Gloucester Alumni

By Douglas Moser
Staff Writer, Gloucester Daily Times

The Gloucester High School Junior ROTC rifle team is in Lynn today to try to win a third rifle championship against 32 other schools with Marine Junior ROTC programs in the Northeast.

Sgt. Major Rod Wilday, the high school ROTC instructor, said many of the schools compete at Lynn English High School and Gloucester has come out on top before. "We're looking to defend our championship," he said. Some schools shoot air rifles on their own range and mail the targets in for scoring. Gloucester, along with many others schools, travel to the host school and fire shoulder-to-shoulder. The Northeast region includes schools from northeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and all of New England.

Next Saturday, 24 cadets will travel to Chelsea for a Christmas party that the Chelsea Elks Lodge holds every year for its veterans. Wilday said the Elks is providing transportation, and the cadets will meet with the veterans. "They have some costumes the cadets will dress up in," he said. "Apparently the old guys get a kick out of that. That'll put us over 1,000 hours of community service so far this school year."