Feb. 6, 2020
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Concordia Lutheran High School’s 49th Annual Homer L. Clendenen Memorial Junior ROTC Drill Meet will be held Saturday, February 22, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Hilliard Gates Sports Center, 2101 East Coliseum Boulevard, at Purdue Fort Wayne (PFW).
The public is invited to watch sixteen Junior ROTC units, made up of more than 700 Cadets from Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan, compete in Armed and Unarmed Drill Team Exhibition, Armed Drill Team Regulation, and Color Guard Team categories, in a battle for the championship.
“The Cadets represent all branches of the military in this highly-competitive and prestigious event,” said John Sheaffer, MAJ (Ret), USA, with Concordia Lutheran High School’s JROTC.
According to information from Sheaffer, the Drill Meet’s namesake, Captain Homer L. Clendenen, was a Senior Army Instructor at CLHS from 1968 until his death in 1972. Sheaffer says that as the instructor for Concordia Lutheran, Captain Clendenen brought the CLHS Army JROTC Cadet Battalion into the new age of instruction by training Cadets to make decisions, and plan and execute those strategies. Captain Clendenen founded the Concordia Drill Meet in the winter of 1971. The Cadets changed the name of the meet to honor him after his passing.
High schools teams taking part in the meet are from Concordia Lutheran High School, Warsaw Community High School, Fern Creek High School, Springfield High School, Kenton High School, Elkhart Memorial High School, Marmion Academy, West Aurora Blackhawks, West Aurora LBH, West Aurora Thunder Rifles, West Aurora Thunder Guard, Marion High School, Innovation High School, Grand Rapids Union High School, Gordon S. Hubbard High School, and Trotwood-Madison High School.
The meet is a collaboration between PFW Army ROTC, Concordia Lutheran High School Army Junior ROTC, and the Indiana Army National Guard. The public is invited.
Concordia Lutheran High School, located at 1601 St. Joe River Drive in Fort Wayne, Ind., was founded in 1935 as a private, co-educational Lutheran high school open to students of all faiths and backgrounds. With Christ at the center, Concordia continues to pursue educational excellence that equips individuals for lifelong learning and service as disciples of Jesus Christ. Learn more at www.clhscadets.com.