Evolution of JROTC: From War Preparation to Citizen Training

People often say “Don't be afraid to change because although you may lose something good you may gain something much better.” This particular quote is what many people live by, this quote is what the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program lives by. The program initially started in the the year of 1916 which was the year that the National Defense Act was signed and enforced, it was later expanded in the year of 1964 with the signing of the ROTC Vitalization Act.

The JROTC mission then was to get young men prepared for war, after high school cadets either went to college, enlist, or got drafted. They didn't really have a choice. The mission now is to motivate young people to become better citizens. The words may have changed drastically and so has the definition of the program’s mission, but the message remains the same. JROTC trains young people to be those citizens who will help their environment,and help those around them. The program may not be training cadets for war, but it is, just like before

It was a brigade with two battalions and twenty companies, each battalion had ten companies each. The amount of cadets they had was shocking. Today we only have one battalion with three companies and around thirty to forty cadets in each company. This is a lot to us but it would be considered very little to the cadets in the previous years. Another thing I wish didn’t change, the numbers of cadets within a program. Even though we are more able to build a relationship with our instructors it would be better to have much more cadets participating and enrolled in the program. Since each public school had an abundance of cadets they all had separate Military balls; however, officers from other schools were invited to other schools Military ball. Military ball was also mandatory, everyone in the program had to attend. They usually held it at Fort Derussy which is in