Awards and Change of Command

The Linganore NJROTC held its annual Awards/Change of Command ceremony on Tuesday, May 20. When my family and I arrived at 6:00, we discovered that the ceremony did not start for another half an hour. I wondered what we were going to do—then I saw Commander Lane.

After talking with him, my mother and my sisters went to the gym to find good seats, while I followed Commander to the classroom and began preparing for my new job as Master of Ceremonies (MC) for the event. Commander started the ceremony with an introduction of the purpose and thanks to all those who attended. When he gave me the podium, I started to call up recipients of the meritorious awards. These are only given to the top students in each level, and include the Distinguished Cadet and the Honor Cadet awards.

At first, I was a bit nervous to be in front of an audience as an MC without a microphone, but soon I stopped worrying. The audience was attentive, leaving the gym so quiet that my voice carried to the top of the bleachers with little effort. After the meritorious awards, representatives from the Sons of the American Revolution and the Veterans of Foreign Affairs presented awards to cadets whom they believed showed dedication and excellence in the program and in the community. Cadets Romano and Peterson were the recipients.

After these awards, I announced the change of command. I am very proud to say that I have been promoted to Operations Officer (Ops). I will be receiving my training from Cadet Romano, who has been promoted to Executive Officer (XO). In addition, Cadet Peterson is now the Commanding Officer (CO). In a special ceremony, our former CO, Higgins, presented the unit flag to Peterson as a symbol of handing command of the unit to him. Then, Peterson said a few humble words thanking the parents for attending the ceremony and for supporting the cadets in ROTC.

After the closing, parents and cadets convened for refreshments. The cake was cut by both Higgins and Peterson using one of the unit’s ceremonial swords. While the cake was being served, everyone was congratulating the cadets and taking pictures of the new staff. Normally, I don’t like to have my picture taken, but I was so excited to have gotten the officer’s position that I did not mind.

On a final note, I would like to thank the Munley sisters for managing the refreshment table and making sure that the necessary forks, cups, etc were available for use. This is one more detail that they have fine tuned for events over the year. Both sisters have done a great job organizing events and have inspired others to plan and hold additional events for next year.

Memorial Day

I would like to write a few words about Memorial Day. This holiday is important to me, not only because of my affiliation with ROTC, but also because I have many family members who either served or are serving currently. Our service men and women sacrifice their time and often their lives to defend freedom. They deserve to be remembered, but many times this holiday becomes just another occasion to have a party or picnic.

On Monday, I saw people who observed Memorial Day by having picnics and dressing in red, white and blue. These are nice gestures and traditions, but they completely miss the point of the holiday. Not once did I see or hear about a moment of silence for those who have sacrificed for our safety and freedom. I feel ashamed to admit that I did not think about this until afterwards, for I was also too caught up in the celebration. Next year, I hope that more people will celebrate the true spirit of this holiday. I know I will.



Awards/Change of Command

Before I speak about the Awards/ Change of Command Ceremony, I would like to say a few words about Memorial Day. This holiday is important to me, not only because of my affiliation with ROTC, but also because I have many family members who either served or are serving currently. Our servicemen and women sacrifice their time and often their lives to defend freedom. They deserve to be remembered, but many times this holiday becomes just another occasion to have a party or picnic.

On Monday, I saw people who observed Memorial Day by having picnics and dressing in red, white and blue. These are nice gestures and traditions, but they completely miss the point of the holiday. Not once did I see or hear about a moment of silence for those who have sacrificed for our safety and freedom.

I feel ashamed to admit that I did not think about this until afterwards, for I was too caught up in the celebration. Next year, I hope that more people will celebrate the true spirit of this holiday. I know I will.

Navy SEALs Visit

On Thursday May 15, a group of Navy SEALs parachuted into the Linganore stadium. All ROTC students were invited to watch during their first period class, and a few others got wind of the even and came to the stadium, too: I was not able to attend because I was taking an AP test. Many students I have talked to were excited to watch and a few even got videos of the flybys and the SEALs. I hope we can get some of these videos uploaded to a website or computer so that I can link this blog to them. There were many ROTC students in my position who could not attend because of testing, and I would like to be able to give them access to the videos.

So What Happened?

Three SEALs that parachuted after the flyby. At first, there was nothing remarkable about the event. Then, one of the three let off a few smoke bombs of different colors that spiraled around him. My friend Holly said that was one of her favorite parts. After the SEALs landed, they were interviewed by the students. Not many students were there, but the SEALs were positive and answered all of the questions. Topics ranged from their Navy training to details about the planes.
I really wish I could have been there to meet the Navy SEALs. It would have been a great opportunity to talk to active duty men who sacrifice a lot to keep our country safe. For general information on the SEALs, their demonstration schedule, or to learn how to join you can visit the official website at http://www.seal.navy.mil/

If any of the students who watched have any stories they would like to share about the SEAL visit, feel free to comment on this post. I am sure that everyone would love to get your view on the event.

Academic Team Results

Yesterday afternoon I received the results from the Western Almanac NJROTC 2008 spring Academic Postal. These tests were sent off a few weeks ago and I am proud of the results. We had 5 people participate for our school and all of the participants had scores above 70 out of 100.

These scores gave us a total of 403, the highest score out of all the teams that participated. As the first place team, we will be receiving a plaque to display in our case. The second place team had a score of 325, nearly 100 fewer points than ours. The team in third place was a full 123 points behind with a score of 280.

The highest scorer on our team, M. Thews, has been awarded a medal for his achievement. His score was 84, but J. Romano and C. Higgins were close with their scores of 82 and 81.

T. Williams and D. French also participated and deserve mention for their scores of 79 and 77. If the Linganore Academic Team can keep up the good work, it won’t be long until they are known as one of the best teams in the state.

Academic Team

At the beginning of the school year, Tanner asked me to join the Academic Team. I was unable to join because I could not make it to all the practices. The team meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30 to 4:00. I was disappointed because it would have been an honor to be working with another excellent group of ROTC students.

This year is the first year Tanner has run the team, and it has been a challenge for him. On every advisement day, I hear him reminding people about practices and encouraging the members to come. It is important for the team to meet and study for the academic tests they take because teams from all over Area 5 compete. Each team has the best students from their ROTC unit, and the competition is intense

If a person from our team places, he/she gets a medal the wear on his/her uniform. The medal is a symbol of pride and achievement in the ROTC program. Unfortunately, many of the fist year students (NS1s) do not understand this, as they have not been coming to study the material or take the tests.

The Academic tests cover all material learned in a ROTC course. This includes military and drill knowledge, sailing, first aid, history, and many other subjects. There are different levels for students who have completed additional ROTC courses. This makes the test harder, but also makes the achievement greater.

The Linganore Academic Team sends in postal scores. This means that the students take the test at school and mail their answers to the administrator of the test. It is then graded and the score is compared to the scores of other cadets who sent their tests. These postal scores qualify our team for further academic tests. If our team places in a postal match, we get to advance to other competitions.

I have not been able to find out from Tanner whether the Academic Team has won any awards this year. I do know that some NS1 tests have been sent off recently and should be getting scored. I hope the NS1s did well and can earn a medal to wear with pride!