Junior ROTC cadets from nine Texas high schools trained together at The Great Place this week in an annual gathering called the Phantom Warrior Junior Cadet Leadership Challenge.
During the five days of training, students stay overnight in barracks housing and eat in military dining facilities. They spend full days working through challenges in various training environments.
Emerging leaders from the five KISD JROTC battalions participated, and several said the activity was worthwhile in building skills for leadership.
The group of 135 high school cadets split their training Wednesday between the Leadership Reaction Course and the Applied Functional Fitness Center on Fort Cavazos.
Estime Kaio, a Shoemaker senior took part in the camp for the second year.
“What’s really valuable is that you learn how to be a leader and you get to meet a lot of people and build confidence,” he said.
At the leadership reaction course, cadets worked in groups to accomplish specified missions at seven separate stations.
The challenges mimicked situations like carrying an ammunition box across a water hazard with a bridge cadets constructed with available wood planks.
“Today is about teamwork and communications. You have to complete the obstacles as a team in a certain time,” Kaio said.
“It helps us be better leaders so we can go back to our schools and lead our battalions better.”
“I’ve made a bunch of friends and learned a lot more about JROTC. It’s really good so far,” said Chaparral junior Daniel McKinnis.
On the leadership course, he said, his squad did a good job coming up with ideas and finished four of the obstacles.
Ellison senior Harmony Copeland said the week of challenges would build her personal leadership skills and overflow into the Eagle Battalion.
“We’re here for a week to build leadership skills,” she said. “We’re all trying to build chemistry and get out of our box. Today is an obstacle course so it’s team building. We have to do a lot of thinking together to build a strategy.”
“I think this will help tremendously. I think I will grow as a person.” Her time in JROTC has strengthened her confidence and she said the five-day camp continued her along that path of improvement.
“It’s been fun. I’ve built a lot of friendships in my squad,” said Harker Heights junior Brooke Brann.
“Today we’re doing LRC and getting across these planks and getting through a minefield,” she said.
The five days of challenges, she said, was making her a stronger leader and would do the same for her battalion.
“I think JROTC gives me a good foundation for my future not just for the military, but for me as a person,” she said.
Photos from the JROTC JCLC at the Fort Cavazos leadership reaction course:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/killeenisd/albums/72177720326613115/
