Jackson hosts first ROTC competition
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff After organizing an ROTC competition at Jackson Liberty High School, members of the Jackson ROTC program competed in the final event, "Knockout," a military version of "Simon Says." In photo above, ROTC student Jessica Kellogg salutes. In photo at right, ROTC student Sean Sullivan stands at attention.

JACKSON - With "Top Gun" precision, 12 Junior ROTC drill teams from high schools in New Jersey, New York and Delaware recently participated in a competition in Jackson.

Air Force Junior ROTC students from Jackson Memorial and Jackson Liberty high schools hosted the event at Jackson Liberty High School.

"There are competitions throughout the school year," said Maj. Mike Macagnone, teacher of aerospace science, who is in charge of the Jackson Air Force Junior ROTC program. "We always attended, but we never hosted one. This year we decided as a leadership management project for our senior cadets, one of our goals was to host an event and invite other schools over since we have the nice facilities at Jackson Liberty."

Macagnone said part of the curriculum is to teach management concepts to the seniors. The students put what they learned into practice by hosting the event.

Eleven Air Force teams and one Marine Corps team participated in the event that was held Feb. 17. Teams came from Long Island, N.Y., the Bronx, N.Y., Delaware and from Brick Township, Southern Regional in Manahawkin, Washington Township High School, Williamstown High School, Bridgeton High School, Cherry Hill, Montclair and Piscataway in New Jersey.

"The competition was tough," Macagnone said. "There were some schools that competed that were already at national competitions. What we hope to do is to have this as a pre-national competition where it is an invitation only type of competition. Since this was our first one, we made it an open competition [this time]."

DeWitt Clinton High School from the Bronx was the winner of the event held at Jackson Liberty.

"They're a school that went to the nationals," Macagnone said. "They were expected to do well."

Macagnone said the competition consists of basic drills, arm drills with a mock M-1 rifle, a color guard competition with flags, an academic oral presentation and an academic test on eight different curriculum areas from the Junior ROTC program.

"Each team is led by a [student] drill team commander who runs the team through their moves," he said. "The judges for the event consisted of the honor guard from McGuire Air Force Base and from the Army National Guard."

Cadets from Jackson Memorial and Jackson Liberty were involved in the planning and execution of the competition.

"At the beginning of the year we sat down and set goals for the year," said Cadet Group Commander Col. George Erickson, a senior at Jackson Memorial who leads 199 cadets in the Jackson program. "Last year we talked a lot about putting on one of these drill competitions, and we wanted to do it. We stared planning last year and this year we decided to put it to work."

He said there were between 500 and 600 cadets at the event and about 300 parents attended.

"It was a huge planning effort, from inviting the schools, getting judges, having food there and planning the closing ceremonies," Erickson said. "It was a lot of work."

There were drills in the morning and more innovative routines in the afternoon. Closing ceremonies were held in the main gym.

"I am extremely happy with the way everything went," he said.

Parents volunteered their time to provide meals, clean and do fundraising activities.

Township Councilwoman Emily Ingram, the parent of an ROTC student, congratulated Jackson Liberty for hosting its first drill competition. She thanked Macagnone and Senior Master Sgt. Charles Latimer for their work with the students. Ingram said parents were impressed with the focus and skills the students have mastered.