Drill Team Recruitment and Retention

Program Motivation/Incentives

“A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.”
Napoleon Bonapart

This is the reason, among others, that we in the military have ribbons, medals, badges and other awards. The same for JROTC and all cadet and even scouting programs.

Ribbons and shoulder cords are worn on the standard uniform and help let everyone know that that cadet does something special, something above and beyond the norm. Special uniform accouterments (belts, gloves, spats, berets, etc.) help further provide a distinction from other cadets.

Leadership positions. While rank does go along with responsibility, sometimes rank must catch up to the position. Be that as it may, the most qualified should be put in as drill team and color guard commanders, assistant commanders, squad leaders, etc. Cadets must know that when someone in a leadership position speaks, everyone under that cadet needs to do as told, regardless of rank (e.g. a cadet captain is part of the drill team, but his squad leader is a cadet sergeant).

Training Positions. In the (marching band) color guard world, there are different instructors for each subsection of the guard, 1) Head Instructor; 2) Weapon Technician (rifle and saber); 3) Flag Technician; and 4) Movement Technician. For a JROTC drill team, you can have something similar.

A drill team could have a rifle tech and a movement/marching tech. while these other positions require some leadership qualities, they are mainly concerned with training cadets in their assigned specialty, ensuring standardization among the cadets and standardization over time (ensuring cadets maintain their initial training throughout the school year).

Have interested members write the drill and then design the rifle and/or body work that will be layered over the drill. They can download, print and use the DrillMaster Routine Mapping Tool to fit their needs (click here to go to the Downloads page, scroll down and you will see the tools listed there).

Use your imagination, keep the team members engaged- the sky is the limit!