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I used to be in JROTC back in high school, mostly because it seemed better than gym. It was a interesting experience, though comically easy. And I somehow managed to get to the rank of Cadet Captain!  Because of scheduling, I always seemed to end up in the first-year class, which wasn't really an issue since we never really learned anything that carried over (or anything at all, actually). We specifically had Air Force JROTC at my high school, so we were supposed to learn the ranks, a 17- or 21-step drill (I forget the number), and then later they decided we should also learn extremely basic weather concepts. All T/F questions were always "True", this was called "Colonel-style" after the Colonel that introduced it and who would drop by occasionally. Learning these simple things would somehow prove to be a challenge for many of the people in the class for an entire four years. Every Tuesday or something, we had to wear uniforms, and IIRC they were always graded in the French style where 20/20 was basically impossible, and the student grader always needed to find something wrong to give you up to a 19/20. You needed to ask the instructor to grade you if you felt like you've had a solid 20/20, and they'd do their best to find something wrong. We also watched Top Gun a lot. Yes, I know he's a Navy pilot. Did you have JROTC at your school? Did it inspire you to enlist? Did you have some other military thing at your high school? I hear they recruit really hard in rural areas. Do they have something similar outside the USofA?
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Nov 19, 2022 13:11
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Shadow0 posted:Did you have JROTC at your school? Did it inspire you to enlist? Did you have some other military thing at your high school? I hear they recruit really hard in rural areas.
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Nov 19, 2022 14:07
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Nah, Quakers aren’t really into allowing the military in their schools
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Nov 19, 2022 17:17
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I was the assistant commander of the D&B corps. Not assistant to the commander. Look out y'all, hot poo poo cadet pretty officer right here! It was either that or 2 years of P.E.
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Nov 19, 2022 18:30
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Yeah, we got PE credit too. That somehow meant that lettering in JROTC counted as athletics rather than academics, so you could get the cool jacket. I don't think I knew anyone who actually did. We were in a very military area, and just about everyone was a military brat. Most joined one way or the other. It was a great way to get out of other classes, because all the teachers loved the program so they'd let you go without any corroboration of having "a rotc thing" to do. Our instructors were great, up until (several years after I graduated) our retired SNCO instructor got charged with a couple of felonies for groping girls. 
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Nov 19, 2022 19:39
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Yeah. Army JROTC at our school, along with another. The remaining two area highschools were split between the AF and Navy. A huge Army base is in town, but our program was such a poo poo-show we never got to do anything fun outside of school grounds. Mostly, it was a cheap and easy gym credit at the end of the day, an excuse to duck out for a smoke while retrieving the flag, and something to keep our SFC and LTC busy until retirement. Lots of watching MASH, lots of bullshitting with the staff. The one neat thing we had was a small (15m?) indoor shooting range out by the athletic fields. Prone only, starting with competition-grade Daisy or Benjamin air rifles and graduating to, IIRC, single shot bolt action Mossberg .22s. No A/C in the South made it a sweat box, but we had a good time learning safety and proper marksmanship. 7/10. Completely and totally pointless, but kinda fun. e: Not totally pointless. Basic firearms safety is important.
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Nov 19, 2022 21:14
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I had Navy JROTC in high school in Staten Island. I was super excited about it until I saw the uniforms which was a plain white shirt tucked into black pants. I hated it - we just looked like dorky kids especially with the c caps we wore. It did not look like a ‘cool military uniform.’ What’s this Dress Blues poo poo? The program was a thinly veiled recruitment operation - originally for giving troubled kids one more chance before going to an alternative high school. Many visitors would give talks and then break out brochures about the Marines or Navy. It became more of a wink wink kinda situation because they would be giving talks about ‘don’t do drugs’ but then during Q and A would switch to full on ‘so you wanna be a Marine?’ I think they have since made it illegal in NYC but not sure exactly how. And not for nothing - the program did absolutely help some folks get on the straight and narrow. But it’s true that a lot of folks enlisted afterward but that could also be skewed since most of us saw 9/11 first hand (our school faced the water towards lower Manhattan - I was a sophomore at the time). That certainly was a factor for my dumbass. I loved everything about it except the ugly rear end uniforms Our gym was first period. I would always schedule my jrotc class right after gym so I could get my uniform inspected and then change clothes in my next class. I’d straight up be in AP Biology in third period and taking my pants off in the middle of class(I had ‘civvies’ underneath). I have also hid under the lunch room table if one of the Commanders appeared suddenly. I only got caught twice in three years of wearing a uniform once a week. I ended up quitting it because I was going to be the only Senior that didn’t get promoted to officer. I was going to be Chief petty Officer or some bs made up NCO thing. So I wouldn’t get to finally wear the nicer uniforms that looked like proper suits. So I just decided to leave it. I didn’t really blame them either. I was far from the try hards that did get higher positions. I was the supply officer and would sleep/cut class in the storage room - making a noise alarm with sheets of plastic to wake me up in case anyone came in. I did end up in the Air Force but soon left and never looked back.
