By Nick Malae

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The JROTC program participated in a drill meet held at Kaimuki High School on Jan. 23, which was sponsored by the U.S. West Point Military Academy. While there they participated in two different events, the expert unarmed regulation and the expert color guard.

“Essentially we’re just going to be in front of an instructor, former military or current military, and they (evaluate) us based on our moves. We have a certain area that we’re gonna be operating in for this drill meet, and we just have to go through the commands, we need to execute them crisply, cleanly, we all need to be in step and then they’ll give us an evaluation, and we’ll be competing against schools from across the state,” said Sophomore Travis Afuso of the expert color guard team.

This drill meet is different than all the others, as it is sponsored by the U.S. Military Academy of West Point. “This is the West Point drill meet, from the U.S. military academy at West Point, so they sponsor it, and then there’s the Sergeant Audie-Murphy club, they’re the ones that typically are there, these are active duty soldiers from the 25th infantry division, and also we have the U.S. Marine Corps so these are all active duty evaluators. It’s not some other high school instructors or students, so it is intimidating for these cadets,” said Lt. Col. Timothy Schiller. “Not only does it take discipline, it also takes a lot of confidence because you’re going to be out in the sun, on the grass, there’s going to be a lot of eyes on you including the graders, and sometimes they’re not exactly the most friendly looking, a lot of times. They’re pretty intimidating, but you have to just get past it and do what you have to do,” said Sophomore Jimmie Paeste.

 The next drill meet is the Pacific Regional. “So this is the next round, essentially the state round for drill. We’re gonna be preparing the same routine, essentially perfecting it, and we’re also gonna do another color guard with a novice,” said Afuso.

Although they didn’t place in either of the categories they entered in, the JROTC program kept their heads held high. “I think that our teams did really well considering the practice they had, they really looked great out there,”said Afuso.

From now until the next drill meet, the Pacific Regional, the JROTC cadets will continue to prepare and perfect their routine.