Junior ROTC Cadets Present a United Front

A.J. Nelson, a member of the U.S. Junior Army ROTC program at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, wears his olive green suit and matching cap on campus proudly. He ignores sneers and students who interrogate him about his stance on the war in Iraq.

Student cadets like him say it takes courage to put on a military uniform and walk around a campus these days, because some high schools have antiwar activists eager to question or criticize those associated with the U.S. military.

Some student activist groups in Los Angeles have launched campaigns saying there are too many ROTC and military recruitment programs on campuses, and not enough college preparation programs or counselors.

“It has always been hard,” Nelson, 17, said. “But after the war started, it got really rough.”

Nelson and other student cadets say ROTC is not about taking a stand on politics -- it’s about teamwork, discipline, multiculturalism and responsibility. He is disappointed when people negatively stereotype and judge the program because “what you get out of ROTC,” he said, “is a family.”

On Saturday, more than 700 student cadets from 48 high schools across California were heckled and screamed at, but it wasn’t personal. Instead, the teenagers were judged on step precision, drill marches and rifle handling at the eighth annual Drill Meet at Polytechnic High School.

Teams fanned out across the basketball courts, wearing Army fatigues, berets, combat boots and Navy caps. They stomped and turned robotically. Student judges from Polytechnic judged the squads, yelling and commanding them as if at boot camp.

In one corner, the Sultana High School Air Force ROTC was drilled by student judges on their knowledge of the U.S. chain of command under President Bush, as well as their physical presentation.

One student judge positioned her face inches away from a Sultana cadet’s face and barked at him for not yelling forcefully enough. “How about you work on the way you sound!” she shouted. “Are you trying out for ‘American Idol’?”

Johnny Byrum, a retired Army sergeant in charge of the Polytechnic corps, said the purpose of ROTC is to teach leadership, citizenship and responsibility.

“Students on campus see it, and all they see is the kids in uniforms, you know, the yelling and the push-ups,” said Byrum, who also coordinates the meet. “People get wound up and want to get rid of ROTC.”

“You’ve got kids at risk that this program totally turns around,” Byrum said. “It gets kids out of gangs.”

Byrum said students often have to maintain self-confidence at school or in public, because they are questioned and ridiculed for being involved in a military program when sentiments about the war are so divided. During a recent Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, in which the Polytechnic corps marched, activists handed out fliers criticizing ROTC, which cadets crumpled and ignored, he said.

Cadets shrug off criticism because they know ROTC is not about convincing youngsters to become soldiers, Byrum said, and some who join do not support the war and have no plans to enlist in the military.

San Bernardino High School sophomore Robby Franco doesn’t support the war in Iraq, and he doesn’t plan to enlist. Yet he’s dedicated to his ROTC squad because he has gained professionalism and maturity. It has also helped him boost his grades because he respects teachers more and is disciplined when it comes to schoolwork, he said.

Another San Bernardino High ROTC member, Victoria Patchen, 15, said students sometimes call the corps “wannabe GI Joes,” and they question her political views when she wears her uniform.

Patchen said she firmly supports the war in Iraq, and she hopes to join the Army or Marines when she graduates. She repeatedly finds herself saying, “I support the war because we should support freedom.... I want to give everyone a chance to be free.”

But some of Patchen’s teammates do not share the same views as her, and that’s OK, she said. “We can have our own opinions,” she said.

“ROTC is not putting you in the Army,” she said. “It’s preparing you for life.”