Leading From the Trenches
Pine Ridge AFJROTC excels through teamwork

By Ana Ribero

They march to the beat of a different drum, but they do so in perfect lines, wearing meticulously pressed uniforms, and carrying stout rifles and staunch flags. They go to school early and get home late, but they maintain model behavior and exemplary citizenship in the process. They are the Pine Ridge High School’s Air Force Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (AFJROTC) in Deltona, and they take their marching seriously.

“In the mainstream of teenage attitudes, JROTC isn’t always the common path,” says Dr. Michael Mongelli, principal. “These students, however, have chosen this path and have excelled with it. They show good character and discipline—the kind of traits we want to see in today’s youth.”

The cadets’ dedication and commitment to the Corps have made them one of the most outstanding units in Florida and in the country. In fact, their color guard recently won second place at the National High School Drill Team Championships, making them the top AFJROTC Color Guard Team in the nation. Their Ceremonial Team has won 56 trophies this year—36 of those are first place—and the drill team was named Florida State Drill Champion for an unprecedented fourth time out of five years. “The program here has been excellent almost from its inception,” Mongelli says. “The instructors have done a great job and the students involved are tremendously dedicated, take great pride in what they do, and work very hard.”

The Pine Ridge cadets work together to achieve common goals and learn the importance of teamwork in the military and in every other aspect of life. “Everything we do tends to stress teamwork,” says Col. John R. Vick, senior aerospace science instructor. “I tell my cadets, ‘The days of the lone wolf are over.’”

“Teamwork is essential,” says Tom Besaw, coordinator of career and technical education for Volusia County, a position that puts him in charge of curriculum for AFJROTC. “The teamwork skills might be essential for the military, but they also are important for the students who don’t want to go that route. Those skills are going to be useful no matter what the students do in life.”

Teamwork was especially valuable to the Pine Ridge Corps when they lost the state drill championship trophy three consecutive years of holding the award. “Having held the trophy for three straight years and losing it by about 100 points last year was a major emotional event for the cadets,” Vick says. “Their challenge to themselves this year was not to let that happen again.”

The cadets worked hard all year, and now the three-foot trophy sits in their classroom where they can proudly admire it.  “Getting that trophy back was pretty exciting,” says Andrew Peloquin, 18, Pine Ridge senior and AFJROTC special assistant. Peloquin joined AFJROTC his freshman year because of his strong interest in aviation. This fall, after graduating first in his class, he’s attending the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He accredits AFJROTC for helping him stay focused. “To stay on the team, you have to keep your grades up, so that’s been a push for me to do well academically and get accepted to the school I wanted.”

“The kids are very dedicated,” Vick says. “Their average GPA is over a 3.0 in all their classes. That’s not something many programs can say.”

Indeed, the cadets are a great asset for Pine Ridge and the Deltona community. They are very active in community service and have donated over 3,000 hours to various service programs this year alone. “The AFJROTC programs in high schools are citizenship programs,” Vick says. “One of the things we tend to concentrate on is community service.”

The Pine Ridge cadets organized a campus clean-up that involved the entire school and won them the Citizen of the Month Award for September 2002. They also put together food drives during Thanksgiving and toy drives during Christmas.  The AFJROTC honor society, the Kitty Hawk Air Society, also does Christmas caroling at area nursing homes and hospitals.

“It’s very touching and sad to see these people in the nursing homes,” says Michelle Kramer, 18, a senior at Pine Ridge and AFJROTC group commander. “They were so happy that we actually go to see them.”

In addition to teaching servitude, AFJROTC also endows cadets with valuable leadership skills. By being in positions of responsibility, cadets gain leadership opportunities that few other high school students would ever be given.

“Basically, the students run the corps,” Mongelli says. “They make the plans and run the drills. They’re in charge and the ones responsible. The students get a lot of leadership opportunities, a chance to step into executive positions, and an opportunity to make decisions that’ll affect them directly.”

Leading often can be much harder than following, as has become apparent to many cadets facing leadership positions. “I think trying to lead people is the hardest thing because not everybody wants to do what you want them to do,” Kramer says. “They want to do their own thing. Trying to get them all to do one thing at the same time and have the same goal is really difficult.”

One of the biggest leadership projects of the year is the Pine Ridge annual drill team competition. It’s the largest Air Force drill meet in Florida and is organized solely by the students. The cadets start before the school year begins. They meet weekly and delegate tasks to make sure all the areas—from food concessions to media outreach and publicity—are taken care of.  A schedule has to be developed, the field needs to be prepared, and the judges need to be trained before the awaited day in October. “This is a major organizational project in which they learn to plan the event, delegate responsibilities, follow up, and then on the day of the meet they get to see something in action and make on-the-spot decisions,” Vick says.

Pine Ridge AFJROTC is a great experience for the students, and one that they’ll value for the rest of their lives. It helps cadets reach their goals in life while teaching them to lead with integrity and servitude. “AFJROTC helps you grow up and learn a lot about yourself and about other people,” Kramer says. “It keeps you on track and keeps your head in the right place.”

Contact Vick at jvick@mail.volusia.k12.fl.us, Mongelli at 386-575-4195 x43524, Besaw at 386-734-7190 x60182, or Peloquin and Kramer at 407-688-9500.

Copyright © 2006 Oxendine Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved