FORT KNOX, Ky. — Every year, the U.S. Army hosts its largest training event in the nation right here in Kentucky. Around 8,000 Army ROTC cadets gather for training throughout a 100-day period at Fort Knox.

Thursday marks the last day of this summer’s cadet training.

All the cadets at the training are future Army officers. They all must go through Fort Knox’s cadet training and be evaluated before taking the next step in their military careers.

For more than a month, each cadet stays busy, going from one training exercise to the next. On a single day of the training, for example, cadets learn and are evaluated on medical techniques and also learn to properly use gas masks in a tear gas chamber.

“Sometimes it is difficult, because sometimes you don’t know really what you are doing, but they teach you the correct manner so you can have the opportunity to learn first and then to execute the training,” said Adriana Capelas, a cadet from Puerto Rico.

The cadets are tested on each type of training, and their evaluations directly affect their placement in the Army and whether they get the specific type of job they want.

“It gives you essentially all the same, equivalent skills that, say, enlisted personnel get in basic combat training,” explained First Lieutenant Austin Drago, a chemical officer from Fort Stewart, Georgia, who came to Fort Knox for the summer to help train cadets. “It does have a little bit of a different environment, because they‘re being trained to be platoon leaders eventually, so you have to be able to think on your feet, which I think is why that different environment is there. But they get trained on all of those basic soldiering skills to make them successful as a soldier, as well.”

Drago says the gas mask training that he helps lead is uncomfortable, but necessary. During the training, cadets must properly wear their masks in a tear gas chamber, then remove the masks to understand the importance of keeping them on.

“It’s more of a preparatory sort of training, but given the current state of the globe, and some of the countries out there are not exactly quiet about potentially using those, it’s a vital skill set that they need in order to lead troops in potential future conflicts if they did occur,” Drago said.

With red, irritated eyes after his turn in the gas chamber, Brian Rankin, a cadet from California, confirmed the exercise’s importance.

“You learn to trust your war gear, so you understand that my equipment keeps me alive and keeps me safe,” Rankin said.

Fort Knox is the U.S. Army’s Cadet Command Headquarters. Between the thousands of cadets and all the Army officers who fly in to train them, the central Kentucky base swells by about 15,000 people each summer.