When he felt like the world was caving in, Caleb Cummings relied on his Air Force ROTC training to ground him. The senior, studying mechanical engineering at Brigham Young University, explains that the mindset he used to lead rigorous ROTC training events also helped him overcome personal tragedies.
Cummings says he didn’t give ROTC much thought until his first year at Utah Valley University (UVU), when he heard about an ROTC scholarship program. His dad was helping him sign up for Army ROTC classes and accidentally signed him up for the Air Force ROTC instead. “I didn’t even know that Air Force ROTC was an option,” he laughs.
He officially started training with the Air Force ROTC in fall 2019 at UVU. Within the first few days, he realized he wanted to stay in the program to develop as a leader. “Leadership skills apply everywhere in your life,” he says, “I need to have integrity, serve others, and strive for excellence in everything that I do.”
After transferring to BYU one year later, Cummings continued studying as a cadet, where he describes participating in several training experiences designed to teach leadership principles. One multi-week training, focused on decision-making, tested his ability to act under pressure, overcome adversity, and problem-solve. “All these different skills that I learned through ROTC helped me stay calm,” he says, “even when people were yelling, even when I was in a time crunch, and even when I was being graded with my future career at stake.”
Cummings has taken on several leadership roles in the Air Force ROTC, including commanding marching groups and even planning training events and leading recruiting efforts. “Getting practice making decisions helped me to choose a way forward and not get overwhelmed when so much comes up all at once,” he says.
But one decision Cummings faced wasn't from the scheduled trainings; instead, it occurred at field training when a fellow cadet broke conduct in a manner that affected multiple people. “Nobody likes a tattletale, but integrity comes first,” Cummings says. “He asked me to cover up for him, and it weighed on me.”
He followed procedure, encouraging the cadet to admit fault, but then reported the incident when the cadet refused. Cummings says that it felt like the best thing he could do at the time—but it resulted in a feeling of loneliness in his group, making him wonder if he had made the right choice after all. “I felt bad,” he admits. But at the end of training, the advising commander expressed his respect for the difficult decision that Cummings made. “His comments made me feel a lot better. It was hard, but I know it was the right thing to do.”
In the midst of developing strong leadership skills and mental endurance, Cummings explains that he was put through a pair of devastating losses. In 2020, his mother passed away from cancer. Then, just four years later, his sister took her own life. “It felt like the whole world was caving in on me,” Cummings says.
“When things fall apart, how do you deal with that? Really, you can’t,” he shares. “I can’t deal with everything on my own, but in the moment—to get through the moment—it has been largely ROTC training that applies and really helps.”
It’s now been two years since the loss of his sister, and Cummings acknowledges the therapy and difficulty he’s gone through to find healing and a sense of normalcy. “Part of what I learned from those crushing experiences is I can now offer help to people who are either currently facing that or who will come up against something like that,” he says.
Set to graduate this month, Cummings readies himself for a mechanical engineering job with the Air Force. He and his wife also recently welcomed their first baby. Through all the changes, decisions, and tragedies, Cummings says he remains grateful for his training: “Those leadership skills—they play out everywhere in your life.”