The cadets of the Michigan City High School (MCHS) Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (MCJROTC) began the second semester of the 2016-17 school years with three activities on January 13 and 14. Cadets competed in Cyber Patriot, the national computer security game where cadets defend and counterattack against a fictional cyber attack on an organization's information system. MCHS was in the top one third of all JROTC schools nationally going into this third round, and the top Marine school out of the seven in Indiana. The JROTC Color Guard presented the National and Marine flags during the playing of the National Anthem prior to the MCHS-Valparaiso High School basketball game on Friday night. The Military Drill Team competed in a military drill competition at East Aurora High School in Aurora, IL on Saturday.
Mr. Ralph Gee, the Technology and Engineering instructor at MCHS and faculty advisor for Cyber Patriot, stated what valuable skills the Cyber Patriot cadets were attaining. “You just have to listen to the national news and know that those who have cyber security knowledge can get hired for good salaries in careers with high job satisfaction.”
At East Aurora, the Drill Team did very well competing against 19 other schools. The Wolves took second place in unarmed basic drill, third in armed basic drill and the personnel inspection, and 5th in first year cadet basic drill. This is significant considering MCHS was without some of their key cadets due to illnesses. “I think this really shows how well our cadets prepare themselves for these drill meets,” said Senior Marine Instructor Major Tom McGrath. “Even though we were missing cadets, to include a commander of two events, we had other cadets step up and perform well.” McGrath also commented on all of the events of the weekend. “This weekend demonstrated the flexibility and dedication of our cadets. They went from competing in Cyber Patriot to performing the opening ceremony for the basketball game Friday night, then being back at school at 4:30 Saturday morning for the nearly 2 hour school bus ride to East Aurora.”
Master Sergeant Jeff Benak, the Marine Instructor, emphasized the positive attitude and military skill level of the cadets. “Our cadets really go above and beyond to improve their skills in all of our competitions. It is a real credit to them to place so high in diverse events like military drill and cyber security. And they still stay enthusiastic, regardless of how much is thrown at them.”
January will continue to be a busy month for the cadets. There are four more home basketball games in which they will provide color guards. They will also provide cadets to help with the Barker Middle School dance and the Michigan City Rotary Luncheon. One of the most important events for the program will be their presentations to Barker and Krueger Middle Schools on January 25th. The Marine Corps requires that MCHS maintains at least 100 cadets in order to keep the program. They currently have 108 cadets. Cadets will also be manning a display table in the cafeteria during all of the lunch periods at the high school during the week that the guidance counselors are giving their scheduling briefs to the freshman, sophomores and juniors.