Senior Project Research Paper

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Austin Mathis
Mrs. Maxwell
Brit. Lit.
11/3/11
A History of Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps(JROTC)
June 3, 1916, the United States Congress passed the National Defense Act of 1916. This
act made provisions for an expanded peacetime army, a 400 percent increase in the
National Guard, creation of an Army Reserve, and the creation of the Reserve Officer
Training Corps. Over time, this has developed from a poorly organized college military
and citizenship training class, to a large program that spans the country and is in high
schools and colleges. The high school level is known as JROTC. Today, JROTC is in
1555 schools in the United States, with over 273,000 cadets in the program. It has taken
time and much effort to get the program to where it is today.
From their beginning in 1916, JROTC and ROTC have had many issues. There
have been problems spanning from a lack of government funding, to full opposition by
the President and Congress. But from the start,there was a lack of motivation to support
and expand the program. The instructors were usually people who were there because of
orders, and not because they wanted to be. The government did not want to fund the
program due to World War I. Between 1916and 1919, only 30 units were established in
different schools. Between 1919 and 1920, cadet enrollment climbed to a meager 45,000
of students. During the break between world wars, the program received little in the way
of funding, and by 1939, only around 295 schools had their own programs. There were
also many issues when it came to backing by the high schools. Some problems were:

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poor or inconvenient schedule times, restricted instruction, and shortages of resources.
These problems made it harder to motivate student to join, and enrollment dropped. Even
with these problems though, over 72,000 students were participating in the program in
1942. Needless to say, this time period created an uphill battle for JROTC.
JROTC also experienced some competition during this time. Another program,
Called the National Defense Cadet Corps, was working without government assistance
except for minor training aids. NDCC programs were usually programs that wanted to be
considered JROTC, but could not meet the requirements. These requirements were
following the courses prescribed and the program needed to have at least 100 cadets
enrolled who were 14 years of age or older. With the lack of support that the programs
experienced, sometimes meeting these requirements were difficult at best. NDCC
programs did not receive instructors from the Army either.
After World War II, the growth of JROTC was frozen by the Army. This freeze
continued from 1947 to 1964. “From 1947 until the passage of the ROTC Vitalization
Act of 1964, the Army froze JROTC growth due to funding and manpower constraints.”
("JROTC History"). In 1961, when Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara came into
office, JROTC came under fire. According to him, JROTC cost too much. His solution
was to turn existing units into NDCC units. This actually caused the program to expand
however. “Shortly after McNamara’s intentions were announced, the Department of
Defense received over 300 letters and telegrams, and the Department of the Army
received 90 from senators, representatives, heads of educational institutions and
individual citizens. Almost all expressed disapproval of the proposed DOD action.”
("JROTC History"). People believed that JROTC was helpful to the nation, produced the

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leaders of the future, and kept students and young people in general out of trouble. Many
congress members were of the same opinion. “At the same time, JROTC supporters in the
House of Representatives introduced legislation proposing the expansion of the program
from the existing 254 to a maximum of 2,000 units, and its extension to both the Navy
and the Air Force.” ("JROTC History"). during this time, the Defense Department
moved towards taking back what they said, attempted to go over the issue again. this was
the turning point for the better.
When the Department of Defense reviewed JROTC and NDCC, they developed
an 11 person committee to do the review. “The commission surveyed a cross-section of
secondary school officials, community leaders and parents, and published its findings and
recommendations in a report entitled ‘Future Operations in the Junior Division ROTC
and the national Defense Cadet Corps,’ dated June 1963.” ("JROTC History"). The report
talked about things such as cost and lack of turnout for people in respect to it’s name, and
also covered the benefit to the nation and it youth. To solve the cost issue, the
Department of Defense provided guidelines for JROTC spending. They also decided that
instead of active duty soldiers working as instructors, they could use retirees that met
certain standards. This freed up over 700 active duty personnel, saving a large amount of
money and enabling them to be better used in their actual job fields. During this time,
JROTC enrollment was around 60,000 cadets. This time symbolized a new start for
JROTC.
The new beginning came to fruition in 1963. “On Oct. 13, 1963, 40 days before
his assassination, President John F. Kennedy signed Public Law 88-647, the ROTC
Vitalization Act of 1964. The law required the services to increase the number of JROTC

