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In The Know

News, updates, and information for the Long Grey Line

Community Outreach

ORMA enjoys a special relationship with the Summit Church. The youth pastor stopped by with goodie bags for the Corps of Cadets. The church drops off thoughtful treats for the Cadets a couple of times a year. The Corps of Cadets love when they come on campus. Recently, the church members brought lunch for the teachers as a way to appreciate all their hard work. We are grateful for their thoughtfulness towards the school.

Be Pro. Be Proud.

Launched in October of 2022, the program provides a mobile exhibition trailer to give middle and high schoolers a hands-on learning experience that showcases skilled professions in the construction, manufacturing, transportation, and utility industries. The Cadets controlled virtual machinery such as cranes, cherry picker buckets, and semi-truck simulations. They were able to use VR(virtual reality headsets) to complete tasks like welding. Though ORMA is a college preparatory school, the students were exposed to other types of skilled trade.

2023 Summer Camps

Enrollment is open for 2023 Summer Camp sessions. The adventure camps will be held from June 25th - July 8th and July 9th - July 22nd. The camps are for rising 6th graders through 12th graders. The Oak Ridge Adventure Camp teaches leadership skills through physical fitness and adventure training activities. Campers will participate in military formations, marching drills, and other JROTC-inspired practices. The daily schedule of team-building activities will vary, to include rappelling, obstacle course training, airsoft, and much more.

Please reach out to Major Robert Forde, Director of Admissions, for more information.

ORMA Honoring Veterans

For those Cadets that went on to graduate from the Citadel, you may remember seeing this monument on your campus.

ORMA is currently working on two project to honor our veterans and current service personnel. We are creating a book listing the names of former Cadets who were killed in war time for a “Cadet Remembrance Book” . These former Cadets will be honored by having their names read at each Veterans Day Ceremony. If you would please forward the names of any former Cadets that you knew, with the dates that they attended ORMI/ORMA, it would be greatly appreciated.

In addition, we will be creating an honor wall in the TAC Office to honor those Cadets that are currently enlisted in any branch of the armed services. Please send your pictures, and information to Angie Williams.

Gold Star Platoon Updates

The Gold Star Platoon is going to Nationals in Daytona, FL in May of 2023. The team has been invited to compete on March 18, 2023 in the 4th Brigade’s Best of the Best Competition. If the Cadets win this event, the 4th Brigade will pay for part of the cost for the team to attend nationals.

You can show your support in various ways. Monetary donations are helpful to replace needed items, transportation costs, and meals for the team. The team needs new white pants, gloves, and canvas belts. These items, once stained, are nearly impossible to get clean. If you would like to support the Gold Star Platoon with a donation, please click on the link below.

The Cadets would appreciate your presence at the 4th Brigade Drill Meet on March 18th. The meet will be held at Simon G. Atkins High School, 3605 Old Greensboro Road, Winston-Salem, NC. Come out and support ORMA Cadets in person.

RECONDO TRAINING

The O.R.M.A. Recondo program is designed to instill in cadets a sense of pride, self-discipline, and teamwork while learning high adventure tasks and having fun. Recondo training is extra-curricular and is conducted on weekends. The Commandant’s Office conducts this training, and the instructors are the academy’s T.A.C. staff who are military veterans. Recondo training occurs approximately one weekend a month and is conducted on the O.R.M.A. campus and off site a Hanging Rock and Pilot Mountain state parks. Recondo training consists of a round-robin of military events. Military mountaineering, both climbing and rappelling, is the focus of the first portion of the training cycle. Cadets get several repetitions of rappelling and will learn about safety procedures, nomenclature of equipment, and the proper way to safely rig and inspect a rappel site and rappellers. The rappelling training culminates halfway through the program when the cadets are tested to earn O.R.M.A.s Military Mountaineering Device known as the “Ram’s Head device.”

Recondo cadets also learn basic tactics used in close quarters battle and military patrolling via airsoft weapons in the academy’s shoot house and on the academy’s forty-acre wooded lot. Additionally, cadets learn basic hand-to-hand combative and self-defense techniques, how to construct a one-rope bridge across a water obstacle, and basic first aid. The Recondo programs concludes with a competition weekend with the winning team earning the Recondo Commendation Medal. The following weekend all the skills learned are tested in a two-day crucible event conducted on O.R.M.A.s wooded lot. Those who successfully complete this final test are awarded the Recondo Tab for wear on the O.R.M.A. uniform. Cadets who have previously completed the program assist in the training, building leadership skills and earning the distinctive Recondo Cadre Device.

Questions: Did you participate in this kind of training? Was it called something else? What was your favorite part of the training?