Colony High School JROTC does well at drill meet

EIELSON -- On Nov. 2, the Colony High School Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) competed in the first statewide drill meet of the season at Eielson High School near Fairbanks.

Colony JROTC has recently decided to make the annual three-day trip to northern Alaska a tradition.

In only the second year in which the Colony JROTC has traveled such a distance to compete in the drill, the 32 cadets who participated this year were excited to take a chartered bus instead of the regular yellow school bus used for last year's trip.

The 40-below weather did not have pity on the cadets last year.

One senior cadet who participated in both drill meets said, "Last year I fell asleep against the side of the bus and woke up with my head frozen to the window."

Needless to say, there were no body parts frozen to the bus windows this year.

There are two main categories of drill -- regulation and exhibition.

Regulation drill is where each school's team performs the exact same movements and the judges score them accordingly.

The other category is exhibition drill, where the cadets develop an elaborate series of movements, many with silent commands.

Judges grade the team on originality, precision and difficulty of movements.

In each of these broad categories, there are subcategories of routines with dummy drill rifles, and without rifles.

Colony High School earned the overall best performance trophy for earning the most points in competition. Several team trophies were awarded to Colony High School students. They wee: first place, regulation armed, C/1Lt. Jen Smart; second place, regulation unarmed, C/Cpt. Ashley Bucholz; second place, first-year cadet drill team, C/Ssg. Anthony Hastings; second place, color guard, C/Sgm. Chad Huggins; second place, first-year cadet color guard, C/Pfc. Kenneth Swan; and second place, exhibition armed, C/1Sg. Chris Wall.

Along with the team competition, there were several individual competitors from Colony High. They were Chris Wall, first place in individual exhibition drill armed; and Jessica Lear, first place in individual regulation drill unarmed.

Following the meet, the cadets went swimming in the Eielson Air Force Base Olympic-sized pool and celebrated their victories at a nearby Chinese food restaurant.

The following day, on Nov. 3, the cadets stopped in Cantwell, where they felt the 7.9 earthquake which was centered just a few miles away.