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Nov 19, 2022 22:29
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We had Navy JROTC in my high school. I remember getting interested when they stopped by the middle school to try and get us to join JROTC when we went to High School. I remember my primary motivation was to wear one of those combination caps you got as a petty officer and up. (I think) I was in it for three years and I found it a generally enjoyable experience. We were lucky that we got to go on a lot of trips, like going to the Naval Academy every year and seeing a Navy game. Our unit was run by a Marine Colonel (as far as I'm aware) and we got to go on summer trips up to Tennessee and go rafting and climb mountains. Our Colonel was big on us competing to be the 1# NJROTIC unit in the nation and we did that twice I think while I was there. I remember we got to go to Disneyworld because of that and it was a hell of a lot of fun, we got to march in a DisneyWorld parade in our uniforms and afterward sang the Micky Mouse song like at the end of Full Metal Jacket. Because we were just a bunch of dumb stupid teenagers. I remember uniform inspections were really important and I was always dressed down because I was a hormone-raging teenager that had a 5 o'clock shadow at 1pm. They wanted me to start shaving in the middle of the day and I was like no loving way. I remember one guy who was the unit commander had so many metals on his uniform you could hear them jingle as he walked down the hallway, guy looked like a North Korean General with half his jacket full of metal. We watched Patton regularly as well as Hot Shots and Crimson Tide. There was a big Marine culture in that unit because it was cool and we were all stupid teenagers. I remember one of my best friends in JROTC was a guy who practically idolized and worshipped the Marine Corps, he was very funny and charismatic. He graduated a year ahead of me and instantly joined the Marines. I don't know what happened to him but my understanding is that he had a very rough time in combat and afterward. I think about him often and I hope he is ok. Two of my friends made careers out of the military. One guy was a bit shorter and puggier than the rest of us and was constantly ridiculed, he flew helicopters in Afghanistan and now flies rescue helicopters for the Coast Guard, I'm proud of him. The other was a really good friend of mine but we grew apart because of a girl, I think he is an officer in the Navy now. I'm not sure as I don't keep in much contact with him, but I do know he married that girl. I did three years in JROTC but I might have done a fourth if he hadn't been for a number of events. Columbine happened when I was a freshman and being a weird kid I was singled out by the administration. They had trumped up some reasons to get me expelled, and all of the teachers came to my defense except for the Colonel. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but it felt like the Colonel didn't have my back. When it came time to pick Senior year classes, I had to pick between a 4th year in JROTC where I wouldn't be doing much or Service Learning and go volunteering at the elementary school. I felt that I had accomplished what I wanted in wearing the combination cap so I decided against a fourth year. That summer I grew a beard and long hair and enjoyed the freedom of not being under NJROTC rules. That September when I was a Senior 9/11 happened and you know the rest. I think that if I had stayed in JROTC, I would have defiantly have joined the Navy or another branch, I really wanted to be like my late grandfather who joined the Navy in WW2. I am pretty sure that Senior Year would have brainwashed me to join the military as it did a lot of kids. In a way, Columbine saved me from dying in Afghanistan. Overall, I was fortunate to go to a well-funded school and that NJROTC was mostly a fun time where I made a lot of friends. It was also unethical brainwashing to get kids to join the military.
