The meet took place in the Armory and went on for over seven hours. The list of schools in attendance is a collection of some of the best ROTC corps the country has to offer. Squads from Pennsylvania State University, Michigan State University, Norwich University, Wright State University, University of Connecticut, Rochester Institute of Technology, Worcester Institute of Technology, West Virginia University, and Howard University joined the Rensselaer Air Force and Navy drill teams to compete in 11 different events. These events started at 8 am with the unarmed inspection and went through many squad and individual events until the closing ceremonies around 4 pm.

As I sat in the stands, it was quite obvious that I stuck out like Shaquille O’Neal at a munchkin convention. I sat in the Armory’s bleachers in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans while everyone else wore their crisp, clean cadet uniforms.

Everyone in the building had the look of pure competition. They were there with one objective—to do their best and show the other schools what they had to offer. This goes to show the prestige and honor behind these meets. All of it is taken very seriously.

This seriousness produced some very good performances in the armed inspection and color guard events. These two events produced a meet-long rivalry between University of Connecticut, RPI Air Force, and RPI Navy. UConn took first in the armed inspection over the two RPI teams. In the color guard event, the RPI Air Force squad came back and beat both of the squads sent from UConn. The RPI Navy group took first place in the platoon basic event.

After talking to an RPI ROTC alumnus I gathered some information about the history of the Institute’s ROTC program. The number of participants in the program has dwindled since the 1980s and the amount of school space for practice has decreased as well. Today, there are around 60 ROTC cadets, and they are often forced to practice their drills in parking lots as opposed to the Armory. Despite these restrictions, they did extremely well in Saturday’s meet.

Overall, the RPI ROTC Drill Meet was the epitome of competition. The squads did their respective schools proud and earned some awards in the process. I personally do not know much about how ROTC works, but after going to this drill meet I am beginning to have a better understanding of the honor and pride the cadets take in their work.