What’s new with the Blue Devil Battalion?
By JROTC Cadet Janessa Thomas; JROTC PAO
Giving Back to the Community
Our JROTC cadets love to give back and play a helpful hand in community service opportunities across the Winter Haven area. Though not required many of the cadets in the program take any opportunity to give back and obtain experience in multiple fields assisting in a multitude of events. Our JROTC program specifically enjoys being able to say we participate and affect so many service organizations with our influence and admirable cadets. Some of the major events that the program has participated in include Special Olympics, held traditionally at the Cypress Lanes Bowling Alley our cadets help citizens with a vast range of disabilities compete in a friendly competition while also bringing awareness. More recently staying true to the holiday season our cadets helped the Optimist International club at Champions Church in Havendale set up their Christmas tree stand in preparation for the upcoming holiday.
Our cadets that gave their time helping in preparation for the Christmas season.
A New Drill Season!
Welcoming new and ready to learn cadets to the drill field we are proud as a battalion at the leaps and bounds our cadets make with their quick-thinking skills and memorization needed to truly solidify a drill team member. With high hopes our cadets steam into the new drill season practicing and showing what extraordinary progress they have made executing commands and building a strong foundation for competitions to come. With the first competition being held in January our commanders for platoon (unit consisting of two or more squads or sections and a headquarters), squad (a small number of soldiers assembled for drill or assigned to some special task), and color guard (a uniformed group, especially of soldiers, police officers, or school representatives, who parade or present their institution's flag on ceremonial occasions) practice hard to whittle out any flaws creating an award winning team in hopes of placing in the upcoming months.
Previous cadets placing at a drill competition at Brooker High School
Raider Team
Raider Competition or "Raider" as it is more commonly known is a very popular athletic competition held within Junior ROTC programs around the United States. It is the Junior ROTC equivalent of the Army ROTC "Ranger" competition in college, only far less dangerous but very challenging as well! Our battalion raiders go through days of training year-round in hopes to place in these rigorous challenges against a multitude of schools in the surrounding areas. While most Raider teams are formed within Army JROTC programs, some of these teams are also found within Marine Corps, Navy and even a few Air Force programs. Most schools who "Raider" have a male team, but almost as many have a mixed team. Some bigger schools also offer a separate female team, or any combination depending on the number of cadets within to participate. As the competitive sport of Raider gains more and more teams, the other three services will likely gain more talent and traction. Regardless, competing in Raider is a great way for JROTC cadets to stay mentally and physically in shape in a military framework.
Our raider team in the last laps of their competition 5k.