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Nov 19, 2022 22:52
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Finland doesn't have anything like that, while there is a national service tou don't/can't do any military related stuff at school/high school. The UK does have something like it at university level at least. I did a Bachelor's in History in Aberdeen, Scotland, and they advertised it at the new student fair. A shame they didn't take non-citizens because I went there right after my Finnish national service and it would have been an easy way to make some money. They had this thing where tou would spend a weekend in the woods every now and then and they would be paid for each of these.
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Nov 19, 2022 23:21
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You can thank me for the two years of service I did as a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol. Me and two other friends joined a squadron that was based in an Air National Guard office, and our unit was “commanded” by a borderline demented Lt. Col. who turned over the actual running of the squadron to a borderline psychotic cadet sergeant. When we weren’t rummaging around the stacks of busted Cold War era gear, we would take the tests for higher ranks- when I left that squadron because my family moved to another state, I was qualified on paper to be promoted to cadet Master Sergeant despite being a lowly, fake E-1. At my last meeting, one of my friends mouthed off to the psychotic cadet sergeant and ended up in a fistfight with him. I can only assume said sergeant is now either in prison, a SEAL, or perhaps both. When I arrived in my new state, I started looking at new units to join. I could have joined the one five minutes from my parent’s house, OR I could join the one a half an hour away but since it was situated on a military air base, I thought I would get to fly sooner than I would at the other place. Since I was too young for a driver’s license, my parents had to drive me, and the distance between home and the base meant that it wasn’t worth it for them to go home after dropping me off- nope, they had to wait until the two-hour meeting was done before driving me home. CAP does a great job of advertising the cool poo poo they do, like search and rescue, orientation flights, and even a pararescue course for cadets. What they don’t advertise is what happens when you join a unit that’s all about drill and ceremony- you get screamed at by a kid- a kid two months older than you, one who spends two hours a day working on their uniform, endlessly shining their shoes and pressing their dress blues with the zeal of a sex-crazed dolphin humping a dock- for the high crime of having your rank insignia off-center by 1/16th of an inch. And oh yes, they measured. In the end, I was sick of this poo poo so I quit. I ended up leaving as a fake E-2 and was utterly put off by anything military for years. Then, I discovered GIP around the same time that I was strongly leaning toward enlisting on an 18X contract at the suggestion of a grad school professor of mine, and after reading many, many posts here, I came to the conclusion that maybe the actual military just wasn’t the thing for me. While I still wonder what would have happened if I did do the 18X thing, I don’t regret my decisions. The only good things about my time in CAP was going to the Edwards AFB air show and watching F-15 and -16s do mock dogfighting with MiG-29s above the parking lot and meeting Brian Shul when he gave a lecture about being a SR-71 pilot. Beyond that, it really sucked, but I can say that at least the Young Marines who were also on our base looked even more miserable than we did.
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Nov 19, 2022 23:50
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pantslesswithwolves posted:You can thank me for the two years of service I did as a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol. Why would you admit this? I got the Mitchell Award, made Fake O-2.
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Nov 20, 2022 01:36
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pantslesswithwolves posted:You can thank me for the two years of service I did as a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol. Me and two other friends joined a squadron that was based in an Air National Guard office, and our unit was “commanded” by a borderline demented Lt. Col. who turned over the actual running of the squadron to a borderline psychotic cadet sergeant. When we weren’t rummaging around the stacks of busted Cold War era gear, we would take the tests for higher ranks- when I left that squadron because my family moved to another state, I was qualified on paper to be promoted to cadet Master Sergeant despite being a lowly, fake E-1. At my last meeting, one of my friends mouthed off to the psychotic cadet sergeant and ended up in a fistfight with him. I can only assume said sergeant is now either in prison, a SEAL, or perhaps both. A long time ago, U.S. possession of Soviet aircraft wasn’t just classified and held on a need to know basis, it was a must know only basis. The SAP name for it was Constant Peg. Constant was the call sign of the O-6 who headed the program, and his wife’s name was Peg. This was an unacknowledged special access program for a long loving time. Also, the MiG-23 has killed more USAF generals than any other foreign aircraft. 
