Photo By Mark Schauer | Maj. James Branch (center) talks with baseball great Cecil Fielder (left) during a...... read more read more
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The Army's presence in what is now Yuma County dates back to the 1840s.
Until now, however, the community has never had an Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) program.
That changes on August 1, when the first Army JROTC program at Yuma High School begins with more than 100 cadets.
The program's Senior Army Instructor is James Branch, a retired Major who served at the Military Freefall School (MFFS) at YPG between 2011 and 2013, first as executive officer, then as commander. He had previously trained as a student in the school's basic course in 2009.
"I still miss it," said Branch of the MFFS. "It is one of the most awesome, fulfilling jobs there is."
At the conclusion of his 22-year Army career that saw multiple deployments during the Global War on Terror, Branch and his family settled in Yuma. He worked in the private sector for several years before landing his current position.
"I saw the job posting and thought it would be a great way to continue to serve,” he said. “I got really involved with coaching basketball and flag football with my kids and realized I really enjoy mentoring and helping kids grow up into great adults."
Yuma High’s Army JROTC program promises to be a rigorous elective that requires cadets to maintain a respectable grade point average across all of their classes in order to participate in the program’s extracurricular activities. From air rifle and drill teams to academic and physical fitness competitions, maintaining good grades allows a cadet to travel across Arizona competing against their counterparts in other high schools.
Though successfully completing three or four years of the program allows a cadet to enter the Army as a Private First Class (E3), Branch stresses that students with no intention of joining the military when they come of age can also benefit from participating in the program.
"JROTC is not a recruiting tool of the Army or the Department of Defense,” he said. “Some cadets do go on to join the military, but they also go on to be very successful in college or the civilian world with the discipline and leadership they learn in the program."
Once the program is mature, the senior cadets will be organized in an Army-like battalion staff who will largely run the program with the instructors’ oversight and guidance. Since all of the cadets are new as the program launches, the course will be significantly more instructor driven.
"Getting the new cadets into the program and to buy in to the culture and discipline associated with JROTC will be the biggest hurdle,” said Branch. “As the program progresses and the cadets come back for the second, third and fourth years, we'll have students there to help out with building the culture and guiding freshmen and sophomores in the right direction.”
Branch intends for the cadets to participate in various local ceremonies and other community service once the program is launched, which he believes will lead to even more support and participation.
“Army JROTC is a really good program that speaks for itself once you see it in action,” said Branch. “Once the cadets are out in the community, I think we’ll have a lot more students coming to partake in the program.”
| Date Taken: | 07.09.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.09.2024 07:41 |
| Story ID: | 475531 |
| Location: | YUMA PROVING GROUND, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 240 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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