U.S. Army Yuma Test Center Commander mentors local Army JROTC cadets
New Army recruits are the future warfighters U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground’s (YPG) developmental test mission will serve.
Most prospective recruits’ knowledge of Army service is secondhand. If they’re part of the lucky few, perhaps a parent or other close relative served. Others know of it entirely from television and movies.
One group of Yuma’s young people has a better grasp of what the military offers. Though the Army’s first presence in Yuma dates back to 1847, the community only recently became home to its first Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC). U.S. Army Yuma Test Center Commander Lt. Col. Kevin Hicks spoke to an assembly of the two-year old program’s cadets at Yuma High School on October 21.
“If you want to do something, the Army and the other services will enable you to do that,” said Hicks. “They will teach you how to be disciplined and how to take care of each other.”
The Yuma Army JROTC program has more than 100 cadets and is led by James Branch, a retired Army Major who served at the Military Freefall School at YPG from 2011 to 2013, first as executive officer, then as commander. He had previously trained as a student in the school's basic course in 2009.
JROTC is a rigorous elective that requires cadets to maintain a respectable grade point average to participate in the program’s extracurricular activities. From air rifle and drill teams to academic and physical fitness competitions, maintaining good grades allows a cadet to travel across Arizona competing against their counterparts in other high schools. The JROTC cadets also participate in various local ceremonies and other community service. Though successfully completing three or four years of the program allows a cadet to enter the Army as a Private First Class (E3), students with no intention of joining the military when they come of age also benefit from participating in the program.
"JROTC is not a recruiting tool of the Army,” Branch said. “Some cadets do go on to join the military, but they also go on to be very successful in college or the civilian job world with the discipline and leadership they learn in the program."
At the conclusion of his presentation detailing YPG’s vital developmental test mission, Hicks spent more than 45 minutes answering questions about Army life, his experiences as an infantry officer, and the different paths to joining the armed forces.
Senior Elisa Sanchez, the JROTC’s executive officer, has been in the Yuma High program since its inception but got more heavily involved last school year when she joined the color guard.
“I thought it was really good,” said Sanchez of Hicks’ presentation. “I’m trying to start my process to join the Army and he gave me a different perspective of doing ROTC and going to college instead of joining right out of high school.”
“The Q and A at the end really brought it home,” added Branch. “It let the kids drive the conversation and ask the questions at the top of their mind to someone who is still serving. The more people you can bring in to talk to them opens their eyes to the opportunities that are in front of them.”
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