Inspection is less than a week away--are you ready? We'll be having a series of extra practices to get ready(you may hear them called "night practices" even though they aren't at night). Make sure you attend as many as you can--we need you to know what you're doing. By now you should have your uniform in for cleaning and pressing. You should also be shining your shoes and squaring your ribbons and insignia away. Once you get everything all ready, set it aside. Spend the time between now and next Wednesday studying your cadet knowledge--if you don't have it anywhere else, you can find it on our unit website: https://sites.google.com/site/middletownnynjrotc/-rocks-and-shoals.
Read this carefully: No matter how good we do, we will fail the inspection if fewer than 90% of our cadets attend. We have 140 cadets, so we need to have at least 126 cadets present for the inspection just to pass; to do well we will need an even better turn-out. What does this mean? Simple: if you are really sick, stay home. But, everyone who is absent, no matter what the reason, will count against us. If 8 people are legitimately sick, 2 people are on a college visit, 2 people are home for family emergencies, 2 people are skipping, and one person is suspended and can't attend, the 15 people total will be absent and we will fail--NO MATTER HOW GOOD THE OTHER 125 ARE. Does this sound unfair? It isn't really since all schools are held to the same standard. Welcome to the real world.
The WOD for 3 and 4 February is somber. Somber is an adjective meaning gloomy; depressing; dark; drab. For example: From CDR Hankin's grim expression, Fedorka could tell he had somber news.
