Photo By Carrie Castillo | A junior cadet from Roberto Clemente Community Academy, serving as the student leader,...... read more read more
CHICAGO – They looked over their uniforms for the smallest imperfection. Some instructors yanked berets off their cadets’ heads and strategically placed them back to look straight. Junior cadets stood in line nervously awaiting their turn before entering the platoon inspection event. Each line marched to the next room in a box formation following directions yelled by their student leader.
Inspection was the first of four events during the Chicago Public School’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps drill and ceremony competition hosted at the Carver Military Academy, Dec. 13.
Approximately a thousand students from 45 different JROTC programs representing four different military branches participated in the four-event competition.
Along with the cadets’ experience training to compete, inspection was conducted by some of the noncommissioned officers of the 416th Theater Engineer Command from Darien, Illinois.
“It’s really important for us as full-time Active Reserve Soldiers to be the link between the Reserve and the community,” said Master Sgt. Alex W. Gonzalez, senior maintenance NCO with the 416th TEC. “Me, as a senior NCO, it’s my responsibility to come here and educate these future Soldiers whenever I can. One thing I know for sure is having kids myself, sitting at the high school and also college level, and as a former recruiter, this part is critical as a selling point for the Army. From sixth grade through junior level in high school, everyone wants to be in the Army. Once they get to their senior year that suddenly stops. So I think just us being here and showing them what we do and can do is beneficial to their future careers.”
By bringing in service members from local Reserve, National Guard or active duty commands helps to instill leadership qualities for the cadets. The service members give their knowledge and advice that the cadets can take away for future events that they may participate in.
“Every year we host a drill meet. The different services all have a drill team, and the purpose of having the meet is to have the kids focus on team building,” said Lt. Col. Scott Kochheiser, senior director for the Chicago Public Schools JROTC program. “We put the cadets in charge. The older ones teach the younger ones. They build a team and the leaders emerge through the process.”
Cadets put together their teams completely voluntarily, just like joining the JROTC program at their schools, except for six military academies where all students are required to join as part of their curriculum.
Teams held practices four to five times a week before the competition, usually in the morning before school starts so not to interfere with any after-school activities.
“It pays off, hopefully our hard work and training pays off so that we win,” said Cadet Jerry Dominguez, a senior at Carver Military Academy. “My experience with this entire drill competition has been great, especially since this one is my last.”
Kochheiser said that after high school many of these cadets will never put on a uniform again; however, they begin to take a step forward in self motivation and a sense of pride in their communities.
“The mission of the JROTC and these cadets is to motivate young people to become better citizens,” said Kochheiser. “This competition helps to build their sense of empathy, sense of team work and belonging to something bigger than themselves. The best benefit for the cadets in the program is this competition because it’s not just about winning, it gives them self-worth and values that they can take with them.”
Competitions and meets such as this give the cadets a sense of pride to do something bigger than them. If the cadets are old enough, some have already taken that step and enlisted into the split program with either the Reserve or National Guard component of their branch program as well as the JROTC in their school.
“I am already in the National Guard serving as a 92 Alpha, logistics specialist,” said Dominguez. “Serving in the JROTC program helped me get there. Once I am done with my six-year contract in the Guard, I want to continue on to be in the Marines and carry on my military career, and of course go to college.
Kochheiser said it’s amazing to see how these cadets graduate and go on to the ROTC program at their college. Some have already signed on with the Reserve or National Guard and they email him every year wanting to come back and help the program. He said this builds a sense of community outreach without him having to force it.
“I appreciated the Soldiers from the 416th TEC coming out to grade us (the cadets), and take their time away from their families to help us,” said Dominguez. “It means a lot to me and the other cadets for them to do that for us. For that I would like to thank them. They helped me to feel more confident and sharp to present myself in uniform more like them.”
| Date Taken: | 12.13.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 12.18.2014 11:10 |
| Story ID: | 150622 |
| Location: | IL, US |
| Web Views: | 434 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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