Members of the Kellogg High School Marine Corps JROTC program recently placed in the color guard category at a drill competition at Medical Lake High School.

The competition on Feb. 25 and 26 featured 15 different schools from Washington and Oregon, made up of Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine youth programs.

Kellogg was the only Idaho school to participate in the competition.

Since KHS is such a smaller school (with a smaller program) compared to the other schools, JROTC instructor Sgt. Maj. Jeff Smith explains that they could only enter into a couple categories.

The KHS JROTC Marines placed third out of 13 in the team color guard B division and had two cadets take second and third place in the individual rifle drill competition.

This event was the first one that the KHS JROTC had competed in all school year.

Smith is happy with their effort, saying that “I think they did pretty good for showing up for the first time and not competing all year.”

The competition was judged by active duty service men and women from all participating branch of the military.

Looking forward to next year, Smith is hopeful that KHS will be able to enter more competitions and more categories in the future as the program grows.