East Hall High School NJROTC Annual Military Inspection

On Wednesday, January 17th, the East Hall High School Navy Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (NJROTC) conducted their Annual Military Inspection (AMI) in the main gym on campus.

Hall County School District Board of Education members Mr. Nath Morris (Vice Chairman), Dr. Debra Smith, and Mr. Mark Pettitt as well as East Hall High School CTAE Assistant Principal Mr. Micah Hoyt, were in attendance. The AMI is a program inspection conducted annually by the United States Navy to ensure that each NJROTC unit operates and maintains the Navy’s standards. The formal inspection consists of an in-depth administrative review, individual personnel uniform inspections, and a Pass-In-Review ceremony.

Under the leadership of the unit commander, Cadet Lieutenant Quincy Escoe, the unit rose to the occasion and received high marks across the board.

The Inspecting Officer was Commander (CDR) Matthew Jordan, U.S. Navy (Retired), the NJROTC Area 9 Manager. CDR Jordan was extremely impressed with the unit and stated that “East Hall High School NJROTC is a hidden gem in Area 9, and is on track to becoming one of the top units in my Area.” During the day’s events, CDR Jordan led a leadership and ethics discussion and took questions from the cadets.

The East Hall NJROTC Corps of Cadets has a long legacy (30 years, established in 1993) of community and school service that will continue well into the future. The unit is growing its membership and recently added a Drone (small unmanned vehicles) Team to their program, and is one of the only programs in the nation with an eighth-grade program that launched this year in collaboration with East Hall Middle School, meaning that eighth graders can be full-fledged members of the Corps of Cadets.

Lieutenant Nathan Bourdeau, Senior Naval Science Instructor for the Corps of Cadets, said after the AMI, “Our Cadet Leadership Team has stepped up and done the difficult work necessary to make this event successful – ROTC more so than any other program provides real world opportunities to learn leadership and life lessons at the high school level, which gives young men and women such a leg up amongst their peers and sets them up for future success. 1stSgt Leach and I are blessed to be part of this organization and are honored to be Instructors here at East Hall.”