Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Christopher OGrady | Aviation Ordnance 1st Class Joslin Downey, a Recruit Division Commander at Recruit...... read more read more
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WHEELING, ILLINOIS – More than 20 Recruit Training Command (RTC) staff members volunteered at the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) Chicagoland Drill Meet on February 3rd at Wheeling High School.
The NJROTC program is conducted at accredited secondary schools nationwide and taught by instructors who are prior Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard personnel. The program emphasizes citizenship, leadership development, maritime heritage, and the significance of sea power and other naval topics.
RTC staff volunteers served as judges for the events in the drill meet. These events included personnel and uniform inspection, marching inspection, color guard inspection, and exhibition drill inspections.
Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class Joslin Downey, a Recruit Division Commander (RDC) at RTC, was among the 26 RTC staff volunteers at the event. She judged the unarmed exhibition event, where Cadets use their skills to develop, practice, and showcase a drill routine.
“This is the 7th drill meet I have done since being at RTC. Each competition is slightly different, and it’s always great to see the time and effort these high school kids put into these competitions,” said Downey. “We get to have a Q&A with some of these kids and even if they do not end up joining the military, a majority of them have big aspirations and a plan. So that is always awesome to hear.”
RDCs are held to a higher standard of uniform appearance and military bearing being that they train the future of the U.S. Navy. A standard that only helps build these young cadets. These RDCs bring that higher standard to help coach these cadets toward improvement on several levels.
“Being an RDC helped be the subject matter expert when it came to judging how a cadet conducted themselves for a personnel inspection or how they performed their marching movements,” said Downey. “The kids love seeing us out there with all our ribbons and different warfare devices and always have a plethora of questions.”
Retired United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Wayne Beyer, a Senior Naval Science Instructor for the NJROTC program at Wheeling High School, said the volunteer Sailors were paramount to the events success.
“It is important that active-duty military personnel volunteer their time for these events because they model the Navy Core Values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment to the civilian community and some potential future military personnel as well,” said Beyer. “Our program teaches and emphasizes how to become responsible citizens through community service and civic responsibility. What better way to lead by example than having active-duty military personnel volunteer their time to give back to the community, utilizing their unique expertise to serve their community. They model the importance of expertise, professionalism, and community service when they volunteer to be judges at these events.”
The importance of these events is not lost on the instructors or the volunteers. Both NJROTC cadets and military volunteers alike benefit in different ways from these types of events.
“They [drill events] bring together civilians, cadets, and military, both active duty and retired, which is always good for the military community,” said Beyer. “The cadets performing Drill competitions become the bridge between civilians and the military, by showcasing the military's honored traditions of drill. Anything that can help bridge the military-civilian gap is always a positive development. .”
Boot camp is approximately 10 weeks and all enlistees into the U.S. Navy begin their careers at the command. Training includes five warfighting competencies of firefighting, damage control, seamanship, watchstanding, and small arms handling and marksmanship along with physical fitness and lessons in Navy heritage and core values, Warrior Toughness, Life Skills, teamwork and discipline. More than 40,000 recruits train annually at the Navy’s only boot camp.
For more news from Recruit Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/rtc
| Date Taken: | 02.03.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.07.2024 10:15 |
| Story ID: | 463383 |
| Location: | WHEELING, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 299 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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