Manhunt sorts soildiers

Ruapehu Bulletin, 10 November 1992, Page 4

Manhunt sorts soildiers

By

Jan

Savell

Staff at the Officer Cadet School (NZ) believe they have found a perfect medium for development of leadership ability - Operation Nemesis.

It is a five-day exercise where six-man teams find checkpoints and complete command tasks while being stalked by a hunter force which consists of army personnel, a helicopter and police dog

teams. Last week the teams competed for the prestigious Nemesis Trophy. A detailed point system places the emphasis on team effort and initiative. All movement must be on foot with full field service marching order (pack, weapons, ammunition) and most groups average 1 10km in five days. When they started at midnight on Monday with one day's rations each team was given a different command task In addition to five OCS(NZ) teams (average age 19), a team of Duke of Edinburgh Award hopefuls also accept the challenge. Each team has a radio and they report once every 12 hours, giving details of their position, checkpoints reached and tasks achieved. A member of the OCS(NZ) staff travels with each team for safety reasons but apart from recording the points for the team they have no input. The hunter force has no access to the information teams radio in but they have daylight use of a helicopter and two police dog-handler teams to aid them in their search for the contestants. The only place the teams can afford to rest is in the 200m safe zones which exist around each checkpoint. Coordinator Captain Jed Shirley believes flexibility is the key to win-. ning "They have to plan, to think as well as using physical ability," he said. "They must find the strengths they have within

the group and utilise them. They are encouraged to be flexible; to change their plan to suit the changing situation while always maintaining the overall aim." Nemesis comes after five months' training and staff believe it is where the cadets find out how much they can push themselves. "They begin to establish benchmarks for themselves as far as physical endurance. They learn how they react when they are under stress, how they treat their peers," said Capt Shirley.