The time has come for WHS AFJROTCs’ honor guard to finish up their competition season in Corsicana, Texas on Saturday April 5th. So far, the honor guard has won two 1st place and one 3rd place trophy during the year, and for this last competition they are aiming for 1st place to finish off the year strong.
Of course, this is not only the last competition of this year for AFJROTC, but the last competition overall for the seniors of 2024-2025 in JROTC. Most focused on making it to 1st place overall and on their individual respected teams, but they also focused on making one final memory of their second family.
“I mean, obviously getting first overall would be amazing. Getting first in all of my teams would be great. But as long as I get to go have fun with my friends and do my best, I’m happy,” Corp Advisor Savannah Jobe (12) said.
All hopes of each and every honor guard person is to take first place and bring home that trophy, along with many of the other individual team trophies. They prioritize giving it their all the moment they march into the drill pad, showing their pride and efforts of the training, they’ve done and worked on all throughout the year.
“I am hoping for first place. And I feel like we have a really good shot at getting first place,” first year team commander Christensen Payton (10) said.
Although many of the teams may not have placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or at all, this is their last chance to demonstrate what they’ve improved upon since the last competition at Abilene. They’re allowing themselves the chance to place better than before and make their Commanders and Instructors proud. Knowing that just placing once or twice is not enough and that there’s always room to further improve as a team and as cadets.
“[There’s] a lot of stuff I want to get better at. Better at talking to more people, involving more volunteering, exploring other honor guard teams too, not just unarmed ex and so many other things,” member of Unarmed Exhibition Kessh Goswami (9) said.
“So far? I feel like I’ve had a really good experience. You know, I’ve built my commanding skills a lot, and I’ve actually led my team to two first place,” Christensen said.
But not only has honor guard help these cadets improve upon their listening and commanding skills, it has also helped with communication with others in order to become more in-sync and harmonized as a group, volunteering more and making sure to show up on time when and where they are needed to be, allowing themselves to be fairly criticized and receiving feedback as a gift when given, and continuing to grow both as a cadet of the corp, as a honor guard team member, and as a individual themselves.
“Being in AFJROTC for the past four years, I’ve learned countless amounts of things, but specifically in Honor Guard. I mean, I’ve learned how to be a better team player. I’ve learned how to command people better, how to manage a team, how to use our time effectively with what we’re given and trying to do as much as we can with as little time as possible,” Jobe said.
So many benefits come from joining not only AFJROTC but also joining the secondary family that is honor guard. You’re given time and space to grow, you surround yourself with positive people who are there to help when you’re down and need motivation, there’s caring instructors who only want the best for their teams and cadets, and finally, you get to meet new people and hear their growing stories and gain friendships you may never had expected to get.
“I think for sure. Try it out. If you’ve never done honor guard before, if you’re just in the Corps to be in it, honor guard is a great way to get more involved. You make more friends, you learn more in general about everything. and for people who are replacing me, just work as hard as you possibly can. Like, never stop working because there’s always somebody who wants to do better than you, who can do better than you because they have something to work towards. So never let yourself give up on working and just thinking that you can’t get knocked off your pedestal,” Jobe said.
Wishing them the best of luck, and may they aim high and march on. AHMO.