Navy ROTC Unit Earns Top Marks and Ranking

For a third year in a row, the student Navy Jr. ROTC unit based at the Guthrie Center has earned an Outstanding ranking (100 percent in all areas) during its recently completed Area Manager’s Inspection.

In separate but related news, the Guthrie Center-based ROTC group has also been named once again as a Navy Jr. ROTC Distinguished Unit with Academic Honors for the 2017-2018 school year.

The Distinguished Unit designation is given to ROTC programs ranked in the top 30 percent of all regional programs. SBISD’s unit has now won the Distinguished Unit with Academic Honors ranking for 12 years in a row. As such an exemplary unit, SBISD’s program may nominate three eligible unit cadets to the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Although no historical records of every Outstanding unit ranking across the greater Houston region is maintained, Junior ROTC leaders report that one such ranking for any student unit is noteworthy. Earning multiple high-level rankings like SBISD’s unit is considered unusual.

Cadet Lt. Cmdr. Devin Williams, the unit’s Cadet Executive Officer (second in command) and a a Spring Woods High senior, notes that inspection this year was difficult due to Hurricane Harvey’s impact.

“We lost two weeks of school so it was as if the inspection came two weeks early,” he said. “We also had a challenge with instructors with Master Chief Heuser retiring last summer and being replaced by Hospital Corpsman First Class Dominic Monita, so we were also adjusting to a new instructor.”

“I feel blessed that as an Executive Officer, I was given the opportunity to learn from the experience of being in a real leadership and management project. What I learned is you get what you inspect, not what you expect,” he also said. “This isn’t really an award, it’s the results of the inspection.”

Cadet Williams serves with Cadet Lt. Cmdr. Azucena Gonzales, the unit’s Cadet Commanding Officer and a Northbrook High senior. SBISD’s Jr. ROTC unit is led by retired Navy Cmdr. Jerry Coufal and retired Hospital Corpsman First Class Dominic Monita.

The SBISD unit’s 12-year Distinguished Unit with Academic Honors ranking is based on its annual military inspection results, competition placements, community service hours, academic performance and related factors.

Navy Jr. ROTC Area 10 Area Administrator Curtis St. Pierre credits Coufal and Monita with excellent instructional leadership after the Area Manager’s Inspection.

“Commander Coufal and Hospital Corpsman Monita have been outstanding examples of showing the cadets what right looks like,” he wrote in a report.

The Area Manager’s Inspection helps to showcase what the student ROTC cadets have learned through drill performances, personnel inspections and reviews of the supply, material and administrative records that cadets must administer as part of their program.