Photo By Chief Petty Officer Amanda Kitchner | 190301-N-IY633-1056 NEW ORLEANS (March 1, 2019) – The University of North...... read more read more
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NEW ORLEANS (NNS) -- Future military officers from across the United States made the trip to Tulane University in New Orleans to participate in the 46th annual Mardi Gras Drill Meet, March 1.
One of the largest drill meets in the country, the Tulane Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) unit-hosted meet was attended by 26 teams from 19 different universities spanning all branches of the armed services.
“I hope that each competing unit walks away with the realization that practice and commitment do, in fact, pay off in very rewarding ways,” said Tulane NROTC unit Commanding Officer, Capt. Daniel Senesky. “For the Tulane Midshipman Battalion, I hope that they, too, recognize that the long hours spent planning and coordinating the many facets of this event were well worth it.”
The Mardi Gras Drill Meet is significant to the training and development of Tulane midshipmen, is one of two leadership evaluated events the unit conducts, and is designed to be intermediate in complexity for midshipmen to plan and execute. Leadership evaluated events are exclusive to the Tulane University NROTC unit and intended to provide additional and exceptional leadership, planning, and crisis management training to aspiring Naval and Marine Corps officers.
“The number one focus of the Mardi Gras Drill Meet is to provide leadership development training to our midshipmen. For six months, they have planned and organized everything from security to facilities, with minimal input from the overseeing leadership of the unit,” said Marine Officer Instructor and lead staff advisor of the drill meet, Capt. Donald Meyer. “In fall 2017, the unit staff analyzed the Chief of Naval Operations’ (CNO) and Rear Adm. Bernacchi’s guidance on training and educating future naval officers and then adjusted what the Midshipmen Battalion does to better align with their training lines of effort. We have witnessed significant improvement in our midshipmen’s abilities to manage and solve complex problems because of these events, comparable to those they may experience in the fleet.”
Thanks to the hard work of Tulane midshipmen, the drill meet ran seamlessly. Participating units provide their drill team, which consists of three squads that form a platoon. The platoon, being led by a midshipman, performs basic drill movements and is inspected by Marine Corps and Navy evaluators.
A single squad, led by the squad leader, is later evaluated as the midshipmen perform basic drill movements such as facing movements, close-in ranks marching, presenting arms, and intermediate drill maneuvers.
In the exhibition events, the drill platoons have more free movement and the ability to twirl and toss rifles; this also provides opportunity for single midshipmen to showcase their own drill routines for individual competition scores.
“We really enjoy the leadership experience that we get from this event,” said Midshipman 1/c William Pankey, Tulane’s battalion commander. “It’s great for us to have this as a learning experience and great for the units to come here and get to participate and see what other units bring to the table as well.”
While the afternoon prior to the event and the afternoon following the event were plagued by significantly aggressive rainstorms, the day of the meet remained dry. Even so, part of the leadership evaluation was contingency plans for inclement weather, which many Tulane midshipmen worked feverishly to maintain.
“We definitely have some concerns about the weather,” Pankey added with a laugh. “New Orleans is a rainy city, so we had some issues painting the fields for the drill locations, we have secondary plans and tertiary plans in case of any more downpours.”
The Texas A&M University unit, which made the trip from College Station, finished first overall at the competition followed by Norwich University in second-place, and Army’s United States Military Academy at West Point in third.
“Throughout the day, whenever we had a chance, we came together as a unit and made sure everybody was focused and ready for the events,” said Cadet Fish Roman, Texas A&M University NROTC battalion commander. “It is very humbling, we’ve put in countless hours of training and holding this trophy really drives home that the work paid off.”
The Navy ROTC program develops midshipmen mentally, morally and physically, to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, loyalty and Navy core values. The program provides college graduates an opportunity to commission as naval officers who possess a basic professional background, are motivated toward careers in the naval service, and have potential for future development in mind and character, so as to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.
Rear Adm. Mike Bernacchi, commander, Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), headquartered at Naval Station Great Lakes, supports 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy’s Citizenship Development Program.
Bernacchi and his NSTC staff at Great Lakes and at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, also support Recruit Training Command (RTC), the Navy’s only boot camp, at Great Lakes; NROTC units at more than 160 colleges and universities across the country; Officer Training Command (OTC) in Newport, R. I.; Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NNDCC) citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.
For more information about Navy ROTC, visit https://www.nrotc.navy.mil/. For more information about NSTC, visit http://www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/ or visit the NSTC Facebook pages at https://www.facebook.com/NavalServiceTraining/.
| Date Taken: | 03.01.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 03.04.2019 16:56 |
| Story ID: | 312817 |
| Location: | NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 402 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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