Rear Adm. Stephen C. Evans, commander, Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), welcomed more than 150 Area 3 Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) cadets to their annual NJROTC Leadership Academy and Sail Training at Naval Station Great Lakes, June 19-25.

Top cadet sophomores and juniors from more than 45 high schools in nine states throughout the Midwest attended the weeklong course. Cadets from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, West Virginia and Nebraska are scheduled to be leaders of their NJROTC units in the upcoming school year.

"It is indeed a beautiful morning here on Naval Station Great Lakes and I cannot tell you what an honor and privilege it is for me to be here at this ceremony," Evans told the cadets, staff and family members gathered at Constitution Field for a Pass-in-Review graduation ceremony June 25.

"What this marks is not just a culmination of a weeklong effort to learn and develop, but also serves as a stepping off point where young men and women will return to their communities and return to their schools as recognized leaders," said Evans.

This year's academy was run by more than 25 NJROTC Area 3 Navy Science Instructors (NSIs). The academy has been held at Naval Station Great Lakes for the past 15 years.

According to the Area 3 manager, this year was a chance to concentrate more on creating better leaders.

"We emphasized leadership this year so the cadets can go back and be prepared to be the leaders that we want them to be with their units," said retired Cmdr. Joe Hankins. "We haven't introduced a lot of new topics this week, but we did emphasize leadership requirements that we want them to learn. I truly believe that during the week the cadets have learned how to be better leaders and [are] ready to go back and assume command positions back with their units."

Hankins said the two most prominent new things introduced during the week was a military dining-in June 24, and Pass-in-Review. Dining-in is a formal military ceremonial dinner for members of a company or unit, which includes the dinner and other events to foster camaraderie and esprit de corps. The cadets also received their silver aiguillette, or shoulder cord, at the dinning-in. The silver shoulder cord signifies the successful completion of the leadership academy and signifies that the cadet is ready to assume a leadership position within their units. The cords were handed out to the cadets by NSTC's Command Master Chief Matthew Laing.

The other new event was to hold an outdoor Pass-In-Review graduation in front of military officials, family and friends.

"The dinning-in was a significant event for the cadets and introduced them to military protocol and some Navy history," said Hankins. "The outside graduation is also a significant step forward. The cadets worked very hard getting ready for this Pass-in-Review, and overall I think their hard work has been a huge success."

Hankins also credited the hard work by all the instructors in helping prepare the cadets for the graduation and for their future roles with their units.

"This year we went back to basics and structured the academy around the Pass-In-Review in accordance with the cadet field manual," said retired Cmdr. Jerry Egler, senior Naval Science Instructor (NSI) from Chicago's William Howard Taft High School and the officer-in-charge of this year's academy.

"It's been a great week," said Egler. "I think going back to the basics of leadership training and concentrating on the Pass-In-Review added a different focus on the camp this year. We got [really] positive responses from the kids, and I'm ready to come back and do it again next [year]."

Egler said this year's academy enlisted the help of two Marine Corps NSIs, retired Lt. Col. Kenneth Knotts and retired Sgt. Maj. Donald Bocook, to get the cadets ready for the Pass-In-Review.

"The sword drill, guide-on drill and resident knowledge of not knowing how to perform an actual military-type Pass-In-Review were the three challenges to getting the cadets ready in a short amount of time," said Knotts, assistant OIC and senior NSI at North Mount (Ohio) High School. "They all responded very well to our guidance."

"This ceremony culminates the entire week and it is entirely cadet-run," said Bocook, senior enlisted NJROTC instructor at Central Crossing High School in Grove City, Ohio. "There were no instructors involved; the cadets did it all."

Although a lot of time and effort went into going back to basics and preparing the cadets for the June 25 Pass-In-Review, there still were some old Leadership Academy events and curriculum from past academy weeks.

