Junior ROTC opens doors

KAHUKU — Nathanael Hankins didn’t want to sound corny about Kahuku High School’s Army Junior ROTC program, but he wanted to credit it with shaping him and pointing him toward a career he could only dream of before enrolling.

"JROTC is whatever you want to get out of it," said Hankins from his dormitory room at Purdue University in Indiana. "For some students, it might be a place to make friends, but for me, it was a way to view the military from the inside. Before I joined, I had no interest in the military."

A freshman in Purdue’s Air Force ROTC program, Hankins is majoring in aviation technology. Becoming a pilot, as well as attending Purdue, had been longtime goals and Junior ROTC gave him the means. His performance as a cadet earned him a scholarship from Kahuku’s Hamashige family endowment. Hankins has also applied for an ROTC scholarship to cover his remaining college years.

After that, Hankins said, he plans to fly in the Air Force and then as a civilian "making big bucks."

Hankins is one of many cadets who have left Junior ROTC at Kahuku for opportunities they otherwise might not have had, said Maj. John Grennon, the program’s director. Other 2000 graduates are now in the military and serving, for example, as air traffic controllers, supply and maintenance specialists, and medics.

"And each one of them has a $50,000 scholarship for their college educations," said Grennon. "That really opens things up for kids who have nothing. They get a career and if they want to get out of the service, they have that money for college."

It isn’t only those inside Kahuku’s ROTC program who consider it outstanding. Last year, Junior ROTC officials in Seattle named the unit an "honor unit with distinction," a feat it repeated this year.

While 11 of Hawai‘i’s 13 Army Junior ROTC programs earned that award last year, it isn’t common across the nation, said Col. Burton Greene, deputy program manager in the Islands.

"The inspectors that come and inspect our schools are responsible for nine or 10 other states," said Greene. "Their comments are that they’ve never seen so many outstanding units as in Hawai‘i."

Kahuku’s Junior ROTC program was started in 1993 and has steadily grown to 120 cadets. Besides training in skills such as map reading and first aid, students also perform service in the school and community. The cadets are organized into units similar to a battalion, complete with a chain of command, and are asked to be on their best behavior at all times, on campus and off.

"The mission of JROTC is to motivate kids to be better citizens," said Grennon. "In the junior program, we don’t train kids to go into the Army or anything. It really teaches the kids life skills."

Students are seeing the opportunities it offers and reaping the benefits, said principal Lisa DeLong. Besides opening the door to careers, it also offers students the chance to learn leadership in a worklike setting, she said.

"For many, it’s the first time they’re given authority and have to be responsible for people under them," said DeLong. "The first benefit that I see is confidence, which carries over into the rest of their lives. They learn responsibility and initiative, and organizational skills that go back into their academics."

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