The Saint Louis University Parks Guard Rifle Drill Team recently beat the U.S. Air Force Academy in the Southern California Invitational Drill Meet.

"When I was a freshman, we took second place, and the Air Force Academy won first," said senior Cadet Lieutenant Colonel and Parks Guard Commander James White. "I decided I wanted to beat the Academy, and now we have."

Parks Guard took first place in the 17-man exhibition out of 10 teams, and third place in the four-man armed exhibition out of 23 teams.

SCIDM, which was sponsored this year by Boeing, was held on March 5 in Los Angeles. Twenty-five people from SLU attended, 21 of whom were Parks Guard members.

According to the Southern California Invitational Drill meet Web site (www.usc.edu/dept/afrotc /SCIDM), SCIDM is one of the largest drill competitions in the nation, hosting over 100 junior and senior teams made up of cadets and midshipmen from the Navy, Marines, Army and Air Force.

SCIDM is composed of several categories of drill competition, including full, four-man, color guard and individual drill-down competitions.

Last year's competition hosted approximately 1,000 junior and senior cadets from AFROTC, AROTC and NROTC units all over the United States.

"It's probably the largest drill meet in the western United States," White said.

It was the first time in more than three decades that SLU has taken a 17-man team to competition, White said.

The Parks Guard competed amongst other highly prestigious flight schools, like the University of Illinois, Embry-Riddle and USC as well as the U.S. Air Force Academy.

According to Rob Pendergest, who competed in SCIDM, what makes the Parks Guard stand out is their high degree of self-discipline, difficulty of their rifle tosses, cadence (marching speed) and their distinctive left-foot stomp.

"We march at 40 steps per minute, which is slow. The normal army marches at 120 steps; so [we march] really slow," Pendergest said.

White said, "Parks Guard is the biggest it has been in a long time. We had enough skill and manpower to take a 17-person team."