JROTC cadets salute the troops
Athens Banner Herald News Article
Shoot-out between Cats and Doggs
MAJ Evans’ interview on “Talk of the Town”
9/11 Ceremony 2010
Hittin the Mark
Sept. 11 survivor speaks to WBHS cadets
Gen Dudney on front page of the Sept 11th Athens Banner Herald
WBHS JROTC 9/11 ceremony on front page of the Sept 12th Athens Banner Herald
Barrow JROTC program wins federal funding
Memorial Day Honors Fallen
Military Appreciation Day April 28th
Military Appreciation Day Photos
JROTC showcased at ballgames, other events
POSTED Sept. 19, 2009 11:29 a.m.
The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at Winder-Barrow High School and Apalachee High School are growing - with more than 140 in each unit. Honor guards are presenting the color at football games and other special events. W-BHS JROTC Army Instructors Maj. Thomas Evans and 1SG Franklin Brown can be reached at (770) 867-4519 or -emailed at thomas.evans@barrow.k12.ga.us or franklin.brown@barrow.k12.ga.us. Sean R. Feely and Chuck Yeater, Army Instructors of Apalachee High School JROTC, can be contacted at (770) 586-5111 and e-mailed at sean.feely@barrow.k12.ga.us or chuck.yeater@barrow.k12.ga.us
Read the full article at Barrow County News
Recent news article written about a flag donation to our school. Click here
New program in Barrow
JROTC
The Cost
The JROTC program will cost Barrow County about $272,000 the first year. Most of that is the cost for salaries for the two instructors at each school, but about $5,000 per school is for supplies. However, the system actually budgeted $340,000 in case the military does not pick up [some of the operating expenses] until next year and Barrow has to cover 100 percent of the costs this first year.
Next year that price would drop to around $40,000 because of the earned state FTE monies and the military will pay half of the salaries and much of the program costs.
The cadet uniforms have been donated and the color guard gear and drill team rifles will be borrowed from other units in neighboring school systems until JROTC picks up the cost. Also 55 computers were donated for the program from the Army. All curriculum and texts will also be supplied by Army at no cost to the school system.
By Kathy Bridges
kbridges@barrowcountynews.com
POSTED July 10, 2009 6:29 p.m.
The United States Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program will be offered to Barrow County high school students for the first time this fall under the Career, Technical, Agricultural Education courses. The Board of Education approved funding for the program in April after four years of research. More than 300 students have pre-registered for the course which will be an elective Health/Physical education credit.
I think that with the addition of JROTC at both high schools, it will give opportunities to students who participate to develop both leadership skills and add a different type structure in not only their daily lives, but also something that will follow them the rest of their lives, said Dr. Ron Saunders, superintendent of schools. We have had students over the past years to ask us to bring the JROTC programs to the high schools. They had apparently spoken with some of their friends and/or relatives in neighboring school systems who had the program and spoke highly of the JROTC.
Members of the Board of Education visited several schools with the program in place and were impressed with what they saw.
Both superintendents and principals spoke of how the program instilled leadership and maturity into those who took advantage, Saunders recalled. When I was a high school Principal, I had JROTC at the school and knew that it was something special.
The United States Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) came into being with the passage of the National Defense Act of 1916. Under the provisions of the Act, high schools were authorized the loan of federal military equipment and the assignment of active duty military personnel as instructors. In 1964, the Vitalization Act opened JROTC up to the other services and replaced most of the active duty instructors with retirees who worked for and were cost shared by the schools.
The JROTC Program has changed greatly over the years. Once looked upon primarily as a source of enlisted recruits and officer candidates, it became a citizenship program devoted to the moral, physical and educational uplift of American youth. Although the program retained its military structure and the resultant ability to infuse in its student cadets a sense of discipline and order, it shed most of its early military content.
The mission of JROTC is to motivate young people to be better citizens, said Tom Evans, who will be the instructor at Winder-Barrow High School. Job one is to help them graduate from high school and become gainfully employed or assist them in continuing their education.
A retired U. S. Army officer, Evans started his post military career as a high school JROTC instructor at Cedar Shoals High School in Athens in 2005.
This program is not about recruiting students into the military, said Evans. It is about helping them develop the skills they will need to be successful irrespective of the path they choose. We also mentor students during their time in high school, and often afterwards, when they face difficult choices in life. Our program is designed to develop leadership skills in cadets, but we also teach the dangers associated with drugs and alcohol and the importance of fitness throughout life. We address issues that plague many young people today such as teen pregnancy. I think the simple way to say it is we try and develop the whole person.
