It's been years in the making, but Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, or AFJROTC, is coming to Great Falls High in Montana this fall.

"We're pretty excited about this," said Tom Moore, assistant superintendent for secondary schools with Great Falls Public Schools.

Great Falls high schools offer a wide spectrum of courses to prepare students for life after graduation, Moore said, and many of their students join the military.

Col. Bobby Woods, AFJROTC director at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, said Montana was the last state without a program.

"We're incredibly excited to be opening in Montana," he said. "We think it's an outstanding fit."

Around 2008, Air Force officials approached the GFPS curriculum director about starting a JROTC program.

But that was also a time of major budget cuts and adding a new program wasn't in the cards, Moore said.

Over the summer, they were approached again by the Air Force and asked to submit an application to start a JROTC program in Great Falls.

"In a military community, JROTC makes sense and it's missing," Moore said.

Even if students don't go into the military, the program teaches responsibility, discipline, task completion and other skills that help in any career they might choose, Moore said.

Part of the law that established the AFJROTC program requires that each service participate and they try to create a fair and equitable distribution across the county of their units, Woods said. The program was formally created in the 1916 National Defense Act.

"Usually once we start getting into a community and other schools start seeing positive effects, start seeing what these cadets start learning, we hear amazing stories of the impact on lives that comes from this program," he said.

Nationally, the program has close to 2,000 instructors across 870 units with about 125,000 students.

The new program in Great Falls will get support from the Air Force in the form of equipment, uniforms and whatever it needs to get started. The Air Force also provides the curriculum and reimburses the school district half of the instructors' salaries.

The school district will hire two instructors, who must meet the AFJROTC requirements. Moore said they estimate the school district cost will be $35,000 to $40,000 annually.

Moore said GFPS is working with the local military community, such as the Military Affairs Committee of the Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, to help find funding.

It's also looking at grants and foundations to help fund the program.

If it can't find new funding sources, Moore said they would reallocate some existing funding to get the program started.

That doesn't mean any jobs in the district will be affected, Moore said.

"We're going to get creative in the way we fund that," Moore said.

Woods said the military presence in Great Falls was part of their reasoning to approach GFPS to start JROTC there.

"Getting into a community that already has appreciation for military and is supportive of military, we find those units typically do really well," Woods said.

It's also helpful for military students who may have been part of JROTC at other schools and then their parents get stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

Woods said having military bases nearby can also open partnership opportunities for students to see the military in action.

"When cadets get a chance to see that, it just opens their eyes. It makes them realize how important teamwork really is," Woods said. "Not one person is overly important; everybody is important to make the mission happen."

Woods participated in JROTC and then continued with ROTC in college.

"I still remember my instructors," he said.

There is no obligation to join the military with the JROTC program, Woods said. Instead, it's a citizenship program, like the Civil Air Patrol program already in place in Great Falls.

"We believe that the things they're going to learn through this program are going to help them no matter what career they end up choosing," Woods said. "I think it's degrees of good that come from the program."

But if cadets chose to enlist after high school, having completed at least three years of JROTC and basic training, they'll come out as an E2 or E3, whereas most would come out of basic training as an E1.

That means a higher rank and higher pay grade from the start for those who have three years or more of JROTC versus those enlisted without that background.

Heather Hoyer, GFH principal, said the soft launch of the program in the fall will include two courses, and once they fully launch they need to keep 100 students in the program to keep the unit.

Hoyer said they'll be explaining the program to students this week and hope to get feedback from them. She said they've been getting positive feedback from parents who are glad to see the program at GFH.

For now, the program will only be at GFH, which was targeted because it's a Title 1 school, meaning it has a large number of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, Hoyer and Moore said.

The Air Force has data showing the JROTC program is successful in Title 1 schools at keeping students in school and improving graduation rates, Moore said.

With an Air Force ROTC program at Montana State University and Army ROTC at the University of Montana, it's a good way for students to learn about the program in high school and then decide if they want to make the jump to the collegiate level, where they can get scholarships and be commissioned as officers in the military.

Hoyer said the program compliments the values the community already has.

"I think it's a natural fit for Great Falls," she said. "It's about time."

Share:
In Other News
Load More