ColoradoSeen 06/2011

Colorado Seen

DRILL, BABY, DRILL06/2011

Also n DRAGoNBoATs

From the EditorAugust. It’s been just a year since I got a wild

hair and converted Coloradoseen from a site with picture-only slide shows to a true magazine format that allows for a more extensive interplay between pictures, text, graphics and headlines.

The past 12 months have been quite a ride. I’ve frozen my lenses photographing ice racing in Georgetown, and sweltered in the summer sun photographing dragonboat races on Denver’s sloan’s lake (see page 2).

I’ve had the chance to finally pursue a number of stories that have been percolating around in my mind for years, from following the 1806-7 path of Zeb Pike through Colorado (4/2011), to exploring Rocky Mountain National Park in winter, (2/2011) to following the cadets in the JRoTC program at Denver’s Montbello High school through the year.

I’m looking forward to bringing you lots more in the next 12 months — including more of Colo-rado’s small rural libraries, a project that some of you have missed.

see you in september!

Colorado Seen

An internet image magazine

Editor & PublisherAndrew Piper

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Copyright © 2011 Coloradoseen

On ThE cOvEr:spin, salute, shout. Montbello High school JRoTC Rifle drill team captain Mo Jallow practices presenting his squad for competition. “sir! Request permission to use this exhibition space, sir!”

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RACING WITH DRAGoNs

To the beat of a drum, a racing dragonboat proceeds to the starting line on Denver’s Sloan’s Lake.

RACING WITH DRAGoNs

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Dragon-boat racing is es-sentially

a drag(on) race. Two boats, 250 meters (820 feet) of water, twenty paddlers, a drummer to keep time, a steersman — and a straight line between start and finish.

Racing long canoes, usually representing neighboring villages,

has been a tradition around the Pacific Rim for over 2000 years. The dragon decora-tion is particular to Chinese culture, spe-cifically the region of the Pearl River in the south, but has spread with the Chinese di-aspora to many other parts of Asia. And is tied to celebrations of the summer solstice.

Denver’s Drag-onboat Festival, held each summer on

n click here to see a multimedia show of pictures from

Dragonboat Festivals past.

Traditional paper parasols protect festivalgoers from Denver’s July sun — even when reading the race results.

Denver’s skyline hovers in the distance as a pair of

dragonboats race for the flags.

STORY & PhOTOS by AnDy PIPEr

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children watch from the lakeshore as dragonboats make their way to the starting line.

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Dancers from the christina yeh Dance Studio perform a fan ribbon dance.

Thai Pepper chef cha hasadinratana rings a bell to celebrate every soul brave enough to order the delicacy.

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sloan’s lake west of the Broncos’ football stadium, began in 2000 with 16 teams, and has grown into a general celebration of Asian cultures, with not only 50 teams in this year’s races, but also music, dance and martial arts performances from Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, singapore and Thailand.

The racing crews today usually rep-resent “villages” of friends or corporate coworkers.

The Fes-tival also incor-porates Taste of

Asia, a food court featuring Chinese, Thai and other flavors from the Far East. The longest line is always for the “monkeyballs” prepared by Thai Pepper — a sort of globular fried egg roll with sweet-spicy sauce. Chef Cha Hasadinratana celebrates every brave order by ring-ing a bell to a cry of ‘Hohhh, Monkey-BAlls!’ n

Waves stirred up by a race reflect a dragonboat crew as it turns towards shore. n

DRILL, BABY, DRILLHigh School Soldiers: Fifth in a series

Before classes, after school, Montbello’s JRoTC cadets take the Manual of Arms seriously — and even improve upon it.

JrOTc cadet Major Mo Jallow, center, commands

the Montbello high Exhibition rifle squad

through their routines in a school parking lot.

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Military drill began to be codified in the 18th century, when firearms replaced pikes as the weapon of the foot soldier. The power of inac-curate muskets lay in massed fire, with soldiers shooting simultaneously from a tight formation. To be effective (and to avoid blowing off fellow soldiers’ heads or spiking them with bayonets) the slow loading process, and the handling of the arms, required precise timing and orderly movement.

Thus was born the Manual of Arms, which covered not only the operation of the weapons, but also handling them in close order and on the march.

The constant practice of these techniques became

STORY & PhOTOS

by AnDy PIPEr

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‘column, hALT!’ A Montbello JrOTc

company practices regulation marching drill

on the football field.

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known as “drill” and has become the feature that distin-guishes military arms handling from, say, the individual hunter in the field.

Drill practice and drill competitions are the most military of the activities that make up the JRoTC education of cadets — and the bat-talion at Montbello High school is no

exception.

R egulation Drill covers the basic skills and commands, the familiar (and not so familiar) orders that govern march-ing and weapons handling: “shoulder, ARMs”; “Present, ARMs”; “By the right

flank, MARCH”; “Column, half right, MARCH”. Every Montbello cadet is expected to master these basics.

And even deliver the com-mands themselves. While Montbello’s military instructors coach drill sessions, it is cadet officers and noncoms who generally give the orders.

Above, Sgt. First class Tommie harden, right, coaches Montbello’s exhibition rifle team. At left, cadet Luis Ortiz practices spinning his rifle.

Team commander Mo Jallow tapes his dummy exhibition rifle. At right a cadet practices rifle maneuvers solo in the main JrOTc classroom.

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‘Left, left, left, rIGhT left’. Four Montbello cadets stay

overtime to practice their regulation marching drill.

Montbello’s honor Platoon practices

Exhibition Drill without Arms, combining

regulation drill maneuvers with razzle-

dazzle dance moves.

cadet Lt. colonel Autumn bachmann is the commander and choreographer for Montbello’s honor Platoon.

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But the cream of the cadets also take part in more complex forms of drill: Exhibition Drill With (and Without) Arms. Exhibition drills are a riff on the basics, with demonstrations of extraordinary weapons handling or marching routines.

In some ways, exhibition drill with arms runs counter to everything the original Manuals of Arms sought to promote. It is precise and orderly — but these spinning rifles, often tossed from soldier to soldier, would no doubt have made 18th-century generals cringe.

They are fun, however.

As the name implies, Exhibition Drill Without Arms even does away with the weapons altogether.

As developed by

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‘Drop and give me ten!’ A misstep during practice earns

a Montbello honor Platoon cadet a set of pushups under

the eyes of her teammates.

honor Platoon coach command

Sgt. Major Patrick roddy gives the team last words

of encouragement before a citywide

JrOTc competition at Manual high.

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Step, stomp, salute. The Montbello honor Guard performs its routine before a crowd at Denver’s Manual high School. Team commander Autumn bachmann stands front and center, at right.

Montbello’s Honor Platoon, close order drill becomes a styl-ized dance routine: “stomp” done with military precision and uniforms.

Cadet lt. Colonel (and senior class member) Autumn Bachmann com-manded the unit in the 2010-11 school year, and choreo-graphed the steps, salutes and marching cadences. Bachmann enters the U.s. Army this fall.

Bachmann drove herself, and her cadets, hard. Mis-takes in the routine are chastised with pushups. Preparing for a spring citywide competition among Denver’s JRoTC bat-talions, the platoon practised every morning for an hour before classes.

Bachmann

and her team had ambitions to win the competition, and a third place finish that would have pleased a lesser commanders brought only tears of frustration.

Platoon coach Command sgt. Major Patrick Roddy tried to give the team a little perspective. “look down the line. there are schools that are taking home no trophy at all. You did good. You did good!” n

A trophy — and tears. honor Guard commander bachmann, facing camera, gets a consoling hug after her team earns only third

place in the competition. n