11/3/08 It is our pleasure to announce our Desert Ridge Air Force JROTC Rocket Team did very well at the "Valley of the Sun Rocket Meet" hosted my Mesa High School on Saturday.

Our Aviators placed:
3rd in the Remote Control Aircraft category

Our Rocketeers placed:
3rd in the Spot Landing category
2nd in the Egg Loft category
1st in the Altitude category

We also placed 2nd overall in the competition.

AFJROTC stands for: Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (core). They are as the name implies, under the Air Force branch of the military. Most people would automaticly assume that they try to push the cadets to join the military, but this is not so. JROTC encourages cadets to go to a college or a university and join the ROTC program there. JROTC is a condensed version of the college ROTC course. There are numerouse types of JROTC classes to take at Desert Ridge. First years take History of Flight. Second years have Science of flight. The third years branch off into two sections. You can choose from exploraton of space, or the AP course Ground school/Private Pilots License.

On Saturday 4/26/08 the Jaguar Aerospace Challenge was a huge success.  Rocketeers from DRHS took the First Place Trophy in the egg loft category and two jaguar cadets, took second and third place trophies in the remote control (RC) aircraft category.  We believe this RC competition was the first of its kind for JROTC in the state of Arizona.  Congratulations to all participates.

3/4/08 This past Saturday, Moon Valley HS Navy JROTC hosted a Score-O orienteering competition at Lake Pleasant. There were 22 schools represented with 117 two-person teams taking to the desert. Desert Ridge High School Air Force Junior ROTC placed ninth. By placing ninth, this qualifies them for next seasons JROTC Southwest Region Orienteering Championship.

This is a milestone for our program. We have been competing for years without this level of success. The AFJROTC program does not teach orienteering as part of our curriculum, as the other services programs do. Our cadets have been competing at a disadvantage. I think this will change their outlook from this point forward and I hope to see more teams reach the Southwest Region Orienteering Championships in the future.

11/7/07 The Air Force JROTC attended the Valley of the Sun Mesa High Rocket Meet (State wide Competition) on Saturday and returned with a Third Place trophy in the Spot Landing category (returning as close as possible to the launch site) and a Third Place trophy in the Altitude category (going really high). The Corps is planning to sponsor a similar rocket meet here at DRHS on April 26th.