Students learn important skills at ROTC

The Facts
Published April 20, 2009

CLUTE — Brandon Jones isn’t sure why he joined Brazoswood High School’s Air Force Junior ROTC program, but he knows why he stayed.

“You make a lot of friends and it teaches you a lot about life,” he said.

Jones, a 17-year-old junior, has learned more about leadership and responsibility from the Reserve Officers Training Corps than he would have learned in any other classroom, he said. The skills he has learned will help him not only in the future, he said, but are helping him succeed in school now.

“I would have probably failed other classes without ROTC,” Jones said.

These experiences are common among ROTC students as instructors work to make leaders out of all of the cadets, Chief Master Sgt. Larry Ceaser said.

“We instill values of citizenship, service to the United States and personal responsibility for actions,” Ceaser said.

Cadets take a class every semester that is about 40 percent aerospace science, 40 percent leadership and 20 percent physical fitness and drills, Ceaser said. But being a member of ROTC doesn’t stop there.

Junior ROTC members also participate in many community service projects and the drill teams attend competitions.



LEARNING TO LEAD

Natasha Ruiz, a 17-year-old Brazoswood senior, has learned a lot about how to lead thanks to the efforts of her instructors. Ruiz is the Corps Commander this semester, a position that puts her in charge of all 87 members.

Ruiz plans to attend Texas A&M University and get a degree in forensic science, she said. She knows the leadership skills she learned in ROTC will serve her the rest of her life.

Discipline is another characteristic cadets learn, said Justin Duncan, a 16-year-old Brazoswood junior.

The hardest requirement to be in ROTC is students must wear their uniform once every week, Ceaser said. If they don’t wear their uniform three times, they will fail the class, he said.

“It’s not very popular because the uniform isn’t considered cool,” Ceaser said.

Cool or not, Ceasar understands why the uniform requirement matters.

“Right now they don’t see the importance,” Ceaser said. “But no matter what you do in life, there will be some type of uniform.”

Little things like this are how ROTC instructors ensure students learn all they need.

“It’s better to learn how to be organized and do things in a structured way now,” Ceasar said.

They will be better off as adults and in college, he said.

JOINING THE MARINES

At Alvin High School, which affiliates its Junior ROTC program with the Marine Corps, different students joined for different reasons, but they all learn the same principles.

Alvin sophomore David Hinojosa joined to be different from his family, he said. He didn’t want to get into trouble as his older siblings had done.

Amanda Choate, also sophomore, joined because her family members were in it before her, she said. But through the program she has learned to be herself, she said.

“It teaches them to be leaders in their home, school and community,” said Major Jim Spakes, an instructors with Alvin’s ROTC program. “We’re making more responsible citizens.”

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