Washburn Rural’s JROTC program offers many opportunities to students, and the recently passed bond issue will allow for more growth in the unit.

JROTC, or the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp, is one of the many successful programs offered at Washburn Rural High School; however, many people are unaware of what actually goes on in the program.

Firstly, Junior ROTC is a class, and it offers both a PE and History credit. Along with that, the program offers a variety of other activities that take place both after school and in classes. These activities include drill, color guard, marksmanship, and academic bowl. JROTC also sponsors an Aviation and Robotics club for cadets.

In addition to leading clubs and activities, the program is a community service organization. Just last year, the unit was awarded the Silver Star for Community Service, a prestigious award that only five percent of JROTC programs received. The head of JROTC, Lt. Col. Ron Daniels, shared that Washburn Rural’s JROTC unit does more than 2,000 hours of community service a year.

There are a number of misconceptions surrounding the program, the largest being that JROTC is a tactic for military training and recruitment. However, Lt. Col. Daniels stated that this could not be farther from the truth. 

“It shouldn’t be misconstrued that way. It’s a citizenship and character-building program,” he said. “Nationally, less than 10% of people that take Junior ROTC go into the military. Now, if people want to go into the military, yes, it’s a good stepping stone, if they want to do that. We teach so many things with our class.”

According to Lt. Col. Daniels, one of the main purposes of the program is to help students improve their leadership skills. This quality was on display as the interview was conducted. While Lt. Col. Daniels answered our questions in one room, cadets were running a briefing on their own in an adjoining room. 

He commented on this, saying, “The cadets run the show. When you talk about the military part of it, they have that structure and they are the organization.”

Cadet Colonel Thomas Williams spoke about his experiences with the program, saying, “JROTC has taught me many things about discipline and leadership. I have also developed friendships that I know will last many years to come.”

Freshman cadet Kelcie Schneider also spoke fondly about the program.“JROTC is such a fun program that is way more than wearing uniforms and marching in circles. Although those things are included, it is also such a fun place to be every day and is full of great people to be around,” she said.

While Lt. Col. Daniels clarified that the program is not used for military recruitment, there are still aspects of military structure involved in JROTC. For example, students are required to wear their uniforms once a week and pass a uniform inspection. Lt. Col. Daniels believes that this is beneficial to students.

“It gives you a sense of organization,” Lt. Col. Daniels explained. “That military structure helps you develop routines. It helps you develop discipline and all those things you need to be successful as an adult. That’s why I think it’s so important.” 

Beyond high school, the program can offer many opportunities for students. Cadets can earn a pilot’s license for free, as well as enter scholarships awarded to JROTC participants. Another unique opportunity in the unit is the chance to get nominated for the Air Force Academy if students wish.

In most cases, a student must receive a nomination from a state congressperson in order to gain admission to these schools, but due to the unit’s high standing, Lt. Col. Daniels has the same nomination power.

He believes that more students should be aware of this opportunity. “If we have a kid in our unit who qualifies to go to the Air Force Academy, they don’t have to get a nomination from their congressman- I can nominate them. That’s one of those things where more kids need to know and understand that, because going to a military academy is an Ivy League level school.” 

Going forward, Lt. Col. Daniels hopes the program will grow further, both in numbers and the ability to teach students. He also predicted that the program may become more STEM-focused in the coming years, especially with the new addition to WRHS breaking ground this summer.

 In April of 2022, the bond issue, a bond that will update and expand the Auburn-Washburn school district, passed. This makes the proposed additions and improvements to the district a reality. Included in the expansion of the JROTC program is a marksmanship range to be built on the second floor of the building. 

This particular part of the bond issue has raised some safety concerns among students, mainly stemming from the idea of storing and shooting rifles on school grounds. However, Lt.  Col. Daniels addressed these safety concerns. 

“It’s the safest part of the school by far,” he stated. “The marksmanship range is 100% contained. Obviously, every kid who competes in marksmanship takes a marksmanship course, as well as a pledge. It’s never open without adult supervision. Ever. You can’t touch a rifle, you can’t get in a room- it’s one hundred percent locked up.” 

Lt. Col. Daniels stated that they had never had a safety incident, except for perhaps one unfortunate incident with a fire extinguisher. 

 “We’ve never had a safety incident- well, okay, we had a kid who knocked a fire extinguisher off a wall,” he amended. “Oh my goodness, you’d be surprised what a fire extinguisher can do when it bursts- but I don’t even know if you could consider that. Honestly, it’s very safe.”

Lt. Col. Daniels went on to elaborate on the exact safety procedures concerning the storage of the rifles. “We keep all the rifles in double-locked safes,” he said. “So, the rifles have to be in a safe and then it has to have two rooms that are locked before you can get to the safe. And so there’s quite a lot of precaution involved. And those are Air Force standards and civilian marksmanship standards.”

The new marksmanship range will also have many benefits for the JROTC program and the students that participate in marksmanship. Currently, students in marksmanship have to drive to Pauline South to shoot. However, this makes it harder to keep the students safe and causes difficulty for those who don’t have access to a car. 

“It will be much nicer when we don’t have to involve the travel aspect,” Lt .Col. Daniels said. “We’ve been fortunate to not have any accidents, but it’s complicated if you have a snow day. Any kid without a car is out of sauce when it comes to shooting marksmanship. That ability is taken away for kids. It makes us spend extra time getting there and back. If we shot on campus, we could start shooting at three and be done by five.” 

While the marksmanship range will be beneficial to JROTC, it is only one of the additions to the school that will benefit the program. After the school is updated, larger classrooms will allow the JROTC program to have more room.

 “The best and biggest thing for us- our classrooms can be bigger,”  Lt. Col. Daniels explained. “We’ll have a space available. We have a special teams squadron, and that’s all of our aviation and club day stuff, our marksmanship team, those kinds of things. So, they need space to do their job and run their organization. When we get our new digs, they’ll have space to run their organization.”

He went on to explain that more space is important to the JROTC program- and, more broadly, the school- because it will allow for better education. “Our spaces here don’t compare to other 6A schools, so we need better spaces to better educate,” he clarified. With more space to educate students, not only will the JROTC program be able to expand, but the programs and opportunities within JROTC will also grow, allowing for more participation. “It’s definitely going to help our programs, our schools, all the students- we’re definitely going to be able to do better because the bond issue passed.”