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 stayed overnight in barracks housing and ate in military dining facilities. They spent full days working through challenges in various training environments. On Thursday, they were treated to a ride in Black Hawk or Chinook helicopters with 1st Air Cavalry Brigade pilots.
Emerging leaders from the five KISD JROTC battalions participated, and several said the camp was worthwhile in building skills for leadership.
The group of 135 high school cadets split their training on Wednesday between the Leadership Reaction Course and the Applied Functional Fitness Center at Fort Cavazos.
Estime Kalao, 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,” Kalao 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.
On Thursday, after four days of training, Shoemaker senior Yanimarie Nieves boarded a Black Hawk helicopter with her peers and, after the excitement of lifting off, the cadet said she relaxed so much that she drifted off to sleep.
“It was exciting at first, but once you got up it got really calm. The instructors did a really good job of preparing us. It was so fun that I took a nap. I was so excited. I went to sleep in the sky.”
“For me, I’m thinking of joining the military, so this has opened my eyes a little. I like the mechanical stuff. I like working on cars. Seeing the helicopters hypes me up. We’ve done a lot of physical exercise. It’s challenging, and it’s good for us.”
Photos from the Junior ROTC Junior Cadet Leadership Challenge at Fort Cavazos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/killeenisd/albums/72177720326613115/
