GMC News

Georgia Military College Hosts More Than 200 JROTC Cadets for Camp GMC '18

For the third consecutive year, more than 200 Georgia JROTC cadets convened at Georgia Military College for the JROTC Cadet Leadership Challenge (JCLC), Camp GMC ‘18. The mission of JCLC is to provide leadership and military-style training for JROTC cadets. The four day camp training included repelling, a leadership reaction course, canoeing, drown proofing, physical training, a high ropes course, and land navigation.
The students were housed in Baugh barracks on campus and ate meals provided by GMC Dining Services. Each day the cadets started with a physical training session, followed by breakfast, and then they began their training exercises for the day. Cadets received boxed lunches at each of the training locations, and returned to Georgia Military College for dinner. The days concluded with intramural sports played at the Kidd Center, either volleyball, basketball, dodgeball, or ultimate frisbee.

Over the course of the week, students not only participated in activities on Georgia Military College’s campus, but also other areas in Milledgeville. Cadets learned drown proofing and how to canoe out on Lake Sinclair at GMC’s lake lot, and they also traveled to Georgia College and State University’s outdoor campus to climb the high ropes course.

For some cadets, Camp GMC ’18 was the first time they ever participated in the type of training given at camp. Cadet Tab Seritt from Sonoraville High School had never repelled prior to camp and admitted he was nervous to try it, but raised his hand to go first anyway.

“That’s how the Army does it though,” Seritt said. “When you’re scared, you get the deed done anyway.”
Throughout the camp, students were rotated through leadership positions within companies to practice various leadership challenges, while being evaluated on their performance by cadre. Each company had students from different schools mixed together, providing them an opportunity to meet new people and learn how to work together.

“Boy is it tough, you have to figure out how to work as a team,” Cadet Olivia Riesin of South Cobb High School said. “I’m probably only one of two in my platoon that’s from my school. Meeting new people, it’s been good. That’s what I came here for.”

Lieutenant Colonel Steve Hammerstone, Camp Commander, says the skills these cadets learned over the course of the camp are invaluable.

“Life is a contact sport,” Hammerstone said. “They’re going to leave high school and they’re going to go out into the real world and they’re going to have to face something like coming off the face of that [repel] tower. They’re not necessarily going to have a bunch of people down here going, ‘Come on man, you can do it! You can do it!’ so if we start it now maybe they will have some tools in their toolkit to know how to deal with it when it happens.”

The schools that participated in Camp GMC ’18 included Adairsville High School, Alexander High School, Campbell High School, Cass High School, Dalton High School, Douglas High School, Gordon Central High School, Haralson County High School, Hiram High School, Lafayette High School, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School, North Paulding High School, Osborne County High School, Paulding County High School, Pebblebrook High School, Ringgold High School, Sonoraville High School, South Cobb High School, and South Paulding High School.

The 210 cadets were split into four companies with nine people in each squad. Fellow students selected a Best Cadet from their squad. The results are as follows:

A COMPANY
Maria Aguirre – Pebblebrook High School
Arron Bowman – South Paulding High School
Natalia Cuevas – Campbell High School
Joshua Jarrett – Gordon Central High School
Ahrien Johnson – North Paulding High School
Angel Lazaro – Osborne County High School

B COMPANY
Gunnar Hamill – Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School
Karizma Meacham – Campbell High School
Ashlea Stone – Sonoraville High School
Mario Garcia – Osborne County High School
Brayan Garcia – Campbell High School
Jacqueline Bautista – Dalton High School

C COMPANY
Judith Estrada – Osborne County High School
Mackenzie Duvall – South Paulding High School
Rhett Buck – Lafayette High School
Kristin Reisig – Ringgold High School
Richard Page – Gordon Central High School
Brittnee Carmichael – Paulding County High School

D COMPANY
Jonathan Wilson – Campbell High School
Daniela Palacios – Campbell High School
Francesca Combee – Paulding County High School
Hudson Tab Serritt – Sonoraville High School
Josh’lynn Christie – Pebblebrook High School
Charles Duru – Pebblebrook High School

Thank you to all the schools that participated in Camp GMC ’18!