100 Years of JROTC
Ever since 1916, when the National Defense Act was enacted, the Junior Reserved Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) has been influencing the lives of many young citizens, teaching them loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage. Today, after 100 years of JROTC, it still lives on and will grow larger as times goes by. What started off as a small program is now the primary source of leadership educational opportunity for many young citizens.
JROTC has a modest beginning, created due to the National Defense Act, and it is a program that spanned a mere 6 schools. Yet, the 6 schools is the just a part of the unrealized potential of the program. By teaching teenagers in high school the motivation and responsibility required to be successful in the future, the program is helping shape their identity and their attitude towards success. It’s a process that takes time and careful planning in order to lead the cadets towards their full potential as citizens. With each cadet influenced by the program, they spread out and do amazing things. As time goes by, people gradually become aware of JROTC and its benefits to citizens.
Today, JROTC is a part of over 1,500 schools. The incredible leap is rightly deserved due to the amount of young citizens that were impacted by the program. Updated versions of textbooks are constantly released, each one with more information than the previous, and each one with more study-based facts to support the subject. There are teams that never existed 100 years ago, teams that promoted teamwork, soc...