More than 180 Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) midshipmen converged on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus for camaraderie, celebration and competition, October 12-13.

The Wisconsin Badgers battalion planned and ran the invitational. This year the University of Missouri Tigers NROTC battalion won for the first time, besting UW-Madison 81.6 points to 72.4. Marquette University and Miami University of Ohio finished third and fourth, respectively.

UW-Madison has been hosting this autumn drill meet for 46 years. This year’s invitational included military drill contests, a Physical Fitness Test (PFT), a flag football tournament, a Tug-of-War tournament and a final pull-up competition between a chosen member from each school.

“The reason we do the invitational drill is to build camaraderie among the units, participate in healthy competition and this year, because it was on the Navy’s birthday, take time to celebrate our history and traditions,” said Capt. Gregory Zacharski, commanding officer and NROTC Professor of Naval Science for the Wisconsin unit.

Competition began on Oct. 13, the Navy’s 243rd birthday, with a 9.2-mile Urban Adventure Race around the university campus. The course began at the Department of Naval Science building and consisted of several exercise stations that included pull-ups, buddy carries up and down Bascom Hill, which looks over the center of town and the state capital building, and several U. S. Marine Corps exercises on Picnic Point on the shores of Lake Mendota. The competitors finished at the NROTC building. The Red Hawks NROTC battalion of Miami University of Ohio captured first place in the race picking up the maximum 10 points.

Missouri picked up three 10s in Platoon Drill, Squad Drill and the final Pull-Up competition. Wisconsin and Marquette University NROTC Golden Eagles battalion each had two 10s. Wisconsin collected their 10s in Color Guard and the PFT while Marquette scored 10s winning the Flag Football tournament and the Tug-of-War.

“I’m really proud of our team,” said Midshipman 1st Class Greg Fara, a senior and the Missouri Battalion commanding officer. “This was an all hands effort. We’re a very small unit, one of the smallest and we’ve been small for a really long time. This was more than a competition; it’s more than just the points and bragging rights, its coming together and having fun. We’re all on the same team.”

Missouri’s Executive Officer, Cmdr. Brett Holdiman, said everyone at the school was extremely proud of the effort the Tigers Battalion put forth.

“I think it shows all the hard work each and every midshipman put in preparing for the meet,” Holdiman said. “We’ve got a fairly small battalion so virtually every midshipman was involved in preparing and executing at the meet. It really was a total team effort of all of our midshipmen to bring home the win.”

An awards presentation was held following the event in the UW-Madison NROTC building. Capt. Zacharski handed out awards and presided over a ceremonial cake cutting to celebrate the Navy’s Birthday.

“Winning this event on the Navy’s birthday was very special,” said Midshipman Fara said. “The fact that it was our first win and it was on the Navy’s birthday made it a unique experience for our unit.” 

The NROTC midshipmen that participated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison NROTC Fall Invitational are among more than 4,000 students enrolled in the NROTC program at colleges and universities throughout the country.

 The NROTC program was established to develop midshipmen mentally, morally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, and loyalty. The program also develops midshipmen with the Navy’s core values of honor, courage and commitment in order to commission college graduates as naval officers who possess a basic professional background, are motivated toward careers in the naval service, and have a potential for future development in mind and character so as to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.

For more information about NROTC, visit https://www.nrotc.navy.mil.

NROTC is supported by Rear Adm. Mike Bernacchi, commander, Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), and his NSTC staff at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois, and Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Along with the NROTC program, NSTC supports 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy’s Citizenship Development program. That support includes Recruit Training Command (RTC), the Navy’s only boot camp, at Naval Station Great Lakes; the NROTC program at more than 75 universities; OTC; and Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NNDCC) citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.

For more information about NSTC, visit http://www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/ or visit the NSTC Facebook pages at https://www.facebook.com/NavalServiceTraining/.            

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For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/.