Junior ROTC

I had a wonderful interview with a JROTC Senior Instructor recently!

Yes, I still want to become an elementary teacher, but one does need to keep doors open.  Especially with many school systems cutting back on funding, and others firing all of their teachers.

I had been looking into this program off and on for a while.  I decided, rather at the last minute, to drop a package in the mail.  Filling out the package itself wasn't difficult since most of the information requested was in my personnel file.  With the package postmarked by the deadline, I just needed to wait for the interview.

"Interview" seems a bit of a misnomer in this case though, and it had been mentioned to me by another senior enlisted that he had a similar style interview.  The concern is the attrition rate, so the interview process includes a bit of a long discussion of how the units actually operate.  It seems a lot of us old war dogs think we're gonna get a straight 8-hour a day job when we finally get out.  We think about the school system and how it seems teachers only work during the school day, not nights, no weekends, and summers off.  So JROTC must be a good place because we don't need any more specialized education than we already gained while in the service.

JROTC is different.  Most of the units in this area start about 0600 with drill practice, PT, or something.  Then there's the rest of the school day in which the Cadets have different periods for JROTC.  Then there's the after school hours stuff with more practice and drill.  In this area, most of the units have events 3-weekends a month.  It might be a drill competition against other units, fund raisers, tours of a base or historical area, etc.

The point they're trying to get across in the interview is that this isn't a 9-5 job.  When a member comes on a unit, there are only two of you, the officer and the enlisted.  They don't want to get someone trained up only to have them quit at the end of the year.  It's not right to which ever one stays behind, but it's not fair to the Cadets.

It's like taking over a platoon or division.  You just get your people used to you and heading in the same direction, then you rotate out before they start achieving milestones.  Either they get left with someomne who's already overwhelmed with the workload, or they have to get used to someone new all over again.  In the military we are taught to deal with it.  High school kids don't have those psychological skills yet.  Looking at our society today, many of those kids might already be traumatized by an absentee parent, so having someone like us constantly rotating out can only cause more damage.

When you stop and think about it like that, you can certainly see why they want us to be absolutely sure we want to do this.  It's another commitment that will see us continuing to work long hours and weekends away from our family members.  But, you don't get deployed anymore :)  and you get to come home to your family every night, something they probably haven't had in a very long time anyway.

For me, this is something I can see myself doing.  Working with bright kids who asked to be in your unit, who are looking for a role model to help them push themselves.  My wife met a former JROTC Instructor and his wife recently.  They both agreed a few years in JROTC was a good transitional period from military to civilian life.  So if you are still thinking about this for yourself, check out the appropriate link below.  Then get with the units in your area and see if you can visit to find out if it would be a right fit for you.

More to follow...


NJROTC
Have at least 20 years of active duty service in the United States Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard as commissioned officers in grades W-2 through O-6, or as non-commissioned officers in grades E-6 through E-9; and [see more]
https://www.njrotc.navy.mil/instructor/instructor_index.asp

AJROTC
Retired Army personnel (E-6 through O-6) who have at least 20 years of active duty service, receiving a retirement pay and who have not been retired for more than 3 years may apply for certification as a JROTC instructor.  [see more]
https://www.usarmyjrotc.com/jrotc/dt/6_Instructor/index.html

AFJROTC
You must have at least 20 years of active duty; served last year of active duty as an officer/NCO. Retired Reserve/National Guard members over the age of 60 who are drawing their military retired pay may apply.[see more]
http://www.au.af.mil/au/holmcenter/AFJROTC/Instructors.asp