ROTC during Area Three competition.
For students, when entering the school on Wednesday mornings they encounter a puzzling sight: a large group of students all dressed up in matching uniforms. It is a group that consists of both males and females and of both under and upper class men.
The whole school knows of their existence, yet only a few students know what the group actually is called. They are ROTC, Reserved Officer Training Corps., also referred to as Naval Science.
From the way they are perceived, students automatically believe that it is an army recruiting class. However, that is false. Senior Max Jacobs said, “ROTC is not a military recruitment tool: what we focus on is leadership building, ACT prep and self confidence.”
Every Wednesday after school, ROTC loads into a bus and head toward Wheeling High School. They are there until 8:30 p.m.
At Wheeling, they first have class time. Students learn about topics such as the values of sea power. Afterwards, they have time to eat dinner, which is called “chow.”
Drill practices follows chow time. The students practice marching and saluting during the practices.
ROTC is also split up into five teams: Academic, Physical Training, Drill Team, Marksmanship, and Orienteering. But overall, although ROTC seems military focused, in actuality it is a military sponsored group that primarily focuses on helping students become strong leaders in the future.
Putting aside the serious facade of ROTC, there is also a fun side to this scholarly program. Every year ROTC sponsors a ‘Military Ball’ at the end of the school year.
For many of the members the dance is one of their favorite memories in ROTC. The group also tries to hold an annual trip. This year they plan on traveling to San Diego.
“I first heard of ROTC when I was at an event called Character Counts Collision. I’m not all too sure of why I was interested in joining in the first place, but I’m glad I did,” sophomore Autumn Carney said.
Jacobs, however, had a more serious motive for joining.
“I got involved when I went to Wheeling High School where the unit is based. I was interested in it for the uniform, the drilling, teaching new cadets and the possible leadership roles I might have in the future.”
Jacobs also looks forward to using the experiences from ROTC and enlisting in the U.S Navy.
Although ROTC seems to be strict and uniform in its teaching and learning style, the process in which to join is quite simple. Just ask your counselor and that’s all there is to it.
“I think students should know about ROTC because first of all, it’s an awesome class. It’s great getting to meet new friends from all the schools of District 214,” Carney said. “There’s also a lot of community service opportunities; we help out Northwestern football games and volunteer at Lamb’s Farm just to name a few. In class we also learn a lot about how to prepare for college and the transition of shifting from student to a responsible adult.
By: Yumi Miyazaki