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Nov 20, 2022 05:30
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I'd never even heard of JROTC until I saw a troop of 'em making a visit to the boat. A bunch of teenagers in officer uniforms getting some serious stinkeye from blueshirts on the messdeck--they might have gotten the (correct) impression they weren't welcome outside of Officer's Country. You'd think rich suburbs of Dallas in the 80s would have been ideal JROTC territory, but for some reason, it just wasn't a thing.
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Nov 20, 2022 05:50
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I was in Air Force JROTC. It beat the hell out of walking circles around the football field for an hour. To some extent it was a joke, as I'm sure all programs were, but a couple of instructors I had were actually pretty good. One of them, an old crusty WWII/Korea/Vietnam veteran, taught us how to navigate and the basics of VFR and IFR (unfortunately without any practical application) to include creating a flight plan. That is, when he wasn't telling some old story about how he dodged getting his flight status removed after a pretty gnarly car accident or some other sanitized war stories. Another one was a much less crusty Chief who did a really good job teaching civics (it was not a civics class) and military history (it was). Now that I reflect on it, it was some of the better education I had while I was at high school.
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Nov 20, 2022 12:47
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A.o.D. posted:I was in Air Force JROTC. It beat the hell out of walking circles around the football field for an hour. To some extent it was a joke, as I'm sure all programs were, but a couple of instructors I had were actually pretty good. One of them, an old crusty WWII/Korea/Vietnam veteran, taught us how to navigate and the basics of VFR and IFR (unfortunately without any practical application) to include creating a flight plan. That is, when he wasn't telling some old story about how he dodged getting his flight status removed after a pretty gnarly car accident or some other sanitized war stories. Another one was a much less crusty Chief who did a really good job teaching civics (it was not a civics class) and military history (it was). Now that I reflect on it, it was some of the better education I had while I was at high school. I'm not about that JROTC life, but having a 30 year vet checking you at an early age (if you are ready for it) is invaluable. That guy irradicated a ton of my teenage stupidity.
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Nov 20, 2022 14:25
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SquirrelyPSU posted:I'm not about that JROTC life, but having a 30 year vet checking you at an early age (if you are ready for it) is invaluable. That guy irradicated a ton of my teenage stupidity. Like I said, the Air Force chief was not at all crusty. He was a fully accredited and degreed teacher. He was a natural at it. Not once did he lose his patience or forget that he was dealing with a classroom full of children. In fact, he never really had to flex his authority, as he was really good at keeping us students engaged.
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Nov 20, 2022 14:42
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A.o.D. posted:Like I said, the Air Force chief was not at all crusty. He was a fully accredited and degreed teacher. He was a natural at it. Not once did he lose his patience or forget that he was dealing with a classroom full of children. In fact, he never really had to flex his authority, as he was really good at keeping us students engaged. There is just the whole bit about the difference between leadership and managing. I think if you found yourself in a position where the person in charge of the JROTC program is the former then that could be a valuable experience as a person in their late teens/early 20s. I wasn't trying to say the guy was abusive. He was definitely crusty though. I'd pay a lot of money to see him beat my last Chiefs rear end.
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Nov 20, 2022 15:44
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Did Airforce jrotc for awhile because due to some idiotic scheduling shenanigans due to over crowded school and my mediocre super ability to have not only my physical but paper identity blend into the background the only way I could get required gym credits was through jrotc. It had its ups and down. Ups, got to take asvab in senior year which they gave you a day off during school to do. Visit to the local air base and air museum which was another day off from school. Got to learn about flight physics Rifle Drill was kinda fun Downs, Yelled at by upper classmen Power tripped on by classmen with higher ranks Uniform was uncomfortable and I always did relatively poorly because I am not a detail oriented nerd PT days looked less fun than gym class All and all it taught me the most valuable lesson of all. The military is probably full of dumb games and I dont want any part of it.
