Gung Ho : After Long Decline, High School ROTC Is Again Winning Hearts and Minds

It takes an unloaded gun to get sophomore Alonso Celedon to remove his gold hoop earring once a week. The jewelry just wouldn’t pass inspection.

Every Thursday, Celedon and about 160 of his Katella High School classmates trade in everyday clothes for the crisp uniforms and regimented world of the U.S. Army’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.

“I like the rifles and the marching,” said Celedon, 17, who sports a buzz haircut. “I just put my earring back when I take off my uniform.”

For nearly a decade, Fullerton High School stood as the lone Army JROTC outpost in Orange County, suffering from insufficient interest and funding. But an increasing number of schools such as Katella High now want or already have the program.

“There’s been an explosion of interest,” said Col. James H. Ashhurth III, who runs the 9-year-old JROTC program at Fullerton High. “They are popping up like popcorn around the county.”

In addition to Katella High, three other schools started JROTC courses this year: an Army unit at Anaheim’s Loara High, a Navy unit at Anaheim’s Savanna High, and an Air Force unit at Buena Park High.

Next year, four more Anaheim high schools, Western, Cypress, Magnolia and John F. Kennedy, are in line for Army JROTC programs as is another in Fullerton, Sonora High. And, in the Orange Unified School District, Orange High is applying to establish a Marine JROTC program. In Fullerton, Troy High is also seeking approval for a Navy JROTC unit.

While schools in other areas of the county have yet to show an interest, demand in northern Orange County is growing. A major reason is new federal funding. Congress recently approved funding to double the number of JROTC programs from 800 to 1,600 throughout the nation, say JROTC officials.

Federal aid for local schools whose budgets have been torpedoed by the county bankruptcy is welcome relief. The federal government funds at least half, and sometimes the entire cost, of the JROTC program.

Educators say they recognize the bargain. The Marine JROTC program proposed for Orange High would cost the district less than $10,000 a year, which wouldn’t even pay for one-third of the average teacher’s annual salary, said Orange Unified Trustee James Fearns.

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“Sometimes it takes a poor school system to make an intelligent decision,” said Ashhurth, who has been fielding a flood of calls lately about JROTC from local principals.

Of course, without student interest, federal dollars would be meaningless. Educators say they have been surprised by the new popularity of the program, which after the Vietnam War retreated from high school campuses.

“When we decided to start this thing, never in my dreams did I think we would have 160 kids sign up. Never,” said Jerry Glenn, principal at Katella High School.

Today’s students have no memory of the controversial war. Instead, they can recall only the enthusiasm for the Persian Gulf War.

Students say the JROTC class breaks the monotony of the school day. In addition to military drills, students learn about military history, new technologies and leadership techniques.

“This class is like the best part of all the other classes put into one,” said Ferdinand Santos, 18, a Katella High senior. “It’s really a lot of fun.”

Another strong appeal of the program, say educators, is it gives students a constructive group to join. Students craving direction can benefit from JROTC, educators say.

“In spite of young kids’ desire to be independent,” said Fearns, a Marine combat veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, “they have to have, and I think they seek out, a level of regimentation.”

Indeed, JROTC views itself as a positive alternative to gangs and drugs. Officials say the program’s discipline saves many students from marching down a harmful path.

“I like to say we give them a good gang to join,” said Ashhurth, 64, of Cerritos. “It gives them respect and they love it.”

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Unlike programs years ago, JROTC no longer pressures students into joining the military, thus making it even easier to recruit for the program, JROTC officials say. The program’s main focus now is teaching citizenship, community service and work skills that can used after graduation.

“Our objective is to keep them in school until they graduate,” Ashhurth said. “We don’t care whether they go into the military or not.”

In fact, with a tighter national defense budgets and fewer military personnel, the demand for soldiers is small, Ashhurth said.

“It’s gotten so competitive now you have to be like Douglas MacArthur for the Army to take you,” he said.

Because there’s no obligation or military sales pitch, Katella High junior Veronica Hernandez said, she decided to give the program a try. The 17-year-old might pursue a military career but isn’t sure.

“I never thought I would be marching in uniform a year ago,” said Hernandez, who like other JROTC cadets must wear military dress to school once a week. “If I don’t end up liking it, I’ll probably go to nursing school after graduation.”

Initially, the toughest adjustment for many students about JROTC wasn’t the physical demands or even having orders shouted in their faces. It was the uniform.

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Katella High senior Elizabeth Raney discovered how hard it is to be different in high school, even if you’re part of an organization that glorifies uniformity.

“I felt like a pennant. I would walk into a room and everyone would look at me,” said the 18-year-old cadet officer in charge of the school’s cadets. “I got a lot of looks. I got called GI Joe.”

But since those first couple weeks of school, most students have become accustomed to the uniformed presence on campus.

Well, not everyone. Katella High freshman Tony Guzman is still having trouble.

“They all wear the same clothes and then they throw around the guns. It looks so pointless,” the 14-year-old from Anaheim said. “I chose home ec over it.”

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ROTC’s Roots

For more than a century, the Reserve Officer Training Corps has trained high school and college students to become officers in the U.S. armed services. ROTC’s mission and how it began:

* Objective: Develop high school and college students for military leadership

* Junior ROTC: Provides three years of basic military training in high schools

* Where: Training takes place on campus except for field work during summer

* Ranks: Like military; one student serves as cadet commander

* Origin: Land Grant Act of 1862 gave public land to state colleges with the requirement that they offer military training for all able-bodied male students

* First commission: Granted to students in 1908

* Army: National Defense Act of 1916 established the first Army ROTC units; by that fall, enrollment was about 40,000 nationwide

* Navy: Established units at six colleges in 1926

* Air Force: Established units in 1947 when the Air Force became independent military branch

Source: World Book Encyclopedia