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| ROTC News: Cadets on campus |
 Hillsborough schools have more Junior Reserve Officer Training Corpsprograms than the national average.
Cadets on campus
Hillsborough schools have more Junior Reserve Officer Training Corpsprograms than the national average.
By ELISABETH DYER, Times Staff Writer
Published March 31, 2006
Touted as citizenship courses and feared as recruitment tools,
military-sponsored classes spread this year to nearly every
Hillsborough County high school.
Alexandria Valdez signed up as soon as Blake High opened an Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps in August.
"I've
been considering a job in the military for about two years,'' the
sophomore said at a recent class ceremony where she was promoted to
staff sergeant.
Blake junior Spencer Andrews wouldn't consider
cutting his shoulder-length curls to join the program, which he calls
propaganda. "They say that it doesn't have anything to do with the
military, but it seems to me like all the preparation they put the kids
through is just like military,'' he said.
The Air Force opened 48
JROTC programs nationwide this school year, including five at
Hillsborough County high schools: Blake, Middleton, Jefferson, Newsome
and Plant. Sickles is the only high school among the district's 23 that
doesn't have JROTC, but hopes to get it next year.
Hillsborough
fared "far better than the national average for representation,'' Air
Force spokesman Phil Berube said in an e-mail. Officials consider
school facilities and community support in deciding where to place
programs. Having MacDill Air Force Base as a neighbor aids in
recruiting instructors, Berube said.
Congress created JROTC in
1916 as part of the National Defense Act to promote citizenship. But it
has proved to be effective at filling military ranks, too.
Expanding
JROTC to more high schools rose as a solution at a 2000 hearing of the
House Armed Services Committee during a discussion of missed
recruitment goals. Forty percent of high school cadets go on to enlist
in the military, according to the Defense Department.
"There is a
backlog of schools that want to get into this program,'' said
then-Defense Secretary William Cohen, who called it one of the best
recruiting devices. More than 500,000 high school students are enrolled
nationwide.
In military lingo, JROTC is pronounced junior ROT-see. Students in any grade level can enroll.
In
class, JROTC students are called cadets. Out of class, other students
sometimes call them pickles, blueberries or blackberries depending on
the color of the military uniform they wear once a week.
Cadets
practice marching and have weekly uniform inspections. They run, do
pushups and sit-ups and cross rope bridges strung between trees. They
learn financial management, time management, public speaking and
military history. Some learn to shoot air rifles and march with flags
or rifles.
"Basically, they teach good citizenship,'' says Jim
Dieringer, who heads Hillsborough's program, which has about 2,500
students. Principals request the programs, which are granted pending
military funding.
Students who do well in the program can earn scholarships and enlist at advanced ranks.
Plant High's program was a natural for sophomore David Cloud, who is thinking of applying to the Air Force Academy.
"He's really gotten into it,'' stepfather Bob Harris said.
JROTC
instructors are retired military and considered employees of their host
school. The military typically pays half their salary and provides
equipment, uniforms and curriculum. The school district pays the rest.
Rob Lorei, whose daughter Maria attends Plant, says it's money wasted.
"Our
schools are underfunded. Our teachers are underpaid, and our classrooms
are crowded,'' he said. "If the Pentagon has so much money that it can
toss around, we're being overtaxed.''
nnn
A chair sits
empty in Sgt. Maj. Michael Bargy's JROTC classrooms at Robinson High
School. On it, a brass plaque proclaims: "This seat belongs to Lance
Corporal Andy Aviles United States Marine Corps . . . He gave all.
Those who did less cannot sit here."
Aviles learned
self-discipline in JROTC, his parents Oscar and Norma Aviles said. But
it also planted a seed in his mind. He enlisted in the Marine Corps
Reserves when he was 17 and died the next year, while battling to
secure a bridge outside Baghdad.
That's what Zenola Wilson-Culver
fears. In times of peace, she wouldn't mind if her 16-year-old son Otis
took Blake High's JROTC. The military would give him a chance to travel
and leave behind a less-than-desirable neighborhood.
But not now.
"I guess where it leads is to our military over in Iraq,'' she said. "They could send our kids over there.''
That's
one of the problems Maj. Norman Murray faces at Blake High's JROTC
program, which has 23 students. "People see the uniforms and think
we're recruiters.''
Not the case, he says. Unlike recruiters,
Murray and co-instructor Senior Master Sgt. Rudy Moore say they have no
incentive to enlist students in the military.
"We're about citizenship and service,'' Murray said.
They
present the military as an option. They said they don't pressure. They
share their experiences. Murray's master's degree was paid for by the
military. Moore traveled to faraway places such as Saudi Arabia.
"I guess one could call it advertisement,'' Murray said. "It's exposure."
Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this story. Elisabeth Dyer can be reached at edyer@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3321.
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Posted on Friday, March 31 @ 11:14:29 EST by admin |
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