The next holiday in a stretch running into January is Veterans Day on Nov. 11.
A contest was held Saturday at an American Legion near downtown Phoenix which was built decades ago for Latino veterans when segregation was the norm.
High school teams of neatly uniformed cadets in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps took a civics exam, a physical fitness test and performed different types of drills.
“Teaching them about responsibility. Teaching them about discipline and teaching them about teamwork. All qualities that eventually employers will look for,” said Loui Olivas, an Air Force veteran.
Olivas serves on the executive committee at the American Legion Post 41, which gave cash prizes to the top-scoring JROTC teams in the John S. McCain Leadership Competition.