JROTC cadets test their mettle

400 at Camp Robinson for weeklong leadership camp

Kody Frazier, 15, of Brookland crawls through a sand pit Tuesday morning as Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets tackle an obstacle course at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock as part of a weeklong leadership training camp.
Kody Frazier, 15, of Brookland crawls through a sand pit Tuesday morning as Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets tackle an obstacle course at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock as part of a weeklong leadership training camp.

Fifteen high school students assembled Tuesday under the midday sun at Camp Robinson's obstacle course, already sweaty and smudged with dirt, and started barking at a rival team of Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets.

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Dominique Heath (right), 16, of Memphis celebrates with her platoon Tuesday morning after they completed the obstacle course at Camp Robinson during a leadership training camp for Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets.

The Alpha Dogs had just tested each of the Arkansas National Guard course's nine climbing, crawling and balancing obstacles. Now the camouflage-clad teenagers were eager to rush through the circuit and leave the smaller Delta Force squad, lined up beside them, scrambling to catch up. It didn't work out that way.

The Alpha Dogs trailed going into the third obstacle, the monkey bars. Several participants had already dropped when the platoon sergeant, 15-year-old Takayla Smith of Memphis' Oakhaven High School, hoisted herself up. She grappled until she reached the fifth rung, scrunched up her face and screamed. Then she kept going.

Smith was one of the roughly 400 cadets who traveled from across Arkansas and southwest Tennessee to spend the week at a JROTC leadership training camp at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock.

Instructors from 49 schools selected cadets for the camp, where they learned how to use a map and compass, pitch tents and cooperate as a team with complete strangers.

"We want to instill what we taught in the classroom," said retired Sgt. Maj. John Givens, the top noncommissioned officer of the camp. "If they hands-on do it ... they got it for the rest of their life."

The JROTC, like its college counterpart, the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, traces its heritage to World War I, when the National Defense Act of 1916 authorized the Army to assign staff members and loan equipment to high schools, according to the program's website. Since then, the concept has expanded to other branches of the military.

About 3,100 students in 24 Arkansas high schools belong to the JROTC, a one-period elective that can include extracurricular activities, said retired Lt. Col. Michael Shepherd, an instructor at Arkadelphia High School and the camp's executive officer.

The military and school districts split the cost of employing JROTC instructors, Shepherd said. Over the past few years, the government has capped the number of instructors it pays for, so the state's largest high school programs "can't grow anymore," he said.

Although JROTC enrollment has remained fairly static over the past few years, female participation has steadily increased, he said, estimating the leadership camp's gender breakdown was about even.

"We don't do anything to drive it," retired Col. Patrick Daniel, the camp commander, said of the increase of girls like Smith in the program. "It's been trending that way for 15, 20 years. And we're just now at the point where nobody even pays much attention to it, because it just is what it is."

After the Alpha Dogs cleared the monkey bars Tuesday, they squirmed through buried tunnels and scurried under a low post before moving to a balancing beam they had to traverse one at a time. A dozen teenage voices urged on their squad mates until Smith, the platoon leader, cut through the din with her order: "Form a line!"

The Delta Force squad was already sipping their canteens in the shade when the Alpha Dogs low-crawled to the finish line through the sand pit. Afterward, two cadets held up a red-faced Raiman Koestoer as he gulped down some water to cool off.

"Just drink slowly, you'll be all right," said Sgt. Donnie Johnson, taking hold of him. "Gotta breathe now, son."

Johnson told Koestoer, a 16-year-old from Northside High School in Fort Smith, that drinking only two canteens wasn't enough in the heat. Koestoer had completed the whole course, and he took a few minutes to recover.

"It's fun, though," he said, still shaky. "I had my teammates."

Metro on 06/08/2016

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