AFJROTC unit IA-951, also known as Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, is an elective that provides more than just military training–their main goal is to not only prepare students for the military but to actually prepare them to be successful and extraordinary students and leaders in their future. The program leaders strive for its students to be the best inside and outside of school by providing them with many opportunities. 

Fellow cadets help encourage one another in class to be their most successful selves.  

“We monitor all of the cadets’ grades, and it’s a program we call ‘pi’, and our goal is to have all of the cadets across the cadet core will have an average of a 3.14 G.P.A,” Lt Col Bush said. MSG Lane also added to what Lt Col Bush said about student success. 

“The AFJROTC program also helps kids achieve their goals and helps check boxes off for when kids are going to college like community service, leadership, and all the checks you need to get scholarships for a good school,” Lane said. “We make sure we provide all of that and annotate it in a database that we write for them, and we give them transcripts and the end of their time here. It shows all of their community service hours, as well as leadership experiences to go on their resumes.”

The Pi Program is one of the ways that they encourage students, they also have the after-school tutoring program, where they have some of their best cadets that are on the top of the class to help with any students that may need help. The students themselves monitor the program while Lane and Bush oversee and provide guidance when needed. The study program is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays and even open to students that aren’t in the program.

The AFJROTC uniform is a symbol for the cadets and represents the nation’s defense forces. It represents honor to America and those who have served and the overall concept of the military. They wear their uniforms every Tuesday and use Thursday as a make-up day if they were absent. When a cadet first joins AFJROTC they start off with a cotton blue uniform. 

“The uniforms aren’t as bad as people make them out to be, they’re quite comfortable and keep me warm especially during the winter,” cadet Kerry Fox said. Each cadet has different ranks in the program that they earn with the amount of hard work they put into the program, which can allow them to upgrade to the AVUs; a tan camouflage-styled uniform. 

The AFJROTC also participates in drill meets. Every morning around 6:30 the cadets practice for their upcoming drill meets. They go all over the U.S for different competitions. There are different types of drill teams that compete, they have the Unarmed Regulation, Unarmed Exhibition, Armed Regulations, Armed Exhibition, and Color Guard. Besides drill meets they also have other events outside of school such as the academic bowl team where they can even go to Washington D.C to compete, they go to nationals over spring break where AFJROTC teams from all over the world come to compete, they have a robotics team that competes with the school’s robotic team, Cyberpatriots, and the ball and banquet where they host it twice a year. AFJROTC also hosts different trips to different places every 2 years. Cadet Ashton Saunders was able to go to Hawaii during his sophomore year and says it’s one of his favorite memories he made in the AFJORTC program. They make sure to earn their own money for their events through fundraising–one of their most popular fundraisers is the spaghetti feed. 

The AFJROTC provides many opportunities for students and helps encourage success, they have many diverse students and the class is open to any students who are interested. There are many opportunities to make memories with the peers around you, especially with the many events and trips that the AFJROTC host and provide. There are also ways you can prepare yourself if you plan on being a future AFJROTC student, such as emailing or talking to Lane and Bush for extra information about the program and the expectations, doing well in school, preparing yourself for what you want to do in the future and overall being a good student. All JROTC corps have the same motto they follow and represent, “Building better citizens for America…one cadet at a time.”