Over 11-13 March, the Campbell County High School JROTC Department had another fast paced weekend of competition. They participated in the 5th Annual Seventh Brigade Drill, Academic and Rifle meet in Radcliff, Kentucky. Radcliff is just south of Fort Knox.
Drill and Rifle team members loaded up in three vans and traveled for five hours studying academic and inspection questions. This was in preparation for Saturday morning’s Academic event and the Squad inspection event. Not a minute was wasted.
After arrival and checking into hotel rooms, CCHS teams headed to North Hardin High School for an event recon, outside practice of three events, and one indoor practice. Cadets got some quick dinner and then headed to the hotel to square away uniforms and rest for their competition.
Wake up came at 4:00 AM, with cadets eating by 5:30, and on their way to North Hardin High School by 6 AM. Five cadets participating in the Academic Test spent the time from then until 8:15 AM studying academic questions.
The academic competition for CCHS was at 8:30. It had a 40 question JROTC knowledge portion for 20 minutes and a 10 minute map reading portion. Cadets had the honor of seeing Major General McDonald, the Commander of Cadet Command during this event and throughout the day.
The rest of the morning was fast! First came a short practice, pictures, and platoon Regulation drill at 9:50 AM. Cadets barely finished the test before speeding to the drill evaluation. Cadets then quickly geared up for the male and female color guards. Both teams did a short practice, and then completed their events: 10:20 for the males and 11:00 for the females.
With just seconds to spare, everyone (minus the rifle team) loaded up and headed a short distance down the road to a middle school gym for the Squad Inspection and Squad Regulation drill events. The inspection consisted of three drill sergeants quizzing a nine cadet squad with intense questions. After this grueling, cadets marched to the squad picture and directly into Squad Regulation at 12:50. This was the end of the Drill team’s big events for the day.
Next came the Rifle team’s chance to shine 5 miles down the road at John Hardin’s shooting range at 2:00. By around 3:00, all cadets finally found a little time to relax, until exhibition practice for Sunday’s Squad and Platoon Exhibition competitions.
The rest of Saturday’s activities featured two individual knockout drill competitions, and an awards ceremony. CCHS’ drill day ended with a fifth place trophy in Squad Inspection (Commanded by Adam Hunter) and a ninth place medal (won by Laura Ayers) in Individual Armed knock-out. Nick Osborne barely missed a medal by getting 26th place. Simple mental errors at three different points kept remaining elements out of the trophy brackets.
After a JROTC funded dinner at the Golden Corral, CCHS teams got back to their beds at 12:00 AM. Coupling this with clocks springing forward, gave cadets little rest before Sunday’s events.
The first event Sunday was Squad Exhibition at 8:40, with pictures at 8:30. CCHS placed 5th in this event and got a very good rise out of the crowd who thoroughly enjoyed the “Cougar Rumble”.
The Cougars then participated in the dual and individual portions of exhibition. Adam Hunter and Brandon Johnson earned 5th place medals in the dual, based on their humor and entertainment. Brandon Johnson placed 6th in individual.
The last event of the competition was Platoon Exhibition. This was also a crowd pleaser, and apparently a judge pleaser as CCHS won 2nd place under the command of Cadet Brandon Johnson.
Over all, Campbell County High School tied for sixth place with Springfield High School in the entire two day drill meet. They earned one second, one third and one fifth place trophy, as well as three medals in a competition that included 43 high school teams from Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Cadets departed Kentucky at 3:30 and got back to the CCHS at 8:30 PM, put up equipment, and went home for some rest before school the very next day. All team members did exceptionally well over this action packed weekend.
