BUDDING LEADERS: Air Force Junior ROTC cadets take a Leadership Course at March

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman David K. Flaherty
  • 452d AMW/Public Affairs
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. --  It's been said leaders aren't just born - they're made. For high school students taking part in the Junior Officer Reserve Training Corps program, future leaders start to take shape as early as age 14. Created in 1916, the Junior ROTC program was established to instill in students the value of citizenship, service to the United States and personal responsibility. Locally, hundreds of Riverside students join their school's JROTC program to do just this. 

March Air Reserve Base, the only major military installation in Riverside County, plays a key role in molding future Air Force leaders by hosting a two-week Summer Leadership School here each summer. This year's course was held June 16 - 27, giving about 55 JROTC Cadets a snapshot of the skills they need to succeed in the Air Force. 

"The Leadership School shows the cadets what the Air Force and its people are like," said Lt. Col. Dale Clauson, the Senior Aerospace Science Instructor at Arlington High School in Riverside. "The kids who participate are usually the ones who go on to become the officers or leaders." 

The cadets' daily regimen on base is spent in and out of the classroom. Trainees had daily leadership seminars from some of March ARB's top-ranking military members. These briefings give cadets the real-world skills they need to become true leaders of their school's JROTC program, said Lt. Col. Clauson. 

The cadets step out of the classroom and into the field to get a better taste of what life is like in the military. By visiting troops at their job sites, the military students learn firsthand
what life is like in the Air Force. 

"As cadets, we're always looking at the different careers the Air Force has to offer," said Cadet Major Natalie Gomez, a student at Rancho Verde High School in Moreno Valley. "Because we actually get to see Airmen at work, we're able to get a bigger picture of what life must be like." Gomez said one of the highlights of the Leadership School was the Explosive Ordnance Disposal demonstration. During that demonstration June 18, cadets sat in an open airplane hangar with their eyes glued to Master Sgt. Philip Hartzell, the base's EOD program manager, as he highlighted the more entertaining aspects of his job. 

Master Sgt. Hartzell steered one of his unit's bomb disposal robots like a remote-controlled toy car past an excited audience from one end of the hangar to the other. He then took volunteers to try on one of his unit's bomb suits. 

"This suit can withstand a blast from a bomb, but it isn't bulletproof. Go figure," said Master Sgt. Hartzell, as his audience erupted into laughter. "It's harder to give these briefings to one hundred kids than it is to give it to one hundred generals. But these cadets are great. They're just so interested in what you have to say." 

Junior Officer Reserve Training Corps cadets differ from the average high school student - their school day doesn't end when the last bell rings. All of the cadets must juggle school work and their military obligations - both in and out of school. They are required to wear their uniform at least once a week, learn how to drill and study military customs and courtesies. 

To the trainees, just meeting other cadets who share the same rigorous routine of the
JROTC program makes the Leadership School worthwhile. 

"It's nice to meet cadets from other schools who are going through the same thing we are going through," said Cadet Senior Airman Linda Huynh, a student at Arlington High School. "I joined JROTC to learn leadership, but I'm also kind of shy. In the JROTC program, I not only get to meet new people but I learn responsibility, too."