William Blount Jrotc 793

ACTIVITY: Great time today at our back to school picnic! Thank you so much to the cadets that planned it and the parents that supported by bringing food, cooking burgers and dogs and bringing the cadets to Louisville Point Park. The weather was a little warm but we made it work and kept hydrated.

COMMUNITY SERVICE: First home football game Color Guard and End Zone Flag Detail of the year. Great job by Cadet B. Semmel commanding the Color Guard and E. Hilliard commanding the Flag Pole Detail. Amazing job getting them ready by our new Color Guard commander and assistant, J Chitwood and K White. And our first two freshmen participants in uniform. These cadets always make me so proud!

I always love it when prior cadets come back to talk to the classes about how our program positively affected them! Thanks Luke!!

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MCOLS 2023: Even more photos … they were busy all week!

MCOLS 2023: More photos photos from a great week.

Group picture of MCOLS 2023

FINAL DAY/GRADUATION: Wonderful graduation ceremony and parade. Congrats to K White as top cadet in her flight and 2nd Orienteering team. Also congrats to J Chitwood as best overall room inspection. And congrats to C Ewart as a member of Honor Flight for the week. All cadets did an amazing job this week. I am SO very proud of them.

MCOLS DAY 7: The signing of the shirts, testing and drill off day! Three of our cadets got best 30-command drill commander in their flights and competed against all the other flights today. Congrats Hilliard, Nguyen and White! We will find out the winner tomorrow at graduation.

MCOLS DAY 5 and 6: Got busy yesterday so sorry for some late posts. Yesterday pics are uniform inspections, Chuck Yeager’s widow came and spoke to us, and drill evals. Today we had our PT test, academic test, final drill evaluations, and the first time they have been allowed to have dessert all week! Cadet O’Neal said “it tastes like heaven!”

MCOLS DAY 5: Third day in a row that Hotel Flight got Honor Flight! It was a rainy cold day but Cadets made the most of it. Unfortunately our second Carter had to go home for another injury. But the 13 remaining cadets seemed to have a good time. We did sports inside. Changed it up with a couple new games. Food continues to be good.

MCOLS DAY 5: Morning PT and the Honor Flight guidon bearer Cadet Weinbaum!

MCOLS DAY 4: More Project X and parade practice. Also some shots of leaving the sports field. Still surviving.

This is the official page for the school if you’d like to follow it too. You may see our cadets in these pictures doing things I haven’t been able to get to.

MCOLS DAY 3: Since most of my day was spent leading Project X, the leadership/problem solving exercise in the pictures, I didn’t get to take a lot of pictures of other things. But here’s a few of our day. Sadly, cadet N Carter had to go home today due to medical reasons but she did a great job while she was here. We miss her positive attitude already. Tomorrow will be more Projext X for me so expect more pictures of that. Great attitudes today cadets!

MCOLS DAY 3: Morning PT!

MCOLS DAY 2: Game on! Cadre had their PT test, AFOATS Pre-test and welcomed the Advanced and Basic cadets to MCOLS. It will be chaotic for a couple of days as cadets learn the ropes but ours showed up energetic and ready to hit the ground running. I tried to get pictures of everyone but I missed a couple. I will try to do better today but it gets busy quick. Thanks to all the families that sent their cadets. This is going to be a great learning experience for them!

MCOLS DAY 2: Cadre PT test! Great job this morning!

MCOLS (Mountaineer Cadet Officer Leadership School) 2023, Day 1: Cadre showed today. Our cadets N. Carter and I. Murphy have hit the ground running. Carter was chosen as 1st Squadron Commander! Great job! I was on the board and she did a great job in her interview. Tomorrow the Advanced and Basic cadets show up and it’s game on! Very excited for everyone to get here and get started

ALUMNI NEWS! Lots of college graduates of former WB AFJROTC cadets lately! Annie Brown, Garrett Fields, Garrett Smith and Evan Roberts are just a few I’ve found on Facebook. If there are more out there please share in the comments section! Great job and best of luck to you all in your future endeavors! Proud of you!!

UPDATE: Added Haley Gomez, class of 2017. Life update: yesterday I graduated with my Masters of Science and Social Work from the University of Tennessee.

ALUMNI NEWS! Former WB cadet and drill team commander graduated college and was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. Congratulations Evan Roberts!

COMMUNITY SERVICE: Cadeta helped in all aspects of the Blount County Memorial Day Ceremony at Rio Revolution Church. Heritage HS didn’t have enough Color Guard members so we helped out. We performed the 21-gun salute commanded by Cadet Major Carley Lawson. We also helped the fire department fold up their giant American Flag after it was over. So very proud of these dedicated cadets. I’m fortunate to be a part of this group.

Class of 2023, you did it! So proud of all you’ve accomplished and all we know you will accomplish in the future. Got some teacher pics just to keep it interesting!

Cadets recognized for the community service at todays Daughters of the American Revolution ceremony. A Semmel, T Erdmann, J Chitwood, B Semmel and not pictured because she was home sick C Lawson. In the one picture they are holding a flag signed by the creator of the current 50-state US flag, Bob Heft. The guest speaker told his story. Great job cadets!