JROTC Announces 19th Annual Military Ball

The Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) Military Ball is set for Thursday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. This is an event that most cadets look forward to each year and it is not uncommon to hear cadets say that the Ball is better than the school’s homecoming dance or the junior/senior prom.

“We would like to think that our military ball is one of the most highly sought out school events due in part to how well it is orchestrated by our battalion staff. The cadet staff, with JROTC instructor support, must begin planning at least nine months out to reserve the best location, especially if planning the Ball around the holiday season,” Chief Knedler said.

Annually, JROTC approaches the military ball using three strategies. First, JROTC involves as many cadets in all phases from planning, to set-up, and execution. Secondly, they make the Ball a great value for all attendees. Finally, the cadet leaders and instructors highly promote the military ball.

“The Gopher Battalion is nineteen years old as we are the oldest JROTC Program in our school district; therefore, our traditions are very old, but very well established when it comes to the military ball. We believe that involving as many cadets as possible in each of our military ball traditions attracts them to participate,” Knedler said.

The first Ball tradition honors our graduating seniors with a special presentation by our very own “Elvis” impersonator, C/CPT Preston Doss event. He gets the dance crowd warmed up. The next tradition is for the cadet battalion commander C/LTC Zayk Forrester to step up to the first dance. A third tradition is to recognize the “Royal” Court, much like high school homecoming and prom dances. Each Leadership Education and Training (LET) level nominates and votes on their respective male and female representatives. The cadet staff assembles the ballets with cadet photos. The final ballot is collected and counted by our instructors who reveal the winners at the Ball. A fourth tradition is an expanded POW/MIA Honor Guard and ceremony. For this traditional event, five cadets, dressed in white gloves with five dress service caps, serve as the Honor Guard. The Honor Guard stands behind the unmanned POW/MIA table directly behind the five place setting used to recognize service members from each branch of service to include the Coast Guard who are unable to be present at the Ball due to their POW/MIA status. Also, we involve a local member of one of our supporting national fraternal military organizations to narrate the event. As the narrator reads the script, the Honor Guard takes appropriate actions with the symbolic objects found on the table used to reveal the POW/MIA story and hardships. Finally, a fifth tradition that is attractive to all cadets is the drill team performance by our “silent drill team” complete with music.

Instructors and senior cadet class leaders provide cadet etiquette classes prior to the Ball with all cadets passing a Classroom Performance System (CPS) test for a class grade. Additionally, we show video footage and display photo boards of previous military balls to increase cadet interest and understanding of this longstanding tradition.

“Involving the cadet corps is key to a successful military ball. It is traditions, best value, and cadet interest that draw cadets to support probably the costliest event a JROTC program will undertake. Our JROTC program has another tradition, whereby we invite the top three U.S. Army JROTC cadets, from South Grand Prairie and provide them “courtesy” tickets to attend the others military ball. We would like to think that our ball is one of the best in the school district,” Knedler said.

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