COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: JROTC/ROTC
Mesquite: Junior ROTC program's success commands attention
ANDREW D. SMITH, The Dallas Morning News
September 10, 2006
Lt.
Col. James Blunk, who runs one of the nation's most decorated JROTC
programs from a Mesquite school district warehouse, attributes much of
his outfit's success to the judicious distribution of puppy chow.
"Puppy chow is a mixture of crunchy cereal and sugar and chocolate
powder that you mix together and pour into a decorative tin that sells
cheap at Wal-Mart," Col. Blunk said.
"Middle-aged civilian females love to receive gifts of puppy chow and
other sweets, which is important for me to know because middle-aged
civilian females control the Army's entire budget."
Col. Blunk proudly distributes snacks, pens and other small goodies to
anyone who can help his 1,000 cadets. Petty bribes, he jokes, have
helped his program win many national awards and, more importantly,
transform thousands of lives.
The Mesquite district's Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps is one of
only two programs nationally to receive the highest possible ranking
– Honor Unit with Distinction –
at every one of its schools.
Mesquite cadets have won national competitions in marching, shooting
and orienteering, a woodland hybrid of navigation and distance running.
Last year alone, graduating seniors pocketed more than $200,000 in
scholarship money, and cadet Rachel Rascon entered the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point.
The program's 16 staff members fared just as well. This year, U.S.
Cadet Command named Col. Blunk the nation's top director of Army
instruction. Last year, it named Horn High School's commanding officer,
Col. James Methered, national JROTC instructor of the year.
"I believe this is the only time we have had back-to-back winners like
this," said Paul Kotakis, an Army ROTC spokesman. "I think that speaks
volumes about the program they run."
Instilling confidence
Congress created ROTC for colleges and JROTC for high schools in 1916.
At the time, both organizations used military training to transform
promising young people into capable officers. ROTC still does that, but
JROTC has evolved. The program carries no service obligation. It
doesn't even include recruitment pitches. Instead, it employs military
teaching techniques – retired officers and
noncommissioned officers head all classes – to
impart patriotism, citizenship and life skills.
At Horn High School, for example, JROTC helped Christina Jackson find
her voice. Christina entered the JROTC program as a mousy freshman
wallflower. Three years of JROTC have taught the 17-year-old to stand
straight, make eye contact and speak confidently.
"This program gave me the courage to be myself," she said.
Mesquite officials say the key to JROTC's success has been the careful use of basic psychology.
First, Col. Methered said, it demands the outward signs of
confidence “ good posture, loud voices“ then it
teaches new skills “shooting, orienteering“ and finally it
forces older cadets to teach younger ones.
"Student-teaching may be the most important part of the program," Col.
Methered said. "Older kids learn tremendous responsibility, and the
younger kids heed fellow students far more than old men like me."
The idea is that self-confidence creates better students and more successful adults, and there's some evidence to support it.
Molding character
Last year, about 278,000 cadets participated in Army JROTC programs at
1,645 high schools. (The other service branches run smaller JROTC
programs.) As a group, those cadets had only marginally higher
attendance rates and grade-point averages than their peers. They were,
however, only about a third as likely to drop out of school and 30
percent as prone to serious disciplinary problems, according to the
U.S. Cadet Command.
What's more, among seniors, the cadet graduation rate was 96
percent“ 16 percentage points higher than other seniors at the
same schools.
"Most of the benefit comes from the indirect stuff we do to mold
character," Col Blunk said. "Marching around in formation may seem
pointless, but it teaches precision and organization and teamwork. Kids
even don't think they're learning, so we get them when their resistance
is low."
The Mesquite district operates Army JROTC programs at all five of its
high schools. A combined 1,200 students signed up this year, but
limited staffing “ 14 JROTC instructors, plus two
administrators“ forced Col. Blunk to cap enrollment at 1,000
cadets.
Aside from the Dallas district, which last year had 3,800 cadets,
Mesquite appears to have the most cadets in the area, about 25 percent
more than the Plano district and three times as many as Arlington,
Irving and Grand Prairie.
Cadets in Mesquite take JROTC like any other elective class, albeit one
that requires them to wear a uniform once a week. Classes meet every
other day and teach citizenship, leadership theory and application,
health, fitness, first aid, geography, history, governance and safety.
Reinforcing standards
If there seems to be a lot of traditional class work in that mix,
that's because there is. The Army JROTC curriculum has been designed to
reinforce the national academic standards that underlie the No Child
Left Behind education law.
Shooting, marching, orienteering and other competitive extras take
place outside the regular school day. Students can't participate
without passing all regular classes. The extras are a reward that
motivates cadets to fulfill academic duties.
"We designed the competitive events to appeal to all different types of
kids. That way we'd have something to offer up to motivate nearly
anyone," Col. Blunk said. "The marching teams attract social kids. The
orienteering, as you might imagine, appeals to quieter students, the
ones who like figuring out puzzles."
No one at Mesquite knows any particular reason the district should have
such a large and successful program, but now that it does, its leaders
are using psychology to perpetuate it.
The district's success has given it a reputation as a great workplace
for JROTC, so every open position brings dozens of applications. Col.
Blunk thus has the luxury of hiring top teachers who perpetuate
district success and keep applications flowing in.
Cadets recruit
Program leaders also use each year's high school class to recruit the
next year's cadets. They send successful cadets back to their old
middle schools to show how JROTC makes kids more mature. Tanner Nix, a
14-year-old freshman at Horn, knew he wanted to be in JROTC years
before he made it to high school.
"The whole program seems to be in a repeating positive cycle," said
Linda Henrie, the district's superintendent. "It just seems to
perpetuate itself."
Of course, past success does not preclude the need for cool new stuff.
That is why Col. Blunk drove to Fort Hood last week, armed with pens,
hats and puppy chow.
"The government's fiscal year ends Sept. 30," he said, "and there's
often money lying around that hasn't been spent. A strategic visit
right around now is a very smart thing to do."
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