Army ROTC cadet at UNLV receives national leadership award

As a reconnaissance Marine sergeant four years ago in Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand province, Russell Cameron’s mission focused on disrupting enemy forces and destroying enemy threats.

Now as a UNLV senior and one of the few Army ROTC cadets chosen to receive a George C. Marshall leadership award, Cameron’s goals are to learn how to combat cyber security threats and get a grasp on future military projections for Asia, particularly China.

Those are among the topics he will discuss with some of the Army’s top generals when he attends the George C. Marshall national security leadership seminar in Lexington, Va., in mid-April.

With so much information available on the Internet about training, tactics and weaponry, the U.S. military is potentially vulnerable to cyber terrorists, Cameron said after Army ROTC officials announced the Marshall award recipients last week.

“As far as cyber security goes, we want to mitigate essential information that the enemy could use against us,” he said.

“I’m very honored to be representing UNLV as well as UNR,” said Cameron, referring to Nevada’s two universities. He is one of 200 ROTC cadets selected from 5,500 nationwide for the Marshall award.

Although he’s destined to be a helicopter pilot — “my next big adventure” — after he graduates from UNLV with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, Cameron’s future as an Army officer will lean heavily on his prior service experience as an active duty Marine.

A 1999 graduate of Durango High School, he joined the Marine Corps in 2006 in Las Vegas after his cousin, Aaron Cameron, an enlisted Army soldier, planted a seed in his mind “that I could fit in the military as well.”

“In the Marines, I loved helicopters, insertion and extraction. I really like riding in helicopters,” said Cameron, 32.

After training for a Marine expeditionary unit that included parachute jump school, he deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 as an assistant team leader with 1st Recon Battalion.

In Helmand province that meant enduring a high tempo of operations for a month at a time to go into rural communities on foot patrols.

“We took contact on most of those,” he said about fire fights and encounters with enemy forces. “Sometimes we’d get pinned down in ditches but would get support from F-18s, Predators and helicopters.”

On paper, their job was simple. But in reality, it was often complex and dangerous.

“We were out looking for bad guys and to find out what local people they were harassing and what those people needed,” Cameron said about his six-man team that was part of a platoon of 24 Marines.

“Our mission was to go into a hornet’s nest and find out enemy information. And we found out a lot,” he said.

Several months after his honorable discharge in February 2011, he married, Ethel Llanes, an Army ROTC graduate at UNLV. She currently works as a flight attendant and is an Army Reserve first lieutenant.

“She urged me to give it a shot and try the Army officer side,” he said.

Army Maj. Derek Imig, chairman of the UNLV Military Science Department, praised Cameron for his accomplishments in school and on the battlefield.

Imig said Cameron will graduate with a 3.97 grade-point average. In addition, he received the top score in the Army physical training test. He ran the two miles in 11 minutes, 47 seconds “and earned countless excellence ratings in leadership positions.

“His performance has been nothing less than perfect over the course of his college career and time in UNLV’s ROTC program,” Imig said. “His leadership skills far exceed that of what’s expected at this point in his Army career and this award is a great opportunity to recognize him.”

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Follow him on Twitter @KeithRogers2.