Sunday, November 19, 2006

Drill competition at Cornell

On Saturday, Dad and I drove over to Ithaca for Rudy's memorial service and to see Luke, whose ROTC drill team was competing at Cornell. They were in Barton Hall, an enormous former airplane hangar (we think) which is the ROTC facility for Cornell-based units. (Luke's group spent the night Friday night on the gym floor in sleeping bags.)

None of the pictures I took of the competing drill teams came out, but here are a few that I found online that give a feel for what the place is like -- it's a cavernous structure -- and what the competition looks like.





After Rudy's service at Sage Chapel, we stopped back in at the drill competition and watched a few minutes of "trick" competition, which is precision work with guns that is more like baton twirling than anything else. Absolutely fascinating. (Come to think of it, that's probably where baton twirling got started.) Luke was catching up on his sleep, so we didn't disturb him. He would not, however, have been easy to disturb. See below -- can you spot Luke?

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2 comments:

Luke Murphy said...

You know probably about half an hour after you took that picture, I woke up with shaving cream all over me. It was too bad you didn't stay longer, you might have been able to protect me!

Dad said...

Actually, Luke, I did protect you. Your buddies were planning to beat you with their rifle butts but I negotiated a less violent prank with them. I only stipulated that they wait until we left.

Watchin' your back, we are.