And so it came to pass that three former Commanding Officers crashed the State Drill Meet, where they were thankfully anonymous, and could therefore be as critical as they pleased.
It turns out that Robert Service High School's NJROTC is again the best of the best, though they didn't exactly have much by way of competition. If I thought that Service's teams had gone downhill, they were All-Stars compared to the teams from other schools. Nonetheless, they won every category they were entered in, and ultimately, won the drill meet overall.
Still, it was semi-painful to watch. They made mistakes a team from my generation would have been crucified for. Being off-beat? Not a blue chance in hell of getting a top three finish. Clacking rifles? Kiss second place goodbye. Moving at parade rest? My God, the idea would never have crossed our minds! It doesn't matter that you haven't presented the team and are technically not being judged yet, even if the entire rest of the routine had been perfect, we would've been reamed for it. Sheesh they things these kids are getting away with... When compared to videos of my routines, their routines are easily third place at best, and you can totally tell which parts they practiced more than once a day, which is sad.
However, it was pretty cool to watch how they'd taken bits and pieces of older routines and put the new routine together. I even spotted moves I remembered from other school's teams, and moves that I had helped create, which is a bit of an ego boost considering it's at least five years since I've been gone. Some of their new moves were pretty neat too, if poorly executed. Overall, lots of potential, especially with the Armed Exhibition team (see video)
I wish I had a video of one of my routines for comparison, but trust me, the differences in attention to detail are astounding. From the angle of the heads at parade rest to the enthusiasm of sounding off, I seem to remember more snap, more rigidity, more... I don't know, caring power? But I digress...
Overall, I had a lot of fun, despite how uncomfortable the bleachers are. I figure, if my parents could sit through sixteen full drill meets, I could sit through one, lol. I'm thinking of crashing Pass In Review now...
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