The JROTC Passes Their Inspection With Flying Colors

By Dory Bomba, Reporter
November 3, 2021

Did you know that our school’s JROTC program recently had an inspection? The JROTC is a program that teaches students leadership, discipline, citizenship, character, and more in order to better students and their community.

JROTC stands for Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. The JROTC is taught by retired military personnel, and while it is a military based program, it is not designed to recruit people to the military. As Commander Joseph W. Hankins, inspector of all the area three cadets, said, “This program is not a recruiting program for the army or navy or whatever, it is a program to better the community and school.” The program might help people learn some skills enforced in the military like discipline and citizenship, but lots of JROTC students don’t end up joining the military.

Instead, the goal of the class is to enforce good habits and life skills onto high school students in order to help them better their community. They do this by teaching good communication and collaborative skills in their daily in-school classes. Students learn skills through both physical training and knowledge based learning. It’s a learn then do educational style that is

experienced through marches and drills.

In the JROTC class at Greenwood, while they try to draw characteristics from each military branch, they draw the most inspiration from the navy. That is because our school’s JROTC is specifically a NJROTC, or a Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. Our JROTC is taught by Senior Chief Stagner, who was in the Navy in the advanced electronics program.

On Thursday, September 23, 2021 our JROTC had an inspection. This inspection was different from the uniform examinations held in the JROTC classroom every Thursday by Senior Chief Stagner, where cadets are required to wear their grade A NJROTC uniforms. A big inspection like the one on the 23rd is where Commander Joseph W. Hankins makes sure the cadets are up to date with what they’ve been learning. He does this by inspecting their

uniform, testing their knowledge, and seeing if they can do their drills and marches. This inspection is very important for the cadets, so that they can see if they’re doing all that needs to be done. The inspection lasts almost all day as Commander Hankins has to inspect every single cadet individually before he gives his report. Cadet Juamar Waller says that it’s important to do well in the inspection or there might be repercussions. For example, he says that if someone isn’t measuring up to uniform standards, that might mean that in the next class they’d have to do extra physical training. Juamar trained for the inspection in class by learning general questions that he might be asked and making sure he was up to date with all of his marches and drills. Outside of class he practiced at home and always made sure to (and still does) prepare his uniform before any inspection.

The inspection lasts almost all day as Commander Hankins has to inspect every single cadet individually before he gives his report. Cadet Juamar Waller says that it’s important to do well in the inspection or there might be repercussions. For example, he says that if someone isn’t measuring up to uniform standards, that might mean that in the next class they’d have to do extra physical training. Juamar trained for the inspection in class by learning general questions that he might be asked and making sure he was up to date with all of his marches and drills. Outside of class he practiced at home and always made sure to (and still does) prepare his uniform before any inspection.

After the actual inspection, family, students, staff members, and more were all encouraged to join the cadets in the gym in order to attend the award ceremony. This is where some students specifically were called out for good behavior and we got to find out if our cadets passed their inspection.

The inspection started with the national anthem, played by the Greenwood band members. While the music played, the cadets stood in straight lines looking very uniform. After the anthem was over, Juamar Waller was called to the podium and he recited a prayer for the audience and cadets.

After he returned to his place in the uniform lines, they called out four specific cadets in order to give them awards for exploratory behavior and performing above the standards. After they were given awards, Greenwood principal, Adam Hatcher, was even given special recognition for his support and contributions to the program.

After all of the awards were collected, Commander Joseph W. Hankins was introduced. Commander Hankins is a graduate of the University of Iowa and first joined the military in 1975. As of now he conducts inspections for all of NJROTC Area Three units. Currently he inspects about 7,000 cadets over 54 different units.

The first thing Commander Hankins did was thank everyone in the audience for their support towards the program. He even had all of the cadets give the audience a round of applause. Commander Hankins explained that he’s found that schools where there’s a lot of support towards the program always do better in inspections than schools who don’t have that same support.

He told everyone that he was extremely pleased with how Greenwood’s cadets performed in the inspection. He explained that while there’s always room for improvement, our cadets were phenomenal. The cadets passed the inspection with flying colors.

Commander Hankins told the cadets that they should never forget why they’re here, at Greenwood. Students are here to learn so that they can be successful in their futures. He expects all of the cadets to graduate after joining multiple clubs and achieving lots here at school. He told them to remember the navy core values because they can help you during the darkest of times. Those core values are honor, commitment, and courage.

After Commander Hankins speech, the cadets marched a lap around the gym while the band played right before the ceremony came to a close. The whole ceremony was very patriotic and intriguing to see. All of t

he cadets were very uniform and exemplary, hopefully they were also very proud of their accomplishments. The entire ceremony only lasted around thirty minutes.

After the inspection, Waller told me that he was very proud of his classmates and how they performed, as were they of him. He was glad that his class took it very seriously and saw it as the honor it was. He says that in his opinion, keeping his baron and standing still during the inspection was the hardest part.

Waller encourages anyone who has the opportunity to join their JROTC to give it a chance. He says that it’s a common misconception that everything’s always about being strict and uniform and that there are times where you can have lots of fun. He said that this program has taught him discipline and taught him how to make good decisions. His advice to anyone joining the program is to have fun, but also know when it’s time to be serious.

In brief, our school’s JROTC is an amazing program that teaches all kinds of things to its participants and recently they did exceptionally well on their inspection.