minute nap and would love to just not do whatever it is I\u2019m about to do. But, I was really thinking about all the people who had supported me: my parents, my family, everyone who helped me train. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI eventually had to come back to school. So, I couldn\u2019t fail one of the phases, recycle and try again. It was either win or don\u2019t come back at all. I had to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The son of Lloyd Grossman and Joan Grossman, a health and human performance professor, Caleb Grossman intends on serving in active duty and eventually in a special forces unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants to be all-in for Army,\u201d said Jay Wenger, professor of military science and leader of the Royal Warrior Army ROTC Battalion at Scranton.<\/p>\n
Grossman participated this past summer in two additional U.S. Army trainings at Fort Drum, New York, and Fort Knox, Kentucky.\u00a0Grossman earned the George C. Marshall Leadership Award at Scranton and he is the cadet battalion commander for Scranton ROTC.<\/p>\n
Grossman said the discipline needed to graduate Sapper school was partly instilled in him at Scranton.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re waking up every morning at 6 a.m. to go to a workout, you feel better \u2026 it makes your mind sharper, you feel more aware in class,\u201d Grossman said. \u201cEveryone else in ROTC has really good grades. If they\u2019re able to do it, it pushes you to study hard and to not waste any time doing things that maybe aren\u2019t as beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grossman enjoys the camaraderie of the University\u2019s ROTC program and said it has set him up to be a stronger student and better person, adding that he\u2019s traveled to 10 countries because of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been able to push myself to limits that I never thought possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Caleb Grossman\u2019s \u201926 grandfather learned of his grandson\u2019s desire to serve his country in the military, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[15723,15722,15725,178,180,179,274,15724],"class_list":["post-23684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-rotc","tag-royal-warrior-battalion","tag-sapper","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-the-university-of-scranton","tag-u-s-army"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}