Evans will be teaming with Master Sergeant Frank Brown whom he has worked with for some time, seeking to challenge these young men and women to accomplish more than perhaps they ever dreamed possible.
We will work closely with their core class teachers to gain an individual understanding of each student and will be there to instruct, mentor, and redirect when needed, he said.
Ryanne Davis, a graduate of Cedar Shoals High School, took JROTC under Evans for eight semesters while in school.
I've always loved physical activity, she said, and JROTC looked like a program I'd really enjoy. It was everything I hoped for. I wouldn't be the person I am today if it weren't for JROTC.
Davis is now attending North Georgia College under a JROTC scholarship and is in the Corps Cadets. She is a health and PE major with a leadership minor and plans on commissioning for eight years in the Army.
I obtained leadership and teamwork experience in JROTC, she said. High school wouldn't have been the same if it wasn't for the program.
Army the tie that binds for cadets
Students learn the ropes in Winder-Barrow military program
By Ryan Blackburn |
ryan.blackburn@onlineathens.com |
Story updated at 12:15 am on 7/11/2009
Tricia Spaulding
Brown helps teach Justin Hardan to tie an around-the-waist bowline knot. First Sgt. Franklin Brown watches as his new National Army Cadet Corps team at Winder-Barrow High School completes a drill Thursday morning. Brett Downing checks his wireman's knot Thursday morning during cadet training.
Brian Simms watches as his cadet program instructor teaches the class how to tie a wireman's knot Thursday morning at Winder-Barrow High School. Brett Downing sprints his way to the front of the line Thursday morning during a run at the start of cadet practice at Winder-Barrow High School.
WINDER - While other teenagers are savoring the waning days of summer break, a gung-ho group of 20 Winder-Barrow High School students ran laps, did push-ups and tried to master knot-tying, a skill they'll need as the first members of the school's new National Army Cadet Corps program.
We're catching on pretty quickly, said Brett Downing, a rising junior and one of the 400 students who will take cadet classes offered this year at both Winder-Barrow and Apalachee high schools. I was pretty surprised.
During his first two years at Winder-Barrow, Brett urged principals and school board members to consider adding a cadet program like other schools in the state have had for years.
He wants someday to fly a jet in the Air Force, and having a military-focused class will give him a head start and a sense of belonging.
To me, it's just like one big family, Brett said.
After dozens of e-mail requests, petitions and surveys that Brett asked fellow students to complete, the Barrow County Board of Education approved the cadet corps program in April, setting aside $338,000 to fund the classes, including two instructors' salaries and benefits, equipment and uniforms for 300 pre-registered students.
When I found out that we got it, I was basically screaming and hollering, Brett said. The board of education put up such a fight with it because they weren't sure the funding was there.
School board members wanted assurance that the Army would offset some of the cost of the program - as the military does for Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) programs - and didn't get that guarantee. But with so many interested students, the Army may soon pick up part of the tab, said Maj. Tom Evans, an instructor at Winder-Barrow.
Most schools that apply for JROTC funding must submit to a year-long evaluation, but the new Winder program is high up on a list of requests, Evans said.
We have done everything we needed to do to satisfy (the Army's) requirements, Evans said. It's more a matter now of them making a budgetary decision.
To keep the program eligible for the Army funds, the school district must register at least 10 percent of both Winder-Barrow and Apalachee students and meet with JROTC administrators to make sure instructors deliver the curriculum appropriately, he said.
JROTC can reach students who don't go for other traditional extracurricular activities like football and band, Principal Al Darby said.
This is something I feel our county, our school system, has needed for the past 20 years, Darby said. Now we'll be able to make even more of an impact on a wider variety of kids than any other program we have.
JROTC students aren't obligated to enlist after they graduate, but may enlist to take advantage of military programs that pay tuition, board and other expenses for college students in exchange for a tour of duty.
And they leave high school with leadership, problem-solving and other skills employers are always looking for, Evans said.
I think what some people get caught up in is that it's a (military) recruitment tool. That's absolutely not what this is about, he said.
While they have not yet worn their uniforms, Brett and other cadets are planning to make a big debut at a football game to show off their pride.
Just the whole brigade coming onto the field, it'll be like 'Boom. This is who we are and what we've become,' he said.
Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Saturday,July 11, 2009