FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Fort Leonard Wood hosted about 200 Junior ROTC cadets from schools across Missouri and Kansas Saturday, as they participated in the sixth Raider Challenge.
Kansas’ Leavenworth High School Team Five was the overall winner at this year’s competition, which tested the cadets’ physical fitness as well as their ability to cooperate as a team.
According to retired Col. Charles Williams, Waynesville High School JROTC senior Army instructor, Raider Challenge is, in its essence, “about speed and strength.”
“It’s fashioned off of Ranger Challenge, without the tactical part,” he said. “When all is said and done, it’s about who is fastest and strongest. It’s a very physically demanding thing.”
The eight-person cadet teams were graded over five events, including a five-kilometer road march; crossing a one-rope bridge; the Physical Endurance Course; a physical team test that included running, tire flips, water can carries and a sprint-drag-carry; and a two-mile gauntlet event that included carrying a 165-pound litter. Additionally, a 1.5-mile individual foot race was included toward the end of the day.
The 1st Engineer Brigade hosted the competition, with about 50 enlisted and officer volunteers from across the brigade assisting with grading and supervision.
One of the junior officers attending the Engineer Basic Officer Leadership Course here who volunteered to help was 2nd Lt. Joshua Foust, who called it an opportunity to potentially work with future peers.
“The cadets we interact with here today, a lot of them are going to enlist, a lot of them are going to commission,” he said.
Foust said he enjoyed seeing the comradery each team demonstrated.
“They all come from different walks of life — they all have drastically different personalities,” he said. “It’s really cool to see how warm and close they are as a team. They are constantly looking out for each other.”
Jamie Hargis, who watched her son, Jared, compete for the Fredericktown, Missouri, team, said her son has learned a lot of leadership skills in JROTC.
“There’s a lot of things he’s learned in the Junior ROTC — there’s a huge growth in his maturity,” she said. “This program, I’ve been very impressed with it.”
Williams said he’s glad his cadets could compete this year.
“We didn’t get to do any training last year,” he said. “Once we got the okay from the school district, we started in September, practicing five or six times a week. We probably only have three seniors left that have done this. We have a lot of promising kids, but it’s going to take time.”
The winners will move on to compete against about 100 teams at the national Raider Challenge, hosted by U.S. Army Cadet Command in November.
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