The Viking Battalion Newsletter
September
Battalion Drill
On September 9th the Viking Battalion held its first Battalion Drill. A Battalion Drill is a mandatory event in which cadets come and learn Battalion wide drill and ceremony, marching, and learning more about the program. Cadets showed their dedication to our program by arriving at eight in the morning and preforming and practicing until twelve in the afternoon. The cadets learned more about our cadet chain of command, how to wear the uniforms, and all of the Viking Battalion teams. In addition at this Battalion Drill we congratulated JCLC cadets by giving them their JCLC certificates, JCLC cords, and JCLC arc pins.
Constitution and Citizenship week
Constitution and citizenship week started when President Harry Truman signed into law “citizenship day”. On August 2, 1956, the congress requested that the president proclaim the week beginning September 17th and ending September 23rd of each year as “Constitution week “. The law was first enacted several years ago by President George bush, the Prince William County school board has proclaim its support of Citizenship/Constitution day and constitution week. All Students are to be encouraged to recognize the importance of our nation’s Constitution and the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship. Schools are to post a patriotic display celebrating the Constitution in a prominent location. In addition to a display and morning announcements, schools may develop their own classroom or school-wide program in honor of the occasion. Schools are invited to share their creative ways of recognizing Citizenship Day and Constitution Week with the PWCS Community Relations Office.
Every morning during Constitution and citizenship week our entire school program’s showed their support on our morning announcements reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and then talked about these topics. JROTC Why do we have the Constitution; EL Recite the Preamble; SALC answered What would our country be like without the Constitution; NHS Listed of our Rights; and Senior Class talked about how register to vote.
Woodbridge Senior High school organizations raised the United States of America and Virginia flags with the help of JROTC cadets. Army Viking Battalion conducted a US Flag retirement or flag burning ceremony at WSHS on Saturday September 23rd and on Friday 22nd September JROTC Cadet closes out celebration with synopsis of week. Choir and band lead the audience and players to sing the National Anthem before the Football game.
Flag retiring ceremony
Established in 1937 the flag retiring ceremony was made to respectfully and ceremoniously dispose of flags that are no longer suitable to represent the nation. It lists numerous ways the flag may be retied. But the most respectful would be the cutting and burning of the flag. Burning of the flag is the most dignified way to dispose of a flag.
The Flag Retiring Ceremony has many rules and regulations to follow to properly dispose of the flag. The procedure is first cut each individual strip of Red and White and then cut the square of the union. The union left intact because it symbolizes the strength of the United States when we are united. Then you ceremonially put the flag in the fire while rendering a solute.
Our Ceremony was executed by 1SG (R) Daniel Jackson’s 6th period class. The Project leaders C/2lT Hawkins and C/CPL Grogmen worked which the project staff with includes C/2lT Chambers as the S-1 Administration Officer, C/2LT Jones, and C/SSG Kemp as the S-2’s Intelligence and Security Officers, C/2lT Greear as the S-3 Training Officer, C/2LT Boateng as the S-4 Supply Officer, and C/2LT Holleque and C/CPL Capodice as the S-5’s Public Affairs Officers. Special thanks to Staff sergeant Geear of the United States army for playing Taps and all the cadets who helped out with the flag retiring ceremony.
By:C/2LT Elijah Jones and C/SSG Rolfe Kemp
Viking Battalion Color Guard
C/SSG Rolf Kemp
C/2LT Jasmine Chambers
C/SSG Vanessa Chambers
C/2LT Jacob Vayer
The Playing of Taps
Fire Guard
C/2LT Elijah jones
Interview with Cub scouts from Troop 1353
Cub scouts Donovan Jimenez, Mason Stubbs, and William McCoy were interview about their time at the Flag retiring ceremony.
C/2LT Jones: "Did you like Flag retiring ceremony and why?"
Cub Scout Donovan: "I liked the flag retiring ceremony because it was cooler than the one we had and the fire was bigger."
Cub Scout Mason: "I liked it because the people were doing everything at the same time and it looked nice."
Cub Scout William: "I liked it was it really nice."
C/2LT Jones: "What was your favorite part of the ceremony?"
Cub Scout Donovan: "My favorite part was when those two cadets put the flags in the fire!"
Cub Scout Mason: "My favorite part was hearing my sister give her speech."
Cub Scout William: "My favorite part was hearing the National anthem."
C/2LT Jones: "Would you like to join the program in the future."
Cub Scout Donovan: "Yes! It looks really cool."
Cub Scout Mason: "Yes because my sister is in the program."
Cub Scout William: "Yes because it looks very interesting."
Color Guard
Commander: C/2LT Jasmine Chambers
Color Guard is a team in the JROTC program that is responsible for presenting the national colors. In the past years we have done many events and participated in many drill competitions. The goals set for the upcoming year is to work hard on so every cadet is trained to know every position on a basic four man team and to do our absolute best at each drill competitions.
Drill Team
Commander: C/SSG Mera Soll
Executive Officer: C/2LT Keyby Aguilar
The drill team is a marching unit that performs routines based on military drill and ceremony. We do armed, unarmed, and exhibition drill. We compete in two to three drill meets a year with squad and platoon drill. There are no tryouts to join we will accept almost any new numbers
Raider Team
Commander: C/SFC Tyler Donovan
Executive Officer: C/CPL Aaron Templin
The Woodbridge Senior High School JROTC Raider Team is all about motivation, dedication, and family. We will train hard, think critically, and accept the scar that no one is better than us at what we do. Raiders are hard, mean, PT'ing machines. We don't quit, we don't budge, we don't give up, and we never surrender. We push till our last drop of strength.
Jlab
Commander: C/2LT Niko Cardenas
Executive Officer: C/CPL Sarai Rodriguez
JLAB is an academic and leadership team within JROTC that it consists of cadets from ninth to eleventh grade. The JLAB competes in JROTC knowledge, SAT words, current events, leadership, math, vocabulary, and science either online or at JROTC competitions. Seniors are not allowed to participate, and each team has four members with two alternates. JLAB also participates in a national JROTC competition, where we compete with other schools through four levels throughout the school year.
Army Instructor Coroner
This is my sixth year teaching at Woodbridge Senior High School, I never thought I would have a job that I love coming to work every day after the army. Being an Instructor has its ups and downs, but at the end of the day, it’s the relationships I’ve built with cadets. No Slack, No Excuses!
September Safety breif Heat Exhaustion
Heat exhaustion occurs when a person exercises or works in a hot environment and the sweating produced cannot dissipate the heat generated within the body. Often dehydration occurs because the person hasn't replaced the water lost by sweating. Here are six steps to avoid heat exhaustion: Wear loose fitting, lightweight, light-colored clothing, avoid sunburns, seek a cooler place, drink plenty of fluids, take extra precautions with certain medications, and let your body acclimate to the heat.
Up coming events
9-Oct AUSA Conference
9-Oct Columbus Day (No school)
14-Oct Occoquan Clean-up
14-Oct Best of Best Raider Comp. TC Williams HS
14-Oct Staff Workday (LEADERS ONLY)
21-Oct Viking Bn Breast Cancer Walk
27-Oct Homecoming Parade