What’s New with the Blue Devil Battalion?
By JROTC Cadet Janessa Thomas; JROTC PAO
A Fresh New Start
Every new school year the Winter Haven JROTC Blue Devil Battalion welcomes first year cadets with open arms and aims to teach all the necessities when it comes to leadership and responsibility. Now having completed a full year with Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Kevin Reeves, Senior Army Instructor, is taking charge, aiding in the teaching, and guiding of young cadets alongside Sergeant First Class (retired) Ronald O’Bryon, Army Instructor, in hopes of producing a well-structured program for the future. While Covid-19 may have thrown most for a loop the program stayed strong and was able to make the best and most of the inconvenient situation and take regard for the health and wellness of others. With that being said many service opportunities that the program regularly partake in were canceled, but with patience new cadets will get to experience giving back to the community in events such as Junior Achievement, Special Olympics, and many more as the year progresses. The program’s main goal is to instill a sense of leadership into everyone of the new cadets that step though our doors.
Victory!
The Blue Devil Battalion provides cadets with the chance to take part on teams including drill team, rifle team, color guard, and our raider team. Recently our raider team brought home their first trophy! Our male/mixed team brought home first overall at Teneroc Highschool when competing in a series of events including team 5k, rope bridge, cross country rescue, tire flip, and the fitness challenge. Training most days of the week our raiders strive and work as a team to achieve greatness. We encourage cadets to branch out and try all the teams they can so they can experience true teamwork and understand the structure and what JROTC is about. Our raider team is easily the most physically demanding extracurricular activity in JROTC. The time and effort that our cadets put into this team hoping to achieve greatness will pay off in the end with one first place win under their belt for the year.
