FeedsWayne battalion awes at regional competition
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Cadet Corporal Michael Bailey received the Military Order of World Wars Award at a JROTC ceremony last week.Patrick McClure admits that he needed a little direction when he came to Wayne Memorial High School as a freshman.
A less than stellar middle school career left him with a sub-average grade point average and a relaxed attitude toward classwork.
“I figured I could slack off and still be fine,” said McClure, who decided to take a chance and join the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) at Wayne High. “When I joined it really showed me what I needed to do.”
Now the out-going commander of the Wayne JROTC unit, McClure and his fellow commanding officers have helped the corps achieve the designation of Honor Unit with Distinction.
The award is the highest one given out to a JROTC Battalion, according to First Sgt. Steven La Haine (ret.) who runs the program at the school.
The awards were handed out last week, after an inspection competition in which the battalion scored 999 points out of a possible 1,000.
“It’s the highest score in the 9th Brigade, which has 111 JROTC schools,” La Haine said.
It was well deserved, according to John Collins, the chief inspector from the western region of the 9th Brigade.
“Without a doubt, this is the best JROTC program within 9th Brigade,” he said. “The drill team and color guard is the best I have seen in my four years of inspecting JROTC units.
“This program is the standard that all other JROTC units should
follow,” he added.
McClure credits the program with helping him succeed in school. Nickole Jarvis, a cadet sergeant major and security officer for the battalion, agrees. She said that once students sign up, they have to do well in classes or they won’t be able to participate in other extracurricular activities.
“It basically pushes you,” she said. “It makes you think about a lot of things you didn’t think about before.”
“It goes beyond what you learn in school and what you learn in this class,” added McClure. “The stuff they teach you here you can use in everyday life, no matter what you do after high school.”
“When you graduate, you have the leadership qualities that everyone is looking for,” added Andrew Pate, the executive officer of the battalion.
They credit La Haine with making sure the students know what they do after they graduate, too.
Jarvis, a junior, plans to go through basic training this summer and return for her senior year next fall. She’s going to the University of Virginia to study criminal justice with an eye on working for the military police. Her college will be paid for through a JROTC scholarship.
Pate plans to attend the University of Michigan on a JROTC scholarship, study history and pursue a military career, starting with the Special Forces.
McClure wants to hang around his hometown; he said he would attend Eastern Michigan University, study criminal justice and come back to work for the Wayne Police Department.
“I’ll be coming back to see everyone,” he said. “I’ll check in and see how the program is doing.”
In addition to the unit awards, a number of cadets were honored during the presentation. Pate gives La Haine a lot of credit for the success of the program and its participants.
“He puts the welfare of the cadets before himself,” Pate said. “He’s in here all the time. They want to see us succeed and go on to something better.”
That may be true, according to La Haine, but he said the credit for the successful program doesn’t belong to him.
“The kids deserve all the credit,” he said. “They’re the ones that did this.”
