JROTC Trojan Battalion
Soddy-Daisy High School Trojan Battalion: Honor Unit With Distinction For our future!
About
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About the JROTC Program
About JROTC History
About the SDHS JROTC Program
About the Trojan Battalion Site
About the JROTC Program

The mission of the JROTC program is 'to motivate young people to be better citizens'. The following is an excerpt from the official JROTC Site:

"The United States Army's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, or JROTC, is designed to teach high school students the value of citizenship, leadership, service to the community, personal responsibility, and a sense of accomplishment, while instilling in them self-esteem, teamwork, and self-discipline. Its focus is reflected in its mission statement, "To motivate young people to be better citizens." It prepares high school students for responsible leadership roles while making them aware of their rights, responsibilities, and privileges as American citizens. The program is a stimulus for promoting graduation from high school, and it provides instruction and rewarding opportunities that will benefit the student, community, and nation."

The JROTC program will teach students to work effectively in a team, learn better ways to handle mental stress and depression, appreciate the important of physical fitness, learn leadership skills, think logically and be able to communicate effectively verbally and written, understand the important of high school graduation, become familiar with the history and structure of the United States military, and arguably most importantly, be motivated to be better citzens.

The JROTC program is an excellent one. My peers and I all greatly encourage you or your child to enroll in the program. It appeals to the entire personality spectrum, and in my own opinion, makes high school bearable, and (dare I say it) fun. Either way you see it, it will benefit you or your child in the long run.
About JROTC History

The following is an excerpt from the official JROTC site:

"The United States Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) came into being with the passage of the National Defense Act of 1916. Under the provisions of the Act, high schools were authorized the loan of federal military equipment and the assignment of active duty military personnel as instructors. There was a condition that the instructors follow a prescribed course of training and maintain a minimum enrollment of 100 students over the age of 14 years who were US citizens." These numbers did not include young women, who were first admitted into JROTC in 1961. "In 1964, the Vitalization Act opened JROTC up to the other services and replaced most of the active duty instructors with retirees who worked for and were cost shared by the schools.

Title 10 of the U.S. Code declares that "the purpose of Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps is to instill in students in United States secondary educational institutions the value of citizenship, service to the United States, personal responsibility, and a sense of accomplishment."

The JROTC Program has changed greatly over the years. Once looked upon primarily as a source of enlisted recruits and officer candidates, it became a citizenship program devoted to the moral, physical and educational uplift of American youth. Although the program retained its military structure and the resultant ability to infuse in its student cadets a sense of discipline and order, it shed most of its early military content.

The study of ethics, citizenship, communications, leadership, life skills and other subjects designed to prepare young men and woman to take their place in adult society, evolved as the core of the program. More recently, an improved student centered curriculum focusing on character building and civic responsibility is being presented in every JROTC classroom.

JROTC is a continuing success story. From a modest beginning of 6 units in 1916, JROTC has expanded to 1555 schools today and to every state in the nation and American schools overseas. Cadet enrollment has grown to 273,000 cadets with 3,900 professional instructors in the classrooms. Comprised solely of active duty Army retirees, the JROTC instructors serve as mentors developing the outstanding young citizens of our country."
About the SDHS JROTC Program

Soddy-Daisy High School offers an award-winning JROTC program. Here is its staff:

  • Principal Mr. John Maynard
  • Senior Army Instructor Lieutenant Colonel Robert Ward
  • Let 1-2 Army Instructor Master Sergeant Johnny Manis
  • Let 3-4 Army Instructor Master Sergeant Edward Barnes
  • Battalion Commander Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Coby Hart
The Soddy Daisy High School Trojan Battalion began as a satellite unit of Red Bank High School's JROTC program in 1980. The following year, we received our colors. We have been an Honor Unit with Distinction ever since.

JROTC runs all year. Thanks to the new block schedule system implemented at SDHS in the 2005-2006 school year, current freshmen must have twenty-eight credits to graduate. JROTC cadets now earn two credits per school year, one per semester.

Our JROTC program also offers the extra-curricular activities Rifle Team, Drill Team, Colorguard Team, and Raider Team.
About the Trojan Battalion Site

Work began on the Trojan Battalion site in mid-December, 2005. It was created by (at the time) C/Private 1st Class Cody Hickman. Regular maintenance tasks go on to this day.
Site by Cody Hickman. Site content copyright 2006.