Monroe High Cadets Celebrate

As gusty winds whipped American flags, Army Junior ROTC cadets from Monroe High School received medals on Thursday for their stellar performance in a marching competition, marking the school’s sixth consecutive win.

“This is a tradition at Monroe. We’ve known since ninth grade that we had to get into action and hold on to our legacy,” said Rachel Murphy, 17, commander of the school’s 381-student battalion. As a colonel, she is the second-highest ranking student in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Army Junior ROTC program.

The grueling daylong competition--involving Army Junior ROTC teams from 16 LAUSD schools--was held in January at Monroe. Approximately 150 Monroe students practiced five days a week beginning in July to earn a place on the 44-member team.

“This is a really distinguished school. They put a high priority on this. It takes high morale to achieve this,” said Stuart Bird-Wilson, vice president of the British United Services Club, which has sponsored the All-City Drill Competition since 1945.

Hundreds of students attended the morning ceremony, which also honored Roosevelt and Hollywood high schools, the second and third place finishers.

Uniformed color guards from each school filled the football field while Caroline Morgan, a Monroe chemistry and physics teacher from Great Britain, sang the British and American national anthems.

In addition to the students, accolades were bestowed on Sgt. Bruce Murphy, who has run the program at Monroe for six years.

“It’s due to his tremendous leadership and skills. He overcomes obstacles and makes it happen,” said Lt. Col. Ted A. McDonald, director of Army instruction for LAUSD and the Junior ROTC coordinator.

Murphy, whose daughter commands the battalion, also expects the school to win a comprehensive LAUSD-sponsored contest for the sixth year in a row.

And what about the marching contest next year?

“I think we can do it again,” said Murphy. “But the most important thing is for them to graduate high school and feel good about themselves.”