Building a Team

By William Lydon

Sept 23, 2018

QUINCY - On a quiet afternoon, one hundred camouflage uniformed figures stepped aboard busses bound for training. What sounds like a normal staple of military life, be it grandfathers boarding trains to war in the 1940s or mothers and fathers departing to the Middle east today, one thing is off. The camo clade forms aren’t soldiers, they are students of North Quincy High School. The destination of their buses, the U.S Army’s Camp Edwards. All are members of NQ’s AFJROTC program.

Camp Edwards has a history of training youth. It was founded in 1938 near Falmouth, Cape Cod. Between 1941 and 1945, thousands of soldiers, airmen and marines bound for Europe and the Pacific, trained there during WWII, Camp Edward’s also housed prisoners of war captured during the North African campaign in 1942.

Today Edward’s exists as one of the National Guard’s key training facilities on the East coast. It is is also the destination of the 100 JROTC students from North Quincy High School, who for the next five days, will challenge themselves on obstacle courses, team building exercises and uniform inspections.

Cadet’s are assigned to barracks, the same used by National Guardsmen who train there, and settle in for a grueling experiences, when i asked why someone would attend, Cadet Staff Sergeant Philip Austin, a JROTC cadet off three years told me

“I chose to attend Encampment because of the chance to undertake a meaningful challenge... “ he explained, and added joking “...also because you get to run around wearing camo fatigues.”

Cadets are formed into flights, units of about a dozen, which work as a team,cadet officers leading their assigned flights in all manner of activity, from negotiating military style obstacle courses and drilling, to making beds and keeping the barracks clean, they even had a simulated rifle range.

The flight that manages to keep the highest score of these events, is deemed the winner and receives merits, a point system meant to recognize cadets going the extra mile.

Alongside all this, cadets foster a comradery, working on marching cadences, comedic skits and the more physically oriented activities such as drilling and obstacle courses.

All of this prepares cadets for the real world, building both discipline and team working values. Philip went on to say “...It was great working with the people you to go school with, getting to know them better, and struggling and having fun alongside them.”

For four days 100 students trained, to strengthen their bodies, to strengthen their minds, but most of all, to strengthen their bonds with each other. When i asked Cadet Staff Sergeant Austin what he the best moment of the encampment was, he told me.

“...I guess the fun part was at the end, when my flight was awarded Outstanding Flight. Really felt a great reward for our hard work, team effort, and commitment.”