March hosts Junior ROTC summer leadership camp

  • Published
  • By Megan Just
  • 452 AMW Public Affairs
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. --  March Air Reserve Base opened its gates to more than 140 local Junior ROTC cadets for their Summer Leadership School that began June 14 and ended July 3. The cadets toured many of the facilities on base and had the opportunity to explore Air Force careers through direct interaction with Team March members on the job.

The camp provides an opportunity for cadets to put into practice the leadership and the military skills they learn during the school year in their high school's JROTC classes.

"We're trying to teach them how to be leaders, time management and basic military skills and customs like saluting officers and standing at attention at reveille," said 16-year-old Cadet Maj. Jessi Stough, wing commander at Rancho Verde High School in Moreno Valley. "They see it as a new experience. What we've been teaching them actually comes to life."

Although this is Cadet Stough's third year at the camp, she still remembers the first time she came to the school at March.

"I was pretty scared at first. I thought it was a really big, new thing. Now it doesn't seem that big to me and I'm more familiar with it. I was in awe the first time I saw all this," she said, gesturing toward the flight line. "We see things that most civilians don't see. It's cool."

Cadet Stough, who will be a senior in high school when school starts in the fall, plans to apply for Reserve Officer Training Corps college scholarships. She believes her experience in the JROTC program, as well as Summer Leadership School will help her stand out in the application process.

"I think I'll have a step up above the regular people who aren't in ROTC. I'll be more comfortable in my environment," she said.

Cadets from Arlington High School in Moreno Valley joined Cadet Stough and the cadets from Rancho Verde High School for the first session of the camp June 14 -25. The two high schools have conducted Summer Leadership School at March for 22 years.
Cadets in the second group arrived June 26. They are students at Yucaipa, Arlington, Rubidoux High Schools and are staying on base in bivouac tents at the Air National Guard's 163rd Reconnaissance Wing regional training site.

Highlights of the cadets' time at the base included drill and ceremonies in the mornings, orienteering and touring aircraft, aircraft maintenance hangars and the combat arms training. They also toured the Air Marine Operations Center and the Boeing C-17 simulator. The cadets in the second session were treated to orientation flights on a KC-135 and C-17.

Off base, the cadets visited Riverside National Cemetery, the Vietnam Moving Wall, the March Field Museum and practiced water survival skills at the Rubidoux pool.

"When they come out to Summer Leadership School, the cadets have an opportunity to see different careers and to see how other individuals just like them have an opportunity to be in a leadership position," said retired Air Force Master Sgt. Johnny Hillary, a leadership instructor at Arlington High School.

Only three percent of the students at Arlington High School join the military, Sergeant Hillary said. He hopes the camp teaches the cadets to have an open mind. "How can they know what they don't know?" he asked.

Sergeant Hillary said his students have especially enjoyed talking with junior enlisted Airmen, who the students can relate to because they are close in age.

"Summer Leadership School really helps the (ROTC) pro¬gram for the students. It's one thing to learn about Junior ROTC and learn about the military and it's another thing to be on an actual military installation and see how individuals are working," he said.

Senior Master Sgt. David Campbell, aerospace ground equipment chief, was one of the escorts for the JROTC students.

"I love doing this. It's a challenge for me," he said.

Sergeant Campbell began working with cadets 10 years ago. He said most of the Summer Leadership School kids are getting ready to graduate and he encourages them to consider a career in the Air Force, whether it be as an officer or enlisted, for a career or a four-year term.

"You can use what you learn in the Air Force on the outside," he said.

In the future, 15-year-old Cadet Senior Airman Reanna Oliver, a sophomore at Rancho Verde High School, hopes to become a registered nurse or forensics nurse in the Air Force. The leadership camp is her first time on a military base.

"The base is like a little town inside Moreno Valley," she said. "I was kind of worried I was going to be getting yelled at constantly, but everyone seems approachable, well-respected, and they're not rude or stuck-up."