The cadets had the opportunity to tour a number of Navy Training Support Center (TSC) schools at the naval station and use many of the base facilities. There were also several team-building exercises and inspections during the week. The biggest draw once again was sail training, where the cadets learned how to operate a 14-foot sailboat on Lake Michigan. The boats were provided by the Naval Station Great Lakes Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) department as they have been in the past.

"This week was a different experience, but one that will help me in the future with my unit," said Cadet Lt. j.g. Angela Hernandez, 16, from Zion-Benton Township (Illinois) High School. "I want to take back to my unit the discipline we learned here and the leadership qualities and traits that we learned and used here."

Hernandez added she also liked the daily physical fitness training the cadets received, including new Marine Corps fitness training that included carrying 30-pound ammo cans over a designated course.

Cadet Command Master Chief Branden Kalama, 17, from Hamilton (Ohio) High School felt the sailing was not only fun but greatly contributed to the leadership learned than most people realized.

"You had to understand how something works; you have to understand how you get it to work, and you have to understand how efficient you can make your people to make that work," said Kalama. "I feel that sailing wasn't just fun but also was a big contributing factor to leadership."

The curriculum for the week included classes on Bystander and Sexual Harassment, discussions and briefs on NROTC leadership, and a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) course. During the STEM classes retired Navy Cmdr. Robert Laufenberg, senior Navy Science Instructor at George Westinghouse College Prep High School in Chicago, returned with "King Arthur's Problem" -- a mathematics problem using a story about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

In the story the cadets, posing as knights, had to figure where to sit at the round table so they would be picked as the knight to search for the Holy Grail. The cadets had to use mathematical probability equations in finding odd-even sums. They were able to accomplish these using problem-solving, role-playing and modeling.

"I felt the STEM and solving the problem really helped us with team work and working out different mathematical problems," said Cadet Petty Officer 2nd Class Denise Carvajal, 16, from Taft High School. "We learned the right way to do things and solve problems with everything we did during the week and that teamwork and education we received showed us how our units can progress this next school year and in the future."

Cadets also learned about maneuvering aboard a ship and line handling at the Boatswain's Mate "A" School aboard USS White Hat, an indoor mock-up of a Navy vessel. The cadets also toured Gunner's Mate "A" School and learned about some of the weapons the Navy uses.

"The whole week has been really fun," said Cadet Senior Chief Jennifer Rojas, 16, from East Aurora (Illinois) High School. "I think the most important thing I got out of the week was finding I have a lot more determination than I thought I had and seeing that there are so many more opportunities in the world."

Hankins said the opportunity to hold the academy on the base each year has been a tremendous benefit to the cadets and instructors.

"The base has worked superbly with us," said Hankins. "Just having Recruit Training Command (RTC) here, having the 'A' schools here and just having the history of the Navy here at Great Lakes are very significant for the cadets and makes a big impression on them."

NJROTC is a citizenship development program that instills in high school students, in U.S. secondary educational institutions, the value of citizenship and service to the United States.

The program is currently overseen by Evans and his NSTC staff, headquartered at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois. NSTC oversees 98 percent initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy. This training includes the NROTC program at more than 150 colleges and universities that either host NROTC units or have cross-town enrollment agreements with a host university. NSTC also oversees Officer Training Command (OTC) in Newport, Rhode Island, RTC at Naval Station Great Lakes, as well as NJROTC.

NSTC's NJROTC program is divided into 11 areas across the United States that also includes units in Italy, Spain, Japan and Guam. There are more than 86,000 student cadets in the more than 580 units. Area 13 covers the most ground starting in Papillion, Nebraska, and stretching across the Pacific Ocean to Yokosuka, Japan. There are 13 Northwest states in Area 13 including Hawaii, Guam and Japan, totaling 6,086.9 miles. Texas and Florida are their own areas with 68 units in Florida (Area 4) and 55 units in Texas (Area 10). Area 6 in North Carolina and South Carolina host 67 units while Area 11 in Southern California and Arizona have more than 50 units. Other areas encompass the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Plains States and Southwest.

For more information on NJROTC visit www.njrotc.navy.mil/.

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