NCC Drill Team from a single squadron?

[321EOD]

Is anyone aware of a Drill Team from a single squadron making it all the way to Nationals in the Cadet Competition?

CO-147 has fielded a full drill team from the Squadron for the last 3 years and advanced to Regions in 2008 & 2009, competing against the 2009 NCC champions (Utah) on both occasions.

Criteria: every member of the team must be from the same squadron - no ring in's!

Would like to know: Squadron Name, Region represented, Year of attendance, NCC placing.

Good luck to all the Drill and Color Guard teams all over the country who are preparing for the 2010 season!

[Cecil DP]

Quincy Composite Squadron in Massachusetts made it 3 times in the 60's

[Flying Pig]

Sq. 45 in CAWG did it 3 times in 90-91-92.  We MAY have gone in 89 also.  It was either 89 or 90 we lost at Region.  I was on the team.  2nd place overall all three times.  We placed 1st in several events though.  Innovative Drill and Inspection.  Back then, we were the only team who did our entire routine completely silent.  Pretty cool.  I think just about everyone does it like that now. Being that we were all from on Sq. it was the mile run that got us each time.  We had solid people, but not everyone was sub-6min miles which is what you needed to take first.  I know NY and NJ wings, who we lost to, had a joint National Team.

We trained year round.  After NCC in December, we took January-Feb off and started again in March.  We trained Fri night, Sat and Sun and slept at the Squadron.  Monday night was the regular meeting which we are all still required to participate in.  Not everyone in the Sq was on the drill team which was why Meeting nights were meeting nights only.

That was a wild 3-4 years as a cadet. 

[LtCol Hooligan]

119th Air National Guard Cadet Squadron (NCRND119)- Made it in 1998 and 1999.

[AdAstra]

Los Angeles Cadet Squadron 138 (California Wing, Pacific Region) in 1979.

[SKI304]

As far as I could tell, half of the drill teams at NCC 2009 were squadron teams:

North Carolina Wing - Apex Cadet Squadron - 2nd Place
Texas Wing - Sheldon Cadet Squadron - 5th Place
Ohio Wing - Youngstown ARS Composite Squadron - 6th Place
Missouri Wing - Cass County Composite Squadron - 7th Place

Historically, Puerto Rico and New York have also fielded single squadron teams that have won NCC.

My squadron, Youngstown ARS Composite Squadron (GLR-OH-051), has been competing as a single squadron team since 2002.  The only exception to that was 2005, the year I wasn't involved with the team since I was studying abroad in Italy.  We had four cadets from one other neighboring squadron filling spots on that team, and needless to say, I was not very pleased to find that out.  I have a hardlined rule that my cadets follow, and that is that they cannot recruit members from other squadrons to be on our team, period, no taking the easy way out.  Instead they have to recruit, train, and support their fellow cadets to form a team, and the personal and unit development that has come out of that has been tremendous.  Here's our track record so far (in terms of highest finishes):

2002 - GLR Cadet Competition - 3rd Place
2003 - OHWG Cadet Competition - 2nd Place
2004 - National Cadet Competition - 4th Place
2005 - GLR Cadet Competition - 2nd Place
2006 - OHWG Cadet Competition - 1st Place (had to forfeit region due to backlash from the 2005 season)
2007 - GLR Cadet Competition - 2nd Place
2008 - GLR Cadet Competition - 2nd Place
2009 - National Cadet Competition - 6th Place

Squadron teams are a lot of work, but they are worth it.  Hats off to all of you that put the efforts into building them and keeping them going!  :clap:

[lordmonar]

I can understand why drill teams may be made up of several squadrons.  Getting enough people to field a team for most squadrons would be very difficult.  Getting one that was competitive even more so.

As we have debated before.....I am split over whether this is good or bad.  It is nice that squadrons are large enough and have a good enough program where they can field a large team....on the other hand spreading out the NCC experience to more squadrons through out the wing is also a good thing.

[Spike]

^ For larger wings that is a logistical nightmare.  Working around schedules in a squadron is sometimes hard enough, but add in driving time, jobs and practice requirements....wow.

When I was in Indiana as a kid my Brother was in CAP (I was about 7 at the time) and I remember he was on a drill team with others from Indiana Squadrons.  They did special functions and, as a kid I thought how cool it was that they had rifles and walked in step with each other.  Once they even went to Indianapolis for a function. 

Anyone from Indiana Wing remember this?? It would have been i the 1980's. 

[Dracosbane]

I don't know about that, but I do know that supposedly the INWG Honor Guard & Drill Team is made up of cadets from the entire wing.  I haven't heard anything recently about how that's coming together this year.

[OldGuard]

Sq. 45 in CAWG did it 3 times in 90-91-92

Sounds like you had a great team 

[Flying Pig]

Except for this one loser who kept coming back like a lost puppy dog.

[raivo]

^ For larger wings that is a logistical nightmare.  Working around schedules in a squadron is sometimes hard enough, but add in driving time, jobs and practice requirements....wow.

Florida did this many years ago and put together a team of "the best" from a handful of squadrons around the state. No idea how the logistics worked.

Kind of killed the whole "competition" aspect.

[BillB]

Two or three years ago Florida had color guard composed of cadets from the same Group. They won National CG Comp. All of the cadets came from two Squadrons.

[Flying Pig]

Yeah, but finding 4-6 cadets vs 16-18 cadets from one squadron is a big difference.

[Bayareaflyer 44]

Yup - we were Sweepstakes champs three times in the 80's.  CAWG Squadron 44.  '81 was the Cinderella story - we were from nowhere, and took on the much feared Bronx Group.  Our other two were '86 & '87.  We placed 2nd in '82, 3rd in '83, didn't field a team in '84 (we called it drill team burn out, which I still kind of feel today...), 2nd in '85, and finally 2nd in '89.
We were the last CAWG team to win NCC Drill (excluding of course, color guard).
All done from one squadron with two AMAZINGLY dedicated senior members.  Boy-o-boy, I can look back on it now and say they were good times - but make no mistake, that was a lot of work...

[OldGuard]

Even with a Color Guard it's hard enough to find cadets that will be dedicated to compete.  Flying Pig and I lived at our seniors houses during the month of December to prepare for NCC. Still remember training Christmas night for NCC.


I remember a Maj. Charles Wiest for when I was a cadet 20 years ago, that can't be the same person. 

[Flying Pig]

Sq 64???  Does that mean your silly butt finally rejoined?  You should give Stonewall a holler.  You guys were both in the Old Guard.

[OldGuard]

Thats correct, I made the plunge. When my daughter decided to join, the wife said I had to aswell. Who is Stonewall?

[Flying Pig]

Thats correct, I made the plunge. When my daughter decided to join, the wife said I had to aswell. Who is Stonewall?

I think he was the first female soldier to guard the tomb

[Stonewall]

I think he was the first female soldier to guard the tomb

Sorry, brother.  I got out before the Old Guard went soft.