Kavemen Squadron History
Year 1 (2014-2015): Kuna HS started the 1st AFJROTC program in the state in the Fall of 2014. The combined effort of some very enthusiastic students, guidance counselors, and a few retired military teachers was the catalyst that brought the program here. Lt Col Mike Timmerman was hired as the first Senior Aerospace Science Instructor in July of 2014. Lt Col Timmerman is a retired Air Force officer with 25 years of military experience and 5 years of JROTC instructor experience. After retiring from the Air Force he moved to Goldsboro, NC and taught JROTC at Southern Wayne High School for 5 years. From 2003-2007, while still on active duty, he was the Boise Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) Commander on Fort St. in downtown Boise. When Kuna HS advertised that they were going to start a JROTC program here, he jumped at the chance to return to the Treasure Valley. He started in July setting up the unit's classroom, having a supply room and instructor's office built, and outfitting both with all the necessary furniture and supplies. In January, TSgt Timothy Lievsay was hired as the Aerospace Science Instructor. The unit started year 1 with 104 cadets, which was an outstanding number for a first-year program. It was a very successful 1st year!
Squadron Commander: C/Lt Col Tyrell Reynolds (now in the US Marine Corps)
Deputy Squadron Commander: C/Major Michael Whitson (now in the US Navy)
Year 2 (2015-2016): We started the year off with approximately 114 cadets, trimming down to 103 by week 2 of the school year. New this year was the formation of the Drill Team and the Model Club. We were fortunate to have a 4th year AFJROTC cadet from South Carolina transfer in. His name is C/Lt Col Austin Edmonds and he has a lot of Drill Team experience. He is currently our Drill Team Commander and is doing a fantastic job. Another big first for the unit was marching in the Kuna Christmas Parade. This year also saw a much more concerted effort at recruiting cadets from the middle school for next year's AS100 class. Six cadets spent 3 days visiting every 8th grade class, briefing them on what AFJROTC is all about. The effort was a success with 65 1st year cadets signing up to take JROTC in SY 2016-2017. The year was a busy year with another HQ inspection, with comments from the inspector saying "we were the best 2nd year unit he's seen!" We took field trips to Gowen Field, Warhawk Museum, and the Gowen Leadership Reaction Course. Our first ever Memorial Bataan Death March took place with 29 cadets and 2 instructors hiking 14 miles over rough terrain. All participants made it and earned their Bataan Death March Ribbon. We had over 20 Color Guard details this year, which included the Kuna Mayor's retirement, national prayer breakfast, numerous awards ceremonies at Kuna High School and many sports events. The year ended with a very successful JROTC Awards Ceremony that saw many deserving cadets receive local and national awards. Our next Corps Commander for SY 2016-2017 was also announced...congratulations to Tucker Peace!
Squadron Commander: C/Lt Col Hunter Hartway (now serving in the Army Reserves)
Deputy Squadron Commander: C/Maj Cheyene Van Vooren (Enlisted in the US Army)
Year 3 (2016-2017): We started this year off very strong with 120 cadets, losing 5 early to settle in at 115 strong by week 4. This year along with a very a strong turn out for the Drill Team and Color Guard Team, we also have the Model Club, Rocket Club, and will form an Academic Team. We also saw the addition of a sixth flight (Foxtrot). We had close to 60 1st year cadets join JROTC this year. Our Drill Team competed in their first ever drill competition in late February. The 2 day trip to the Northridge High School Drill Competition in Layton, Utah saw us come home with 4 trophies; 1st in the Inspection Phase of Regulation Drill, 3rd in the Drill Phase of the Regulation Drill, and 1st and 2nd in the Individual Exhibition Drill Competition. The Color Guard also competed missing out of a top 3 finish because of an adding error. This year we also added a field trip for the 3rd year cadets to Gowen Field to participate in a Humvee Simulator. Our Bataan Death March Memorial Hike went more than 14 miles with 45 cadets starting and finishing, earning their prized Bataan Death March Ribbon. Color Guard was very busy this year, receiving many requests to present the colors at various community events to include the Kuna Prayer Breakfast, the Oskars, the Idaho Truck Driving Championships, The Treasure Valley Home Schooler's Graduation, and of course Kuna's Graduation Ceremony. The year ended with a very successful JROTC Awards Ceremony that saw many deserving cadets receive local and national awards. We were able to add several new national awards this year. We also received the Distinguished Unit w/Merit Award by HQ JROTC, placing us in the top 7% of JROTC units in the United States. Our next Corps Commander for SY 2017-2018 was also announced...congratulations to Tawny Bidegain!
Squadron Commander: C/Lt Col Tucker Peace (enrolling at BSU)
Deputy Squadron Commander: C/Maj Tawny Bidegain (2017-2018 Corps Commander)
Year 4 (2017-2018): Projected numbers for SY 2017-2018 are 130! We started off the year at about 135 cadets, which is the largest year yet! By week 2 we settled at 124 cadets. Many cadets enjoyed seeing their hard work pay off the year before in the form of the Distinguished Unit With Merit Ribbon. This year we added another flight; Golf Flight and saw our first Alpha Flight with 4th-year cadets. These cadets have seen the program grow since day one in the Fall of 2014 and will enjoy our first ever Senior Trip to Seattle, WA. This year we expanded our involvement in the Veteran's Day Assembly, performed more color guard details than ever before, including doing a color guard for a BSU men's basketball game. We marched in the Kuna Night Light Parade again this year. Our drill team was the largest yet. We took 2 drill teams and 2 color guard teams to the Northridge Drill Comp in Layton, Utah; took home two 2nd place and three 3rd place trophies. Our next Corps Commander for SY 2018-2019 was also announced... congratulations to Cody Vanderberg!
