On Wednesday, November 4, Northmont High School’s junior ROTC participated in their Annual Military Inspection (AMI). Between the unit cadets, Colonel Kenneth Knotts and Senior Chief James Griffin, there was a common goal.

“Our goal was to show off our cadets and our program to the Area Three manager so he can see what a successful job the cadets and administration did,” said Griffin.

The unit achieved an outstanding inspection.

“Commander Hankins graded us ‘outstanding’ across the board and in all areas from cadet inspection to supply inventory and administration to the marching and ceremonial procedures,” said Griffin who noted Hankins was extremely impressed.

AMI is a critical component of the ROTC unit.

“AMI shows how distinguished the unit is. It also shows how everyone is part of a whole, and if one person messes up than every one else messes up. You have to pull your own weight to make sure everyone looks perfect as a whole,” said freshman cadet Caleb Bergen.

This inspection does not only affect the unit itself, but it represents the school as a whole.

“It doesn’t necessarily directly affect the school, but it shows the character of the school. At drill meets we represent our school and shows that our school doesn’t mess around. We make sure we are the best we can be,” said Bergen.

The unit spends the first two months going into the school year dedicated to preparing for the inspection. That includes drill, uniform prep, knowledge, and learning the ceremonial phase.

“We could have better accounted for the time. We thought things would run quicker than they did. Commander Hankins liked to spend more time with the cadets,” said Griffin.

Senior Dan Adams felt minor details could have gotten more attention before the inspection, while junior Brandon Schroeder believes that the platoons marching could have been better. 

“I’m not so cocky to think that we would automatically get an ‘outstanding,’ but I did know that they were going to do well, I just did not know that they would do this well,” said Griffin.

Of the 134 cadets, 66 were awarded with an outstanding inspection from Hankins. At previous inspections, Hankins gave at least 30 unsatisfactory ratings, while Northmont received none.