NJROTC in Greenwood High School

By Brittany Johnson, Editor

Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) is a program at  Greenwood High School that a lot of students here do not know about. NJROTC, even though focused around the military, is for the individual cadet. At the beginning of each class, the cadets start with the sailor’s creed. Students join NJROTC to learn skills such as time management, marksmanship, discipline, and physical fitness.

Marksmanship is one NJROTC class that you can take, where you learn to shoot guns. In marksmanship, you will go to the gym and shoot very low CO2 guns. There is another class for NJROTC called military science; you can learn about the military, just as in marksmanship, but you will not shoot guns.

Students also do PT (physical fitness) every Tuesday and Friday. The uniform of the day for Tuesday and Fridays are Gold T-shirts and navy blue shorts, given to cadets by the unit. The uniform of the day for Wednesday is Khaki shirts with black dress pants, also provided by the unit.

On Wednesdays, cadets are inspected to see if they know their 12 general orders. Cadets learn military terms, such as “scuttlebutt,” which means the water fountain. Cadets practice drill–handling rifles that can’t fire–every Thursday. There are opportunities for cadets to join the drill team or colors (the flags). Cadets perform at the AMI (Annual Military Inspection), football games, basketball games, and assemblies within the school and at other schools. AMI is where a current military cadet comes in and inspects cadets on their uniform of the day for Wednesday.

NJROTC has an optional military ball with the other schools in Warren County. Cadets can bring a date and buy tickets; there will be dinner and a ceremony at the military ball. The NJROTC units will have a guest speaker. The military ball is a very fun experience and has a lot of effort put into it. Cadets take pictures at the ball and meet new people.