Adairsville JROTC Unit Dominates National Raider Competition

The Army JROTC unit at Adairsville High School is celebrating another victory as winners of the National Raider Competition.

The U.S. Army JROTC Raider Championships are held in Molena at the Gerald Lawhorn Scouting Base. This year, Adairsville had 60 students try out for the Raider Team in August, with 40 students making the team.

There are three divisions that compete at Raider competitions: all-male team, all-female team and a mixed-gender team.

Each team has 12 members, and the mixed-gender team has male and a minimum of four female members competing.

At this year’s competition, Adairsville had a male team and a female team compete, and each teams competed in five events. Students are tested in physically demanding situations:

• Team members must finish a 5K run together.
• Perform a cross country rescue, in which the team must carry 35-pound backpacks and a 120-pound litter with a simulated victim for the distance of one mile; the course includes going through mud, over a vaults, low crawling under obstacles and going over an 8-foot wall.
• A 1.7 mile gauntlet course through hilly wooded terrain while carrying a 35-pound backpack. This course had obstacles which included an 8-foot wall, tires in which the cadets had to crawl through and two 23-inch culverts cadets also had to crawl through.
• Constructed a rope bridge over a riverbed at a distance of 95 feet as fast as possible; and
• a Physical Team Test (PTT), a half-mile sprint around a lake while negotiating obstacles and carrying a 250-pound canoe 40 yards as a team. The obstacles include a 20-yard low crawl, carrying two 30-pound water cans 40 yards going over a vault and through a maze.

Despite all of the challenges, AHS cadets performed with excellence.

“Teamwork was the key to their success,” said 1SG Jerry Queen (Ret.) of the Adairsville High School ROTC. “Each individual cadet had to be physically and mentally prepared to contribute to the team effort. Cadet leader’s decisions had a major impact on their teams ability to overcome obstacles.”

The 2014 victories were:

• Male, female, mixed teams – area champions
• Male, female teams – state champions
• Mixed team – third in the state
• Female team – national champions
• Male team – third in the nation

Photo credit: Bartow County School System