The Bob Jones AFJROTC has a new team on the prowl. That’s right Bob Jones, we have our very own Raider Team. Raider Team is a JROTC team that competes in physically demanding courses and challenging obstacles. They work together to overcome both the obstacles and the other teams in their division. 

Major Lacey shared via email: “We entered a brand new Raider team in an Army-centric competition, and we excelled!  We do not even have a course to practice on here at BJ, and rely on Grissom HS Army JROTC to let us use their course to practice once a week. Raider is not for the faint at heart, but for those cadets who wish to challenge their physical endurance, mental strength, and their leadership.”

Our very own Bob Jones Raiders team can compete in the Males or Coed division and had their first taste of competition this Saturday at East Hamilton High School near Chattanooga, TN. This week’s event was titled “Into the Hurricane,” and it was composed of six separate events. The team arrived Friday evening and was given a cursory tour of the campus and competition site. The six events that the team competed in were the Leadership Reaction Course, a 0.75-mile run through the woods carrying fence posts, suicides while carrying cinderblocks, an obstacle course, a rope bridge building competition using a single rope, and the Murph Relay. The highlight of the event was the Obstacle Course, which consisted of a rope climb, a rolling pipe, an eight-foot wall, and an inverted ladder. 

Bob Jones AFJROTC Raiders, nicknamed the Black and Blue Knights, showed out in this competition by finishing second in the Obstacle Course. They successfully completed all obstacles in 13 minutes and 40 seconds,  beating out 9 other teams in that event alone. The team also placed in the Murph Relay by finishing in 3rd place. The Murph is named after U.S. Navy LT Michael Murphy who was the first person to receive the Medal of Honor in Afghanistan. He received posthumously for his participation in Operation Redwing as SEAL team commander, which you can read about in Marcus Luttrell’s book Lone Survivor. The Murph consisted of 10 quarter of mile sprints, 50 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 air squats and another 10 sprints to be completed by the whole team while being timed. The Knights completed this event in 35 minutes and 27 seconds and took home a third-place trophy for their herculean effort. These two awards came as a result of the dedication and hard work of the team which was loudly celebrated on the field and all the way back to BJ last Saturday night.