By Cheyene Miller

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For the first time in four years, UK will host the Pershing Rifles Drill Meet, sponsored by the UK Pershing Rifles C-1 organization that includes 25 cadets from the Army and Air Force ROTCs.

“We’ve been planning this through all of first semester,” said Pershing Rifles Sergeant Michael Vallerie, who said the event “used to be the main (drill) competition in the area.”

The drill meet will be held on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. in three locations on campus: the Grand Ballroom in the Student Center, Alumni Gym and Buell Armory.

The event features both drill and ceremony and color guard competitions, which place emphasis on the formal aspects of military lifestyle, like wearing dress uniforms, marching in sync with other cadets and displaying proper military etiquette, as displayed in actions like salutes.

“We were given the option to either grow as an organization or continue this competition,” said Vallerie, a history sophomore, about UK’s absence from the meet.

Vallerie noted that the absence of the event allowed the organization to grow and expand until they eventually decided to reinstate the event.

According to the National Society of the Pershing Rifles Company C-1 webpage, the organization was founded in Nebraska in 1891.The UK Pershing Rifles were formed in the early 1930s.

Its female counterpart, the Kentucky Babes, a baton team, was formed in 1965. It is listed as the official co-ed counterpart to the Pershing Rifles, though the ROTC group accepts both men and women.

According to Vallerie, 14 teams from 12 high schools will compete. The event features JROTC units from the surrounding area, with members of both Pershing Rifles and the UK ROTC judging the events.

The drill and ceremony and color guard competitions are judged on factors like ability to keep a steady gaze, cadence with the other members and tight, crisp movement. The units can compete as platoons, squads or individuals, according to Pershing Rifles Lieutenant J.P. Cecconi. A squad is typically comprised of four to five members and a platoon is four squads.

Cecconi said that when judging a drill and ceremony competition, he looks for “small errors in the drill. How they march, how they do faces, and things like that.”

Pershing Rifles is expecting about 350 cadets, Cecconi said.

The event is free to all UK students.