ROTC students band together to create challenge coin, a military tradition

Braswell High School’s Air force Jr. ROTC program recently designed and created their own challenge coin, becoming the first JROTC program in DISD to do so. The coin’s design, which bears the image of a winged white bengal tiger on one side and the AFJROTC logo on the other, is completely unique to Braswell’s TX-20171 unit.

SMSgt Christopher Koopmans, one of the program’s two directors, spearheaded the initiative to design the coin, but invited all students in the program to have input during the design process.

“From beginning to end, I told them to design everything you can, just do a little handwritten sketch, and [the minting company] will design it off of that,” Koopman said.

Fiona Saldia, Corps Commander, 12, was one of several students heavily involved in the design process.

“Every now and then, he would get one of us and just say ‘Hey come over here, come to my office,’ and then, from there, he would show us from his computer screen,” Saldia said. “We would talk about it and say things like ‘maybe we should switch the colors here’ or ‘change how the tiger fits here’ and just get tips from everybody around.”

Traditionally, challenge coins are used to recognize and honor individuals for their service or achievements, and are frequently used in a “challenge,” where a member of the unit presents their coin to another member, who must then produce their own coin or face a penalty.

“The challenge coin has a long history that goes back well over 900 years,” Koopmans said. “Each unit would have a commemorative coin minted. How a challenge worked was somebody pulled out one of their coins and started tapping it on the bar as a challenge to everybody to pull out their coins and start tapping theirs, too. If there was anybody who did not have their coin on them, they bought the next round of drinks.”

Though challenge coins are very common among military and law enforcement units, they are very rarely seen at the high school level.

“It would be nice to get that started with other JROTC units in the area,” Koopmans said.

One thing I really liked about it was that I could have something to remember the unit by.

— Anakin Aranda Medrano, 11

Many students in JROTC bid for a coin for their time in the program. Each coin is assigned a number based on the order of minting, and has the potential to have sentimental value to its future owner.

“I purchased my coin specifically for the number four,” Anakin Aranda Medrano, 11, said. “One thing I really liked about it was that I could have something to remember the unit by. I would say the coin symbolizes more of the unit, but you can also use that as a symbol for yourself.”

To purchase a coin, stop by J117, while supplies last.

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