Orange Park High School NJROTC

Raider reviewNewsletter – September 2018

Welcome back raiders! We hope you had a safe and fun summer. Things are kicking off to a great start with the NJROTC unit. Over 50 new cadets have joined our family and many of them are already training to be in the upcoming competitions. We are excited to see what this year entails and we appreciate everyone’s continued support and encouragement. Special thanks to the parents that have stopped by to show their support.

Upcoming Events: September 15th Fleming Island Fun Meet

This fun meet consist of all year cadets. This meet includes, team competition, tug of war, 16x100, 8x220, dizzy izzy, sand bag relay, circle race, push-ups, and sit-ups.

October 20th- Nease NS1 Meet This drill meet is designed for our first-year cadets. We have been

preparing our teams for the last 2 weeks and we are excited to show them off at Nease High School. They will be competing

against other NJROTC units in events such as: unarmed basic, color guard, academics, and several athletic events; including a Humvee push, a basketball shootout, and tire flip.

October 20th – Arm Forces 5K Practice for our yearly run in the Arm Forces 5k, we will begin

September 17th every Monday and Wednesday from 3-4:30pm. We hope to take home 1st place again, like we did last year, so come show your support for the runners in the downtown Jacksonville area and meet them at the finish line. **Parents are welcome to attend all events**

Congratulations to our 2018 – 2019 staff!!Commanding Officers: Lt. JG’s Hardy and Cook

Executive Officer: Lt. JG’s Caburian and Lemond

Operations Officer: Lt. JG Redmon and PO1 Bowyer

(Asst. PO3 Leisher P.)

Administrative Chief: Ensign Mills (Asst. PO2 Birkholz)

Senior Chief: CPO Birkholz (Asst. PO3 Leisher A. and Bunn)

Public Affairs Officer: PO3 Restall (Asst. PO3 De Jesus)

Supply Chief: PO3 Patton and Thompson

Ordnance Chief: PO3 Albert (Asst. SN Ellis A. and Ellis D.)

And our team commanders!!Unarmed Ex: Lt. JG Lemond

Armed Basic: Ensign Mills

Armed Ex: Lt. JG Cook

Colour Guard: CPO Birkholz

Academics: Lt. JG Hardy and PO2 Birkholz

Athletics: Lt. JG Redmon (Asst. Leisher, A. and Underwood)

Unarmed Basic: Lt. JG Caburian

Marksmanship: Lt. JG Cook

CPO: Chief Petty Officer Lt. JG- Lieutenant Junior Grade

PO3: Petty Officer 3rd ClassNews:

New Cadet Orientation

Our upcoming cadets got a jumpstart this year! Eager to join the unit, students came to the New Cadet Orientation from August 7th to August 9th and learned basic knowledge that the Naval Science class teaches throughout the school year.

The orientation was led by the older cadets already in the unit. They taught the first-year cadets about the chain of command, general orders, position of attention, as well

as an introduction to the NJROTC competition teams. Each morning started off doing some light physical training and on the last day, we rewarded them with a pizza party and played games such as the dizzy izzy and tug-of-war.

Leadership Academy

Over the summer, we sent four of our cadets to Leadership Academy at the Georgia Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia. They attended the Academy from June 10th to June 16th and spent the week in military-style living conditions. This includes drills, PT, preparing sleeping bunks, personnel inspections, and learning leadership skills and values. They

came back with their distinguishable silver cords on their shoulders, making our unit proud. Congratulations to these honored cadets: Alexis Bowyer, Angel Hardy, Dakota Birkholz, and Yuriah Cook.

Uniform: Every new cadet in the unit has received about $300 worth of NJROTC uniform items and they are expected to wear it every Thursday. We ask that the parents please encourage your cadet to properly maintain and wear their uniform, for it is a major part of the overall grade in this class. We have demonstrated in class how to prepare the uniforms for inspection and even provide irons, starch, and help ironing for cadets after school.

Practice: In order to make it to the top, our cadets practice very hard and are dedicated to our after-school practices. Practice is every day and lasts from 2pm – 5pm. Several teams, such as the drill teams (unarmed/armed, basic/exhibitions), academic team, athletic teams, and marksmanship team are being prepared for competition and we ask our cadets to consistently come to practice. Although practice is not mandatory, we highly encourage it as this allows your cadet to be ahead of the rest of the cadets in their class.

Paperwork: Physicals are needed ASAP. All cadets are required to have

physicals, regardless of if they are participating in competitions or not. If your cadet wishes to compete on a team, they cannot compete without a physical.

If you have a returning cadet, please keep in mind that physicals for NJROTC must be renewed every year.

Other paperwork needed (health screening sheets, off-campus forms, etc.) will be needed ASAP for every meet throughout the school year.

Fundraising/competitions: Just like regular sports teams, NJROTC travels to different schools competing in many events. How well we perform in competitions, determines if we move on to the Regional and National competition. Our unit receives very little financial support from the Navy, school, or county. It takes approximately $20,000 dollars a year in fundraising to effectively operate the unit. The Navy provides us with uniforms but we must pay for competitions, athletic clothing and warm-ups, lodging, transportation, and food for travel. The cost for an overnight trip out of state is approximately $4,000. We perform various fundraisers each year but invariably run short on time and money goals. Please let us know if you have any fundraising opportunities for the unit. Please also consider a tax deductible donation to Orange Park High School NJROTC to help us with these expenses. Also, if you work for/own a business, please consider sponsoring our NJROTC unit. It will not only benefit us, but it will benefit your business as well. Any and all amounts will be greatly appreciated!

Contacts:If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact Gunnery Sergeant Pryce or Lieutenant Williams.

Email:williams.dean.snsi@navyjrotc.us (904) 336-8675 Ext. 68698 work

(904) 553-6246 cell

kingsley.pryce@myoneclay.net (904) 336-8675 Ext. 68700 work (904)460-6297 cell

Written and complied by PO3 Khaleeha Restall and Edward De Jesus