On October 27, 2006, seventeen cadets (nine boys and eight girls) from Ventura County traveled to NAB Coronado in San Diego, California to take part in an annual Flagship Competition over the weekend. These cadets, ages 11 to 13, are part of the Navy League Cadet Corps unit named Training Ship Minutemen which drills once a month at NBVC NAS Point Mugu. This was the first time in several years that TS Minutemen have sent a team to this Flagship competition and when all was said and done, Training Ship Minutemen were #1!

On Saturday, Training Ship Minutemen was one of 16 Navy League units from Southern California to participate in the competition, which had a total of 130 cadets attend in all. The cadets competed in various Navy-based skills including knot tying, semaphore, firefighting, color guard, swimming, line heaving, stretcher carry, signal pennants, regulation drill and personal inspection.

On Sunday, a ceremony was held to award First, Second, and Third place plaques and streamers to the units and some individual awards were given as well. TS Minutemen placed second in semaphore, knot tying, and stretcher carry and they placed first in firefighting, line heaving and color guard. Cadet Istvan Pallai was awarded 3rd place for an individual line heaving throw of 59 feet 5 inches. As the first place color guard team, the Minutemenwere given the honor of performing the color guard to open the ceremony. With a total point score of 1692, Training Ship Minutemen placed first overall for the entire competition and will have their unit named engraved on the almost three-foot trophy.

The Navy League Cadet Corps (for youth ages 10-13) and the Naval Sea Cadet Corps (for youth ages 14-18) are national youth groups funded by Congress and supported by the Navy League. There are almost 350 units and close to 10,000 cadets throughout the United States. The program is dedicated to instilling the principles of honor, courage, and commitment through age appropriate activities. Currently, cadets that are part of Training Ship Minutemen live in areas from Simi Valley to Oxnard and all points in between.

A cadet can start at any time and there are introductory meetings once a month. For more information and/or to reserve a spot at the next meeting scheduled for Sunday, December 10th at Point Mugu, call the unit's hotline @ 805-526-9475. Also, check out the National website www.seacadets.org.