Photo By Joseph P Cirone | A member of the Navy Ceremonial Guard scores the performance, military bearing and...... read more read more
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WASHINGTON – Members of the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) fiercely competed Sept. 27 for an opportunity to present the nation’s colors at the Navy Ball in Washington.
The competition, held at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling (JBAB) and judged by members of the Navy’s elite Ceremonial Guard, matched NJROTC color guard units from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.
When the scores were tallied, Linganore High School’s NJROTC color guard unit, based in Fredrick, Maryland, won the honor to perform at the Navy Ball Oct. 3 in the District. The Ball is part of the Navy’s 239th birthday celebration.
Cadet Brady Brockdorff, of Mt. Airy, Maryland, led the unit to victory and said of the win, “I was nervous, because the other color guard teams were very good. Now, I feel pretty good.”
For Cadet E.J. Assurian, this was his first competition year with the color guard. When asked about the win, he too, said he felt good about it.
“I feel great,” Cadet Braeden Bartrum, of Frederick Maryland, said about the unit’s upcoming performance in front of The Honorable Deputy Secretary of Defense, Robert O. Work, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert and other military, community and corporate leaders.
“Working together; providing opportunities for excellence” is the school’s motto. The Linganore NJROTC unit lived up to the motto by working together to win the competitive color guard drill competition, which provided the opportunity for the unit to advance to the Navy Ball.
“I’m real proud of my teammates, they really stepped it up today,” said Cadet Robert Milburn, also of Mt. Airy.
Competing NJROTC unit members were also confident in their performance.
“I think we did a good job with our cohesion and keeping our military bearing, more so than other units did,” said Cadet Tre’yana Elliott, who belongs to the NJROTC unit at Bell Multicultural High School in the District.
Fellow Bell NJROTC member Frank Alvarado agreed, “I think we did a great job on executing the moves correctly and keeping our military bearing.”
LaPlata (Maryland) High School NJROTC Cadet Kenneth Dutton said, “It’s really cool to be here at JBAB. We worked really hard for this competition.” LaPlata Cadet Samantha Stewart, reinforced Dutton’s statement, “We’ve all worked so hard.”
Zach Cantrell, an NJROTC cadet at King George High School in King George, Virginia, said, “I think we did pretty solid; I have a strong feeling we are going to win it.” King George Cadet Kyle Rollins said, “I think we did very, very well.”
The pressure to win the competition was not lost on the cadets. “Words can’t describe how great it will be to perform at the Navy Ball. It would be very exciting and a big opportunity,” said King George Cadet John Maly.
Bowie (Maryland) High School NJROTC Cadet Patrick Ryan said, “It’s real relaxed here at JBAB, but you still feel the pressure during the competition.”
The King George (Virginia) High School NJROTC unit earned second place and the LaPlata (Maryland) High School NJROTC unit took third place.
Immediately after their performance and well before the scores were announced, as other color guard teams were performing, Brockdorff said of his team’s performance, “We had a few hiccups and there’s always a little bit of stress.”
To reduce the number of hiccups, the unit, like other NJROTC units at the competition, practices an average of two days per week for two hours each day, according to Milburn.
Now in its 15th year, it was the fourth year that JBAB hosted the annual NJROTC drill competition. Prior to the establishment of JBAB in 2010, the prestigious competition was held at the Washington Navy Yard. In September 2010, the event was moved across the Potomac River to Naval Support Facility Anacostia, which became part of JBAB in October 2010.
After the competition, Navy Ceremonial Guard members discussed the scoring with the leaders of each NJROTC unit and their instructors, helping them to improve future performances.
Planning for next year’s competition has already begun. Retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. James Ogawa, the senior naval science instructor at Osborne High School in Manassas, Virginia and the co-coordinator of the event, said he plans to increase the number of NJROTC units represented, with competitors coming from North Carolina, New York and everywhere in between.
“We want to make it an all-day thing, it’ll be fun,” Ogawa concluded.
| Date Taken: | 10.02.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.02.2014 12:18 |
| Story ID: | 144044 |
| Location: | WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, US |
| Web Views: | 290 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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