In the midst of gunshots, green smoke and cadets gripping their rubber guns, Texas A&M students witnessed a sight that most college students see only in the movies.
The Rudders Rangers, an A&M organization of cadet and non-reg members alike, held their annual Quad Assault Thursday evening, a simulated battle where the Ranger Company is attacked by an enemy force and defeats them using military tactics.
The Quad Assault has been held annually for the past 12 years as a recruiting event to market what the potential new members of the organization could take part in through Rudders Rangers.
Christopher Kostoff, senior international studies major and commanding officer of Rudders Rangers, said that he was eager to see how the members would do after having practiced all week.
Im looking forward to seeing my men come out to perform and to put on a great show for the audience, Kostoff said. They have been training really hard for this event, and its a demonstration to wow the audience with a lot of live action, sound effects and firing.
Though the event was a show for onlookers, Kostoff said it had at its core a practical purpose.
It is all based on true military tactics, Kostoff said. So at the same time that we are presenting the show to potential members, we are also showing them proper tactics.
Joseph Wade, junior manufacturing mechanical engineering technology major, took, part in the Quad Assault on Monday for the second year in a row.
I think it went the best that its been in the last three years, Wade said. This year was pretty high speed. We definitely tried to simulate [real warfare], just for people watching, but its also kind of fun to get into it, because about half of us are planning on doing it after college.
According to Kostoff, all risks had been mitigated before the demonstration to ensure that there would be no danger.
They are not shooting real rounds, Kostoff said. The bullets are blanks, kind of like the movies, where it sounds real and looks real, but theyre not really shooting anything. At no time will the audience be near anything that might explode.
The crowd included a gathering of members from the Corps of Cadets, and officers from the Commandant Staff, as well as non-corps members who stopped by for the show.
Morgan Sinclair, a sophomore nutrition major, said she started watching the demonstration with friends after hearing the noises on campus.
I hadnt even heard of it, Sinclair said. We just walked by here as it was starting, and if I hadnt have known what all this was, I would have been like Oh my gosh.
Sinclairs friend Emily Rosenbaum, a sophomore education major, is dating one of the cadets who performed in the demonstration.
Its exciting but it makes me nervous at the same time because its the real thing, because it will one day be real bullets, and real people, Rosenbaum said. This is safe, but on the front lines, its not always safe.