It couldn't be the climate, because Waianae High School senior Jennifer Ah King hasn't worn a dry set of camouflage fatigues since she arrived at Schofield Barracks on Sunday to attend her fourth Junior ROTC spring camp.
"The last time it was this bad was during my freshman year four years ago," said Ah King, who serves as a cadet lieutenant colonel and executive officer of Waianae's Army JROTC unit.
So why put up with four to five hours of sleep a night, leaky Army tents, ice cold showers, wearing the same mud-covered fatigues every day and being yelled at by the 25th Infantry Division's 2nd Battalion 27th Infantry, Army Reserve, Army National Guard and Marine Corps trainers?
More than 1,075 students from 24 island schools and 25 students from American Samoa opted to give up their week of spring vacation to challenge themselves at the JROTC encampment, which ends tomorrow morning with a closing ceremony.
Ah King, who would like to enlist in the Marine Corps after graduation this June, is one of 400 female cadets at the encampment. She and her colleagues crawled 20 feet through 2 feet of water in a ditch on their backs.
Togafau, a 20-year Army veteran, said "the training builds up their confidence and helps them work as a team."
Although Kalaheo High School freshman Jacklyn Boik had to cope with long lines to the mess hall and doing push-ups, she still said the week of training so far has been fun.
"It gives me an idea of what military life will be like," said Boik, who wants to join the Navy after graduation.
Retired Lt. Col. Walter Wong, senior Army adviser to St. Louis High School's JROTC detachment, said interest in JROTC picked up under President Bush after a dip in the 1960s, when none of Hawaii's public schools were allowed to have a unit.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Donald Barrell, JROTC coordinator for the state Department of Education, said during the five days of training the students will rappel, cross rope bridges, perform land navigation, receive drown-proof instruction, learn math and science and negotiate a confidence course.
"They will have to build something like a flashlight or a doorbell buzzer for the science module. For math, they might compute how much time it would take a certain number of people to pass through an area.
"It teaches them to reason," he said.