On Dec. 4, the JROTC program had their annual inspection. Since the Army sponsors the program, they perform inspections to make sure that everything is being done to their standards. While the program’s goal was 95 this year, they received a score of 90 out of 100 possible points. However, they did increase their score from last year by nearly 10 points.

This year, soldiers from the National Guard came to the school to conduct the inspection with USA Director of Army Instruction Lt. Col. Michael DeBolt.

The event was broken up into two parts: formal briefings and the actual inspection. All together, the annual inspections lasted about five hours.

First, the inspection was started in the gym while the cadet staffs receive a formal briefing in the JROTC classroom. After that, the cadet staff as given an inspection while students’ individual portfolios containing their work from throughout their years in the JROTC program were looked over. At the end, there was an out brief.

“It’s a long day by the time we get done,” Major Erik Hendrickson said. “By the end of the day, it’s a good time to relax.”

Before the inspection could even take place, Hendrickson and Command Sgt. Maj. Brian Folts had to put together a unit report that contained past years’ events as well as an instructor portfolio. Both of these were done prior to the formal inspection day.

All aspects of the program were reviewed thoroughly. Some examples included testing cadet knowledge as well as making sure uniforms were being worn properly.

As far back as August, students were getting prepared. When uniforms were issued, students were taught how to wear and walk in them, and they were taught about different current events.

In October, they focused on formal briefings by performing rehearsals on a weekly basis. As time went on, they also started to perform full battalion formations.

The inspection was a pass fail situation. If a program doesn’t score at least a 76, then they could be placed on probation.

All the different events are scored individually and are then put into a formula which then gives out the final score.

Due to the lack of seniors this year, the juniors had to step up and do a lot of the work. Because of this, Hendrickson expects to do better next year since he will have upperclassmen with an inspection under their belt.