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programs under their jurisdiction and also charged them to achieve a more homogeneous
geographical distribution of units across the nation. The 1916 rule mandating a minimum
enrollment of 100 U.S. citizens, ages 14 or older, was retained for the continuation or
establishment of JROTC units as were many other provisions of the original legislation.”
("JROTC History"). This helped to distribute the program more evenly throughout the
country, causing enrollment to rise and the number of programs to increase. Another part
of the law was to make special provisions for retirees hired to work in JROTC programs.
The schools were paid to give benefits such as covering for the remainder of the pay they
would receive as active duty soldiers, and special allowances such as food and housing.
This helped to remove competition by NDCC programs, due to the fact that they could
not come close to the same payment.
From 1970 to 1985, Provisions were set into place to benefit cadets that enlisted
in the Army after high school. Cadets could enlist from the pay grades of E-2 to E-4,
based on their performance and experience from JROTC. Qualified graduates also
received special nominations to military academies. A new president also led to new
assistance. “JROTC received another stimulus in July 1976, when President Gerald Ford
signed Public Law 94-361, which raised the authorized number of JROTC units from
1,200 to 1,600. The Army received 200 of these new units. Due to the lack of funding,
however, only 20 new units were actually brought on line before 1980.” ("JROTC
History"). A non-exclusion policy was also set up during this time, allowing females to
participate in JROTC for the first time. Between 1972 and 1973, the first female cadets
entered the program. This led to rapid growth of females, with over 40 percent of cadets
being female by 1993.

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during the 1980’s, more legislature was passed to improve JROTC. “In September
1980 Congress passed Public Law 96-342, which lowered the mandatory JROTC unit
enrollment level from 100 to an amount not less than ten percent of the host institution’s
enrollment, thereby paving the way for increased institutional participation in the
program.” ("JROTC History"). This allowed for creation of more programs, leading to
even stronger growth across the nation. by 1983, there were over 5,600 more cadets than
the previous decade. In the next two years, more than 120 units were added. To this date,
JROTC is still growing exponentially, with changes occurring to the lessons, and more
organization being added, but no major changes have happened.
Another important part of JROTC is the Creed. It started as different units writing
their own creeds, but they were combined and used for the first time in 1995 during the
cadet command spring review. the creed is as follows: “I am an Army JROTC cadet. I
will always conduct myself to bring credit to my family, country, school, and the corps of
cadets.I am loyal and patriotic. I am the future of the Untied States of America. I do not
lie, cheat, or steal and will always be accountable for my actions and deeds. I will always
practice good citizenship and patriotism. I will work hard to improve my mind and
strengthen my body. I will seek the mantle of leadership and stand prepared to uphold the
Constitution and the American way of life. May god grant me the strength to always live
by this creed.”. This creed is important in defining the cadets way of life.
JROTC is a program meant to motivate young people to be better citizens. This is
done through military structure, controlled lesson plans, and a curriculum meant to help
provide students with the knowledge and skills required to do well in life. Although the
program has had it’s struggles, it has survived and grown to change the nation.

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Works Cited
“The First JROTC Unit.” The First JROTC Unit. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
<http://leavenworthjrotc.org/first_jrotc_unit.html>.
“History of ROTC.” History of ROTC. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.rotc.usaac.army.mil/jrotc-history.html>.
“JROTC.” JROTC. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
<http://pediaview.com/openpedia/JROTC>.
“JROTC History.” JROTC History. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.oocities.org/armyjrotchq/history.html>.
“JROTC History.” JROTC History. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.warejrotc.com/UnitHistory/JROTCHistory/jrotc_history.htm>.
“Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.” Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.
N.p., 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jrotc>.
“National Defense Act of 1916.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Act_of_1916>.
“US Army JROTC.” US Army JROTC. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/jrotc.htm>.

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“US Army JROTC.” US Army JROTC. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
<https://www.usarmyjrotc.com/jrotc/dt/2_History/history.html>.