High school's JROTC program celebrating half a century

CLOVIS — Calling all alumni: Clovis High School's Air Force Junior ROTC program will celebrate half a century as the first such unit in the state this month with a special "50th Anniversary Military Ball," Sept. 30 at the Civic Center.

The Reserve Officer Training Corps is intended to instruct students in citizenship and, while it bears no requirement for joining the military, its programming is rooted in the armed services.

NM-021, so-designated as the 21st program nationwide, was approved for Clovis Municipal Schools in March 1967 and took flight in the fall of the following school year. Two other units, NM-022 and NM-041, started later the same year in Las Cruces and Albuquerque, respectively.

Since then the program has stayed true to its core values of schooling cadets in "a sense of service to their community, confidence in themselves, and a drive to keep moving forward," according to Maj. Lawrence Alan Fields, a retired Air Force officer who leads the program at CHS.

"Whether a cadet goes on to serve in the military or pursue a civilian career, most feel a need to serve their community and to lead by example," Fields said.

The most significant changes to the program have come since 2010, when freshman were permitted to enroll and the number of cadets grew past 100.

In 2013 "we became serious about competitive drill with professional coaching," said Fields, with results as recent as several top-three finishes this year at the 2017 National Invitation Drill Meet.

In 2014, the program added "a dedicated zero hour drill class for the team" and in 2015 it received a number of grants for model aviation and "upgraded marksmanship equipment," he added.

Last year appears to have been the busiest year of all: a CMS foundation grant supplied the program with funds for 3-D printers, and cadets were been introduced to drones, medium powered rocketry and "High Altitude Balloon missions to photograph the curvature of the Earth," Fields said.

For some graduates of the program, the new technology is the most exciting development in the past decade or two.

"This program has remained in many ways the same over the years," said Gordon Beevers, a former three-year cadet who graduated CHS in 1998. "As far as changes in NM-021 ... technology has had the most effect. ... It often has crossed my mind what we could have done back then if we had the same technology as today. Back in the '90s, we were just starting to see the possibilities of what technology we take for granted today could do."

Beevers said he was most excited about the addition last year of an amateur radio club, which he said will be "an excellent tool" to assist in science, technology, engineering and mathematics instruction.

Another development last year was the formation of a Community Emergency Response Team with assistance from Clovis' Emergency Management Director Dan Heerding.

"With the partnership (between EM and JROTC's CERT), we are teaching the students how to prepare and respond to an emergency situation within the high school. The great part of this training is that it is naturally flowing over to the local community," said Heerding, noting CERT's assistance with the July 4 Smoke on the Water event and more recently with the Curry County Fair.

The future of the program could include a number of additional technological advances, including the use of agricultural drones to analyze crop health, creation of an amateur radio "shack" to communicate with the International Space Station and more community partnerships - with the fire department and railroads among others, Fields said.

Fields said he is also considering how to bring full-time leadership programs to middle schools, via the National Middle School Cadet Corps, Young Marines or Civil Air Patrol Aerospace Education.

For some JROTC alumni, the most lasting takeways of the program have been the lessons in leadership and confidence.

"You come into the unit ... perhaps not knowing really who you are or any purpose," Beevers said. "Over the next few years you learn about yourself and your role in service to your community and to your unit."

"I used to be one that always had a problem with authority figures, but it actually helped me to understand where they were coming from," said Marcus Standley, a three-year program alumnus and 1999 CHS graduate, who fondly recalled the leadership of Col. Robert Segars and SMSGT Bud Maynard during his years. "Whenever I was in ROTC we had a bunch of guys that, starting high school, were troubled kids. And (Segars and Maynard) actually did everything they could to help the students out, and they talked to us as if they were father figures."

Standley said he made many lasting friendships through the program and remembered those years fondly.

"Memories of that aren't going to ever leave me," he said. "They're really embedded into my heart."

For CHS senior students in this year's program, the same lessons of self-realization still seem to apply.

"At the beginning, joining ROTC was a really scary thing for me," said Megan Edwards, a logistics leader with the program who joined this year. "But when I entered those doors, everyone welcomed me. And that's one thing I really like about ROTC is it shows you who you really are."

"I think that's why I want to fly planes. No one is allowed to judge me because I want to fly planes," she continued, speaking with classmates during an ROTC leadership period Friday at the high school. "There's always going to be challenges; I know that. But I'm not going to let it stop me. Why should I? I walked into this building and conquered one of my fears. What else is there to do?"

Ricky Sain, Jr., a command chief with the program, said he's already enlisted in the Navy and wants to become a Seal.

"I want to be one of the best at what I do. I don't know why Seals — I don't like anything else and I don't know why. We ain't got water here. But I fell in love with it when I found out about it and ROTC has helped a lot with that."

For tickets ($30 each) and more information on the Military Ball, which is open to all, email [email protected] or call Celia Donofrio at 575-693-0805.