JROTC summer camp teaches cadets leadership

When soon-to-be Sussex Tech senior Jonah Riale signed up for a weeklong Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps summer camp, she didn’t quite know what to expect.

But after three days of learning about military equipment, running through an obstacle course and helping with community service projects, she deemed the summer endeavor a success.

“I like it. It’s a lot of fun,” said Riale, as she took a break from laying a fresh coat of paint on parking bumpers at Fort Miles in Cape Henlopen State Park. “We’re learning about leadership, responsibility and the accountability of the people under your command.”

The annual summer camp is designed to bring together JROTC cadets from throughout the region to teach them about leadership in a military setting, while instilling a sense to give back to the community. This summer’s camp drew nearly 90 cadets from seven high schools from Delaware and Maryland, including Cape Henlopen, Sussex Tech and Sussex Central.

“The purpose of the camp is to develop a sense of teamwork, cooperation, leadership and do it within a military structure,” said Lt. Col. Ronald Erale, the JROTC advisor at Cape Henlopen for the last 17 years. “It’s a pressure-packed environment, and we do a lot of things in a short period of time.”

The camp is not aimed at recruiting young people to join the military. While all advisors are retired military officers, Erale said only four to five percent of JROTC cadets actually enlist.

The base of operations for the five-day camp was the Army National Guard DENG Training Center in Bethany Beach, but it certainly wasn't a day at the beach.

Included in the program were day trips to Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes, the Coast Guard station in Rehoboth Beach and the Gunpowder Falls Military Reservation near Baltimore. Riale said the two-and-a-half hour trek to Gunpowder Falls was more than worth it for the opportunity to run through an obstacle course and participate in a leadership reaction activity.

“[The leadership reaction course] teaches you about sticking with your team, learning from each other and learning new strategies to do things,” she said, noting it was her favorite part of the camp.

Capt. Len Addis, the JROTC advisor for Bennett, Parkside and Wicomico high schools in Salisbury, Md., said what Riale learned from the activity is exactly what it’s designed for. A leadership reaction course is used often in active-duty training, where a group of soldiers is given a series of obstacles to overcome.

“It gets them to work together as a team with the material on the ground,” he said “You may have a 2-by-4, a rope and a 55-gallon drum and have to [figure out how to] get over an obstacle.”

Addis, a retired captain, served in the U.S. Army from 1971 to 1975, but remained with the National Guard until his retirement in 2002. After just a year away, he began work as a JROTC advisor and has taken his cadets to the summer camp ever since.

He believes it serves as an integral tool in the development of his students.

“It’s a junior leadership camp, but then we have all these other things that go along with it,” he said. “But it’s mainly about getting them to learn how to work together and leadership.”

Cadets also learned about equipment that may be used to thwart a chemical attack as well as how to turn a military uniform into a life preserver.

While there is leadership chain of command during the school year, Addis said each cadet rotates leadership positions while participating in the camp. He said it’s designed to give each student a taste of what it’s like to lead.

Riale heard the message loud and clear.

“The mission of JROTC is to motivate people to be better citizens,” she said. “It really helps to show everybody what you can do to help out in your community.”