Last year’s score was great, but Thursday’s score was even better when the Spalding High School JROTC held its 2009 Annual Federal Inspection (AFI).

The final score was 99.665 percent, while the 2008 score was 98.2 percent.

Lt. Col. Roderick Sylvester attributed the outstanding score to the cadets.

“We like to try to teach them that they have overall responsibility for this,” Sylvester said. “They worked hard. They bought into it.”

The AFI is particularly important because it allows all of the JROTC companies to come together and be reviewed by graders from different colleges, said Battalion Commander Thomas Bearden.

“They review what we’ve done the entire year to see if we’re on target with where we’re supposed to be,” Bearden said. “The inspection started early in the morning when my staff and I gave a briefing to each of the graders to make sure we know what it is we are supposed to do. After that, we had an inspection where the graders inspected each and every cadet. Then we moved down here for a pass and review so the graders could see the battalion in action.”

Later in the day, the stations of Bearden and his staff were also reviewed.

All in all, the three companies and color guard had an impressive day. They also picked up some bragging rights.

“They had a running joke with last year’s class about who was going to outdo who,” Sylvester said. “When it was over, the battalion commander from this year called the battalion commander from last year.”