| Long Island Color Guard Competition Held in Patchogue
By 1st Lt. James A. Ridley, Sr., PAO Patchogue, NY – February 3, 2007. For the 2nd straight year the Long Island Group held its Color Guard Competition at the Patchogue-Medford High School to determine which team would represent the Group at the upcoming ”NY Wing Cadet Competition”. With parents, friends, fellow Cadets and Officers looking on, Suffolk County Squadrons 10 and 7 competed against last year’s champion, the Col. Francis S. Gabreski Squadron. The cadets competed in various categories including a 50 question Written Exam, Aerospace Panel Quiz, In Ranks Inspection, Indoor Presentation of Colors, Outdoor Presentation of Colors, Standard Drill and the Mile run. They were judged by cadets from Manhattan College’s AFROTC detachment and cadets from Hofstra University’s Army ROTC’s Pershing Rifles National Honor Society. Each team represented their squadrons well with Sq 10’s Color Guard Commander, C/TSgt Donald Conste being named the “Outstanding Cadet of the Competition” by the Chief Judge Cadet Lt. Col William Cosgrove AFROTC. In the end, the Gabreski Squadron earned enough points to be declared the victor for the second year in a row and was named the “LI Group Color Guard” by Maj. Jack Ozer, LI Group Commander. The Gabreski team, led by Color Guard Commander C/TSgt Heather West included C/TSgt Joshua Medina, C/SMSgt Stephanie Filiberto, C/TSgt Carissa Lackey and C/A1C Daniel Bornschein. While the team has only been together for a short time and are not the same cadets who represented the squadron during the 2005 competition, they are not without experience having won second place this past October against high school and college ROTC teams at the Q-8 Invitational Drill Competition in East Meadow, NY. Other awards presented by Maj. Ozer included:
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