By: Jonathan Pederson
Confused about R-MA’s student structure? Don’t worry, I was too. After four years of participating in the cadet corps, I still mix up thing like Honor Guard and Color Guard–and what exactly is the Drill Team? I needed an easy way to remember which were which. Here are a few easy numeric devices to help you sort them out and an understanding of our structure.
“Drill” means marching as a group. You practice giving and/or following orders. In Air Force JROTC, everyone has to learn to do both well. The drill team, however, does more. It is an extracurricular activity, like a sport. And like a sport, they go and compete against other schools in drill competitions. The drill competitions include a lot of different events. We’ll go into that another time.
Understanding the actual structure of Air Force JROTC itself can be difficult too. The school as a whole is one corps (a large group), commanded by the corps commander. Then it breaks down into four squadrons, which are broken down into flights–a total of eleven flights at our school. Each squadron and flight is commanded by another student leader. Typically, at R-MA, First Squadron holds females, Second Squadron holds under-class students (mostly freshmen and sophomores, sometimes juniors), and Third Squadron holds upper-class students (juniors and seniors), while Band Squadron holds band students. This breaks it down for you.
One more note: Happy Veterans Day to all those who have served in our military! Thank you for all of the sacrifices you have made over the years.