Photo by Jessica Snyder.
The Brahma Battalion competed in the 2013 United States JROTC Raider Challenge championships. The competitions took place at Camp Bullis and consisted of Cadets competing in several events that are in relation with the Army Filed Manual.
The men’s Raider team finished strong, taking 1st place overall and also earned the coveted Army Service Champion award.
“This was my first time in the Raider Challenge,” sophomore Evin Grenemyer said. “The event is broken up into five challenges.”
The five challenges are all about having strength and stability from start to finish.
“The five challenges are, the obstacle course which is going over walls, balancing and strength,” senior Peter Meyers said. “The cross country rescue is where we have to go over walls with the leadership. The 3.2 mile cross country run is just a flat out run and they give you the course. Then we have the raider gauntlet and then the rope bridge. That is where there are two trees about 75ft. apart and you get a rope and build a bridge in the middle and only two people can cross. The rest of the team ties knots around the trees and the last person there unties everything and runs across.”
The team has a method to staying strong throughout all of the challenges.
“There is a team of eight [students] that compete in each challenge,” Meyers said. “There are actually ten on each team so there are two alternates and you switch them out in between the five events.”
The Raider Challenge is great for any ROTC student planning on having a military future.
“The experience for me overall was fantastic,” Gruenemyer said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I plan on enlisting [after high school] and it gave me a basic idea of what to expect.”
Getting to work with all of their teammates was a great aspect to the challenge.
“It was a fun thing that you had to use a lot of teamwork for, and to try to get over any obstacle,” Grenemyer said. “It was a lot of fun.”
Despite placing first in the overall competition, the men’s teamwork, leadership and strength skills are what is most important in ensuring their bright future.
Here are all of the results:
Team Confidence Course: 1st place
Rope Bridge: 2nd place
3.2 Miles Cross Country Run:1st place
Raider Gauntlet: 5th place
Cross Country Rescue: 2nd place
