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Life in Junior ROTC

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Contributed by: Kelsey Goldhart on 2/15/2007

Imagine having to wake up before the rising dawn, be in class as the sun rises and live up to Air Force expectations. That's how it is for us Junior ROTC Cadets.

Every other weekday we are driven to another school and taught leadership skills and aerospace science by one of three teachers. Sgt. Bill Hartley is my primary teacher who is currently teaching us third-year cadets about space along with other aspects of aerospace science. His lessons are well-taught and fun to be in. This semester we will be doing experiments on Newton's Laws and maybie launching a few rockets. Not big ones, just little plastic types that don't really go far (unless you count the one that landed in someone's back yard from a gust of wind, which is pretty far considering we are in Falcon).

Once a week we all dress up in our uniforms and get inspected. Inspection is part of our grade so if we don't look sharp, we may get a bad grade. On inspection days, the entire flight dresses in the uniform that we were given at the beginning of the year and tailored to each individual's size and shape. We have to shine our shoes, make sure our hair is off the collar of our jacket, have our ranks clean and straight, any ribbons or awards in order, and that our uniform does not have any lint on it. Seem tough? It is, but thankfully we are good wingmen and help each other out by delinting each others backs and making sure we look like we should. Our uniforms are the same as the Air Force blue uniform, exept for the Junior ROTC patch on the shoulder. The uniform of the week is either Service Dress or Light Weight Open Collar depending on what events are going on. If there is an important event, such as a Drill Competition or Color Guard Event, we wear our Service Dress. On any other occasion it's Open Collar for a more relaxed look.

Drill. Where we all come together and march in formation. Flights are their own drill team, while individuals may be in Color Guard, Armed Drill, Unarmed Drill, or the new Saber Team. Our flight will march in formation in the chilly morning air in preporation of the In-Flight Drill Competition in which every flight will compete to see who is the best at marching while in formation. We have to stay in step with those around us and turn in unison when the flight commander gives us a command. Since my flight has been marching like this for three years, it has become second nature to us, and we easily execute the commands when given (unless it was called on the wrong foot, in which we get confused and usually mess up). Either way we have a great time and get to laugh at our mistakes or applaud ourselves on a good performance.

Fridays are the wild card, however, as we dress in a different uniform and train our physical bodies and not just our minds. We dress in sweats, our commander in blue while the rest of us are in gray, and go out on the track to stretch, warm up and run a mile. Occasionally we run in formation (which is extreemly difficult to do correctly) and have to keep up with each other or get marked down. We run when it is fairly nice, which isn't as nice as we would like it to be as it's only around 7:30 in the morning! Afterwards we play football or basketball and have a blast. Other days when it is too cold we go to the gym and just play a game of basketball or vollyball depending on who wants to play what. No matter what we do, though, some cadets in our flight have gym that day and have to work out twice! Thankfully most bring deodorant of some kind so we're not all smelly by the end of the day.

Drill Team and Color Guard practice during the week in preporation for their competitions or a school sport appearance. Durring school games the teams usually appear and show off their skills while drawing oohs and awes from the crowd. Come into the Junior ROTC classroom in Falcon High School and you can see the trophies they have won. We need to get a case to hold them since we have so many!

That pretty much sums up the life of a Junior Air Force ROTC cadet. Wake up early, march, drill and learn, all before 8:30 a.m. at which time we are dismissed and ride the bus back to Sand Creek High School. Other ROTC classes do the same during the rest of the day, but onlywe Sand Creek kids have to get up so early. Oh, well, it's part of our discipline.

Integrity
Service before self
and Excellence in all we do! (p.s. B FLIGHT RULES!)

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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments

Submitted By: Earl Chang

posted on 3/14/2008 @ 6:09:31 PM

Rated Story

You and your fellow cadets do more by daylight than many others do all day and it's great to see bright young leaders in training. I never went to Junior ROTC but enjoyed it in college. Thanks for sharing Kelsey.

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Submitted By: Daphne Wright

posted on 3/1/2007 @ 10:36:32 PM

Rated Story

Interesting story. I enjoyed reading it. She makes me very proud of our youth.

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Submitted By: Kathy Long

posted on 2/27/2007 @ 3:55:44 PM

(Not Rated)

It makes me proud of these future leaders that they are willing to sacrifice sleep and strive for excellence. Well done!!

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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments