A Legion Family affair

The 105th National Convention Color Guard Contests featured a returning champion, newer favorites and a number of rookies. And the biggest category was the newest.

The results of the Advancing & Retiring Colors category:

1. Newport Harbor Post 293 (Newport Beach, Calif.), 92.35

2. Jackie Robinson Unit 252 (Los Angeles), 85.0

3. Carlisle Bennet Post 13 (Albuquerque, N.M.), 83.4

4. Lynchburg (Va.) Post 16, 74.7

In the Military Class category:

1. Newport, 92.5

2. Carlisle, 80.55

3. Lynchburg, 73.25

In the Open Class category:

1. Jackie Robinson, 85.35

2. Squadron 29 (Lenoir, N.C.), 88.2

For the second year, the competition also featured a JROTC Open Class category. An initiative of the Legion’s National Convention & Meetings Office and former employee/freelancer Reggie Mathis, it grew in 2024 into nine units from multiple states. Their results:

1. West Caldwell High School NJROTC Warriors (Lenoir, N.C.), 101.0

2. New Orleans Military & Maritime Academy, 99.0

3. Franklin County High School Bulldog Battalion (Meadville, Miss.), 97.25

4. Wildcat Company, 95.25

5. Brother Martin High School JROTC (New Orleans), 91.0

6. Hahnville High School AFJROTC (Boutte, La.), 90.75

7. Robertsdale High School NJROTC (Robertsdale, Ala.), 87.25

8. Covington High School NJROTC (Covington, La.), 81.75

9. Slidell High School NJROTC (Slidell, La.), 56.5

Even with the new competition, the winner was the same as last year. West Caldwell instructor and Legionnaire Wayne Mihelich, a retired Navy command sergeant major, said only one of the four competitors – Miles Sterling, who accompanied Kaleb Kunkle, Caleb Kirby and Aiden Kirby – returned from last year. Their final score reflected both faultlessness from the judges’ standpoint and a bit of extra credit for going above and beyond. They also received the SAL award, as the boys are all Sons. (Unit 252 received an award from the Auxiliary.) The unit went through four months of practice; “it takes a lot of patience,” Caleb said.

For the fourth year in a row, Newport Harbor earned the distinction of being the national commander’s color guard for the next convention – 2025, in Tampa Bay, Fla. National Commander Dan Seehafer, presenting the trophies, seemed to have all the youths in attendance – as well as their supportive friends and families – when he extolled the virtues of practice and grit, connecting it back to the Legion pillar of Americanism, and referred to them as “Young Glory.”