WHS NJROTC news

This school year has seemed really long, but not to the Wakulla High School NJROTC cadets, because we have been extremely busy. Not only are we helping our community by cleaning the roads of Wakulla and the local Courthouse, we are also busy training for the field meets. We completed one on Nov 17.

For field meets, cadets are selected to participate on the competition teams. For this meet, we traveled to Lake Howell High School in Orlando. It was quite a few miles away from home, but the rewards were well worth the travel.

It all starts with our SNSI (Senior Naval Science Instructor) Captain Ron Huddleston and our NSI (Naval Science Instructor), Lieutenant Mike Steward.

Without them, all that we do could never happen. They decide who will fill the leadership positions of the NJROTC unit including the team commanders. The teams consist of academics, athletics and five drill teams, Basic and Exhibition Drill, with and without rifles, and Color Guard.

These teams do what they do best. The drill teams stay cool and level headed and execute precisely. The academics team studies and studies, just to answer a 100 question test in an hour. Athletic team members compete in cadence push-ups and curl-ups as well as run a 1.25 mile relay race and a 2,000 yard relay race.

The tension is high, but it never stops us from having a great time. While other instructors may disagree with "fraternizing with the enemy," Captain Huddleston encourages us to make new friends. We talked to one of the Lake Howell cadets who was in charge of organizing the event and were awed by her numerous medals and excellent awards.

Aside from making friends, the scores came in, and no one could wait another minute. We earned second place in overall athletics, third in curl-ups and fourth in push-ups. We come in ninth overall and, most importantly, we learned what our competition was like. We now know what to improve on and perfect and we intend to do just that. This year may have felt long so far, but we still have a long way to go!