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Justin Amos
Sally Buchanan
ENG101-1
11 September 2017
What It Means To Be A ROTC Cadet
Most people, when asked about their most favorite part of their life, will say that high
school tops the list. For some, high school band was the most memorable; others might say that
their favorite part of high school was Key Club, or their time on the yearbook committee. For
me, my favorite part is my time in JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps). To me, JROTC
has three main qualities that make it so memorable - the uniforms, the knowledge, and the
competitions.
Every Thursday, Northview’s ROTC cadets wear the Marine Corps Combat Utility
Uniform (MCCUU), commonly referred to as ‘cammies’. Some of our cadets are in the Color
Guard, and they get the honor of wearing Dress Blues. They are the easiest Marine Corps
uniform to recognize and are the uniforms we wear to present the Colors (the American Flag
and the Marine Corps Flag) at football games, and some of our school (and city) ceremonies.
We have three more uniforms that a select few cadets wear on special occasions - the Alphas,
the Charlies, and the Deltas. Those three uniforms are distinctive among themselves, the
Alphas have a green coat (not unlike the Dress Blues) with trousers to match, the Charlies have
a short sleeved khaki button down with green trousers, and the Deltas have a short sleeved
khaki button down with blue trousers to complete it .After we get everyone’s uniforms
situated, we then procced to the learning of Marine Corps knowledge.
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Some knowledge consists of Military Jargon, the phonetic alphabet, and telling military
time. JROTC’s Jargon is the same as the Marine Corps, and during class we require the cadets to
learn the words and to use them. An example of jargon we use in class would be when a cadet
asks to use the bathroom, they must ask instead to use the ‘head’. During war, combat radio
connections were going in and out, thus making it difficult to decipher orders. The phonetic
alphabet was created to counter that, with the added benefit of confusing enemy tr...