Squadron Commander: C/Lt Col Tawny Bidegain (AFROTC, Washington State Univ.)
Deputy Squadron Commander: Sem 1: C/Maj Bryson Reiman / Sem 2: C/Maj Ariana Reisenauer
Year 5 (2018-2019): Projected numbers for SY 2018-2019 are 131! We started the school year off with 128 cadets (69 1st year cadets), which is slightly lower than last year, but still very strong. We again were selected as a "Distinguished Unit." We added a new club; APT Club. We also started the year with our newly purchased Squadron Flag and a new rifle cabinet that will hopefully store our competition air riffles once we get them. We held our Military Ball in December this year with about 72 in attendance. In January we took two color guard teams to the Taylorsville Drill Competition in Utah. As always, we excelled taking 1st and 3rd Place in the competition and Cadet Brekke tied for 2nd Place in the "Drill Down Comp". Later we took 2 Drill teams and 3 Color Guards as well as 4 Individual Exhibitionists to the Utah Invitational Drill Competition. Our Drill Teams brought home 2nd place in inspection as well as 3rd in Regulation Drill. Our Squadron Commander, C/Lt Col Vanderberg, amazed us with an excellent sequence during his exhibition and achieved 2nd place. C/MSgt Kleinsasser took 5th place in the same competition. Through hours of hard work and service we achieved the Outstanding Organization Award, we hope that next year we may be able to impress the inspector and be awarded the Distinguished Unit With Merit. Our next Corps Commander for SY 2019-2020 was also announced... congratulations to Brooklyn Brekke!
Squadron Commander: C/Lt Col Cody Vanderberg
Deputy Squadron Commander: C/Maj Bailey Rickstad
Year 6 (2019-2020): Off to a smooth start this year. Freshman numbers are down a bit at 55, but our returning 2nd year cadet numbers are up. We settled in at 109 cadets this year. This is an Inspection year and it will come up quick on Oct 10th. We are also now in charge of the Veteran's Day Assembly!! The Unit Inspection was a complete success, achieving the highest rating and being selected as Distinguished Unit with Merit for the 2nd time in as many tries. Taylorsville Drill Competition was in January. We took 1st place in the Color Guard Competition. We also lost upwards of 15 cadets between semesters. Cadet numbers have dipped below 100 for 1st time since year 1! March 16th ended the year in the building due to the Corona Virus Pandemic!! All events were cancelled including the Senior Trip, all field trips, the Bataan Death March, and the Annual Awards Ceremony. School went virtual the rest of the year as we all practiced "Social Distancing." Our next Corps Commander for SY 2020-2021 was announced virtually... congratulations to Hayden Kash!
Squadron Commander: C/Lt Col Brooklyn Brekke (AFROTC, Montana State Univ.)
Deputy Squadron Commander: C/Maj Kurtis Abel
Year 7 (2020-2021): Well, we are still operating in a pandemic. The school year started in what we are calling a "Hybrid Model", which means we are only seeing periods 1-4 the 1st quarter and periods 5-8 the 2nd quarter. Also, the flights have been divided in half at each half comes on alternating days with Friday a complete "Home" day for everyone. We are trying to operate as normal as possible with all clubs and teams up and running. Although we won't see a single freshman until 2nd quarter, there are 56 signed up. Our total cadet numbers are 109 as of September 24th. As we progressed through the year our cadet totals dropped to 87, our lowest totals ever. A new recruiting video was produced by our Recruiting Officer, Logan Proctor. It has been loaded on our website and the school's website.
Squadron Commander: C/Col Hayden Kash (Attending Utah State & Air Force ROTC)
Deputy Squadron Commander: C/Maj Elizabeth Irish (Army ROTC Scholarship to Univ. of Hawaii)
Year 8 (2021-2022):
Squadron Commander: C/Lt Col Sierra Ambler (Music Scholarship to NNU)
Deputy Squadron Commander: C/Maj Megan McClure (Enlisted in the Army as a Combat Medic)
So, this school year started off with 54 freshmen signed up and settled in at 37 at the PSR date. Total cadet numbers, as of Oct 15, are 87. This is another low for the program at this point in the school year. Several factors are driving the low numbers. First, soaring home values has triggered a lot of families to sell and take their huge profits and move to other areas of the country. Second, and probably the main reason, is that the Covid pandemic played havoc last year with our recruiting efforts and caused low freshman and upper-class retention rates. We will be working hard this year to recruit for next year.
Year 9 (2022-2023):
Squadron Commander: C/Lt Col Kacie Wooten (J-100 Scholarship Winner-will attend Liberty University AFROTC)
Deputy Squadron Commander: C/Maj Kristopher Abel (KHS Class Valedictorian)
This school year started off with 58 freshmen signed up and settled in at 47 at the PSR date. Total cadet numbers, as of 15 Oct, is 97. We had a great year and a record year for service hours. We had 84 cadets do at least 5 hours of community service and the corps had a record 1792 hours of community service. Cade Nicholas Strange also broke the record for cadet service hours with 92 hours.
Year 10 (2023-2024):
Squadron Commander: C/Lt Col Nicholas Strange (AFROTC Scholarship Winner...will attend Idaho University)
Deputy Squadron Commander: C/Maj Abigail McCoy (Enlisted US Air Force)