More Students Joining Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps

The marching, flag-raising and single-file roll calls are the same as they were decades ago. But a rebirth of the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps--and new approaches to teaching the program--have swelled the ranks of high school students signing up to be cadets.

In Los Angeles’ public schools, the number of participants has shot up by more than 40% since 1992, according to the Los Angeles Unified School District. Nationwide, the number of programs has grown from about 1,500 to more than 2,200 during that same period, JROTC officials said.

The increase is due in part to a 1992 increase in federal funds to JROTC programs after the Gulf War, officials said.

Growing numbers of the cadets in Los Angeles schools are girls and recent immigrants, with females making up nearly half of the 4,000 youths in the district’s 25 programs, officials said.

“The girls can come here and compete with the guys at the same level,” said Sgt. Maj. David Correia, who runs the JROTC program at Belmont High School near downtown Los Angeles.

Among those cadets is Karla Aguilar, 19, who had only recently arrived in the United States from Guatemala when she joined Belmont’s program in 1991.

Now a senior, Karla said she has found a safe haven in the program. Her self-confidence--like that of many other female cadets--has grown, she said. “It doesn’t matter what race you are [or] what gender you are,” Aguilar said. “You have to learn to listen to each other.”

Aguilar wears three stars on her Class A standard dress uniform, designating her an all-city colonel--the highest ranking cadet in Los Angeles public schools. To attain that honor, Aguilar had to be in better physical shape and have better grades than anyone who competed against her.

Belmont has had four all-city colonels since 1990, three of them girls. Females hold four of the top seven JROTC leadership positions at Belmont.

As its cadets have changed, the program has sought to shed its image as an all-male bastion designed to feed recruits to the armed services. The program now is geared toward creating better citizens and more involved students more than encouraging participation in the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines, said Col. Norman Andrie, coordinator of JROTC programs for Los Angeles public schools.

Gone is the rigorous physical exercise, though marching drills are still routine. And students in weapons training drills now use air rifles instead of real rifles, officials said.

JROTC officials say they want to see students assume leadership positions in the community, not necessarily on the battlefield.

“Our whole program is designed to make better citizens,” Andrie said.

Instructors continue to lecture students about military history, offer first aid classes and oversee cadet drills. But emphasis is also given to community service, such as visits to nursing homes and helping with blood drives, Andrie said.

In rougher neighborhoods, the program tries to steer cadets away from guns and violence. Many cadets embrace that idea, showing up for activities at 5:30 a.m. and returning for more after school. The program, they say, has helped them sidestep the dangers of the streets by giving them something to do outside the classroom.

“We have more freedom here than on the streets,” Aguilar said.

Correia sees his mission simply: “To keep these kids out of gangs and drugs.” A 23-year Army veteran, he doesn’t push military service on his cadets. If a student shows interest in joining the Army, he said, he calls a recruiter to talk about military service.

But critics have long contended that JROTC is a thinly disguised form of military recruitment. What’s more, they say, a military program is an odd place to promote nonviolence among teenagers.

“I’m unsure whether these particular military programs are appropriate at the high school [level],” said Harold Jordan, a coordinator with the American Friends Service Committee, a Philadelphia-based Quaker organization that espouses nonviolence.

A study by the group found that nearly half of the students who complete three years of JROTC go on to enlist in the armed services. JROTC officials dispute that figure, saying that only 10% percent of all student participants join the military.

In San Francisco, after an incident in which three JROTC cadets were accused of hazing another student, the superintendent of schools last September banned the use of rifles in JROTC--including air guns and fake weapons--saying it sent the wrong message to young people and clashed with the district’s zero-tolerance policy toward guns, a district spokeswoman said.

And last year in Culver City, a community activist group called the Culver City Community Network worked to try to derail a JROTC program proposed for local public schools, said group member Adele Siegel.

“It’s a subtle form of recruiting,” said Siegel, a Navy veteran. He said teenagers as young as 14 are easily influenced and are too young to be exposed to the military. In a 3-2 vote, however, Culver City board members approved funding for the program.

While growth in JROTC programs is expected to slow as a result of budget-cutting in Washington, military officials believe they will remain popular with young people.

“As long as we stay, we’ll have cadets here,” Correia said.

Times correspondent Mimi Ko Cruz contributed to this report.