Once Leah Hansen stepped over the line of departure (LD), a test of her leadership skills began.

An officer candidate to earn a commission in the Washington Army National Guard (WANG), Hansen and 10 other candidates recently honed their leadership skills during a situational training exercise (STX).

To become an officer in the WANG, candidates must be accepted into and successfully complete Officer Candidate School (OCS), which is coordinated and conducted by the 205th Leadership Regiment. It is an intense experience.

"This is a leadership course, and it challenges the candidates," Capt. Michael Vincent, one of the regiment's tactical officers, explained. "We look at this process from the perspective of ‘Can this person be a good leader?'"

WANG officer candidates complete a three- phased training regimen over the course of a year. "It's comparable to the ‘crawl, walk, run' approach the Army uses for training," said Maj. Victor Pirak, one of the regiment's company commanders.

Headquartered in the Guard's Redmond Armory, the regiment also offers an accelerated OCS training course, as well as a four to five month warrant officer school. In the end, though, the schoolhouse is in the field.

"We've got a civilian headed our way," officer candidate Yelena Yatskikh yelled.

"I'm lost," the civilian called out.

"Stop!" officer candidate Tyler Rodil yelled as he raised his M-16 to his shoulder. The civilian froze. The squad's enemy prisoner of war (EPW) team, Yatskikh and Rodil moved in, put the civilian face down on the ground and searched him.

Hansen processed the information and decided to let the civilian go.  

A few hundred meters later, gunfire erupted. An opposing force - or OP4 - had waited patiently in ambush for Hansen's squad. One of the squad's two teams returned fire, attempting to suppress by fire the OP4, while another team maneuvered to the left in order to assault the attackers.

As Hansen worked to coordinate her squad's actions, Vincent made the situation more challenging by throwing a flash/bang grenade and smoke grenade into the situation.

As her team returned fire, another team maneuvered to her left, forming a line of advance to assault on the OP4.

As thick, white smoke drifted over the objective, officer candidate Erik Hoyle, a former Soldier with the 101st Airborne, led the assault. "These training scenarios force you to be a leader," he said moments after neutralizing the threat.

"I wanted to be challenged; I did not want this to be easy," said former Marine Chris Souza. "And this training is all that I could ask for."