BAY MINETTE, Ala.—The Daphne High School Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps unit received a commendation from the Baldwin County Public School Board Thursday for its honorable actions during a skills exercise last month.

Four members  of Daphne High’s JROTC unit—senior Chris Stratton; sophomores Kevin Winter and Reba Borges; and John Becton, a junior at Spanish Fort High—were competing in a land navigation drill at a meet at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. The timed exercise required each team to navigate its way to designated checkpoints using a map, a compass and a protractor.

“We had an hour and 15 minutes to get out our map, plot our points and find directions to the points,” Winter said.

The team had completed half of its checkpoints in the first 20 minutes and was well on its way to victory when it came across a fallen JROTC member from Escambia County High in Atmore.

“She was dehydrated,” he said. “She didn’t have any water. She wasn’t ready to run around in the heat in sweatpants. She wasn’t at all prepared for the competition.”

Winter said the Atmore student appeared pale and required immediate medical attention.

At that point, Stratton decided to forgo the competition to aid the fallen student. He carried her close to 300 meters to Daphne JROTC Col. David Lanfair so the group’s leader could contact a medic.

“We decided to stop competing to help her,” Winter said.

“Service before self; that’s what we’re taught here,” Stratton said.

The cadets’ display of selflessness highlights the first two guiding principles of the JROTC program: They responsibly honored themselves and others by promoting ethical values; they also exercised those values through leadership, team work and community service.

Lanfair said the goal of ROTC is to create good citizens—and if the unit’s action was an indication, its mission was achieved.

“It’s good to know the system is working,” he said. “It’s all about doing the right thing and we’re proud of them.”