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Nov 21, 2022 06:31
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Jimmy Smuts posted:Yes, no, no, yeah they do as I grew up in a note-so-great area. In my area, JROTC was seen as stepping stone to get out of a lovely life. Yep, same here. Did four years of Army JROTC to get out of gym class in my lovely school with a plan to enlist for the GI Bill. Still got an athletic letter from it in with my diploma in a box somewhere. I would have been getting out of AIT mid-2001 if I hadn't completely wrecked myself in a fall. Ended up getting turned down medically since it was pre-9/11 and they were still being picky about ortho hardware. Joke's on me, I took the quick route to the same knee issues all my buddies who enlisted have today too. It was honestly worthwhile, though. I learned a lot about how not to be a sullen angry bastard of a teenager from dealing with our primary instructors, both career SNCO retirees in their 40's. Kept a number of us from doing stupid teenager poo poo by running us into the ground in PT in exchange for getting to do rappeling and ropes course stuff at the nearby NG base. Also provided a better practical civics class than the one the school required us to take. The Marine JROTC group in town, though... we did a couple joint events, and those guys were wound to the breaking point and high on their own supply.
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Nov 21, 2022 11:54
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I'm surprised you all had events and things. I don't think we ever did a single thing in our class ever aside from drill, listen to the instructors ramble about nonsense, occasionally learn about the weather, do uniform inspections, and watch movies. I think there was a drill club or something that maybe went to competitions. But we never went on field trips or anything. At least as far as I remember. Also, I can't believe I forgot about shining shoes until someone mentioned it. If I remember correctly, that was the #1 thing to take the 1 point off you needed to take off for inspections, even though I'm pretty sure I at least shined them every time I wore the uniform. I think I even kept some polish in my backpack. Getting the medals off and on was such a huge hassle that I almost never dried cleaned the jacket. And I would continue to wear the jacket well into Summer because taking the pins off the jacket and then getting them right on the shirt was too much of a hassle. I don't think we ever got hats.  Edit: Also there was some President's Bill of Health or President's Health Challenge or whatever it was called, where they started to mandate that we do some kind of physical activity, and we needed to show that we had improved from the start of the year to the end. So a lot of people did 1 push-up in the Fall, and then 2 in the Spring.
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Nov 23, 2022 20:18
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McNally posted:Why would you admit this? I got the Mitchell Award, made Fake O-2. I did 4 years in Civil Air Patrol, I was a cadet captain, better salute my Amelia Earhart award. I did a few camps that were fun, some parades, it wasn't terrible. I grew up in Kansas so there weren't any better options
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Nov 23, 2022 23:08
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sorry 2 hear u disappeared while circumnavigating the globe, mw
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Nov 24, 2022 02:57
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I was a Navy J-rat and ended up using that to get a ROTC scholarship, and I'm still in (as a reservist) after 17 years. So, I can't say it wasn't worth it. My school's JROTC program was rather big, though. We were near a major naval air station, so there were a lot of Navy kids and Navy contractor kids in my school. And the program was super popular. Like...my class's prom queen and more than a couple star football and lacrosse players were cadets. I didn't learn how completely odd that was until getting to college and interacting a bunch of other ex-J-rats. Also, my school was brand spanking new (I was only the 3rd graduating class out of it) and poached the best teachers from the region. Even our JROTC instructors. Our ANSI was a Master Gunnery Sergeant who was a Vietnam and Korea vet and was probably the chillest motherfucker on the planet while still being the sternest, most rigid teacher I ever had. The guy was a loving marvel, and quickly became a pillar of the school. He ran the program for twenty years before retiring, and when his replacement (a young recently retired CPO) completely failed to do his job, Master Gunny came out of the retirement to take the program over again for another five years. Dude was in his mid-seventies before retiring AGAIN and passing a couple years later. I wasn't around to go, but I heard there was a pretty big ceremony for him at the school. So, I was pretty goddamn lucky to be perfectly honest. Oh, and I was basically on every team and captain of the drill team. So, I was one of those jackasses with 15 rows of medals. That, specifically, wasn't worth it. 
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Nov 24, 2022 03:37
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We took a couple of field trips to the nearby (like...1/4 mile away) AFB. My school had an A/B Day schedule, and on not-my day, the bus crossed the red line on the flightline. Cue Security Forces responding as they do whenever someone "breaks red." It involves evacuating the bus as 3 or 4 cars of cops swarm in with M16s. We were supposed to get a KC-135 ride but the weather didn't cooperate. I was on the drill team, and we went to the AF Academy to compete every year. That was cool. Somewhere I've got a photo of the B-52 guarding the gate, with it's MiG-kill star on the side.
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Nov 26, 2022 02:21
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