During the school year your NJROTC unit will sponsor a number of activities to reinforce your new skills and knowledge. You'll have opportunities to practice what you've learned, sometimes in competition with other JROTC units.

Team Activities

Along with your fellow cadets, you'll learn the basics of military drill, from simple in-place movements to the manual of arms (drill with a rifle). Most units also offer students the opportunity to participate in after-school drill activities like drill team and color guard. These teams will help develop your skills in military drill as well as provide a chance to join some of your fellow cadets in testing your skills against those of other JROTC units in drill competitions.

Teams are formed for competitions involving drill with or without arms, and in basic or exhibition drill. Exhibition drill is a more rigorous form of military drill whereby members perform complex maneuvers such as drill without verbal commands or the spinning and throwing of rifles. Team members can participate in individual drill competitions as well as color guard competitions. The role of color guard team is more ceremonial than that of a drill team. The members represent the national colors and their services at events like football games or patriotic events by carrying tour nation's flag. Together drill teams and color guards represent their units both in completion and in the community, participating in school and community events as examples of our nation's youth.

In addition to drill, many units offer voluntary classes in range safety and marksmanship training, using precision air rifles. Cadets who excel in marksmanship often form teams to compete with nearby units sometimes combining drill and marksmanship competitions into a single event.

Unlike drill teams, marksmanship teams sometimes compete remotely. Such a competition Is called a postal match. Each school team shoots, or completes its course of fire, at its own range and sends the targets to the competitions sponsors for scoring. This makes it possible to hold national rifle competitions without spending time and money to travel to a central competition site.

Unlike drill teams, marksmanship teams sometimes compete remotely. Such a competition is called a postal match. Each school team shoots, or completes its course of fire, at its own range and sends the targets to the competition sponsors for scoring. This makes it possible to hold national rifle competition without spending time and money to travel to central competition site.

In addition to these competition, the Secretary of the Navy sponsors an annual national rifle competition for all NJROTC units.

The Naval Service training Command sponsors another kind of annual national contest as well as academic team competition. Each unit taking part fields a team composed of one to five cadets, all of whom take the same test locally on the same day. The NSTC then scores the results and declares the winners. These competitions can be combined with drill and rifle team meets to form a single grand event.

Another team opportunity provided to cadets is orienteering, which challenges cadets to use their land-navigation skills to go on a kind of large-scale treasure hunt. Those taking part must navigate cross-country over unfamiliar territory with a map and require speed, accuracy, good decision-making and teamwork. The objective is to find as many markers as possible in the shortest time.

Orienteering events can be held by individual units, by groups of neighboring units, or on a regional or national basis.