By Stephen Smoot
In 1994, the success of Operation Desert Storm had just started to fade into memory with the tragedy of 9/11 still years away. President Ronald Reagan’s expert diplomacy had helped to end Soviet Communism and free its “prison of nations,” leading not to the end of conflict, but to new definitions of it.
While history changed, Lincoln High School opened a tradition that has lasted three decades and is still going strong, its JROTC program connected with the United States Navy.
“A naval power, next to the militia, is the natural defense of the United States,” wrote President John Adams when he deployed the Navy that his administration created against the powerful forces of Revolutionary France. In this first official action of this service branch, Americans from all over the nation built and manned the finest frigates launched by any nation in the world in that decade.
That tradition of excellence has helped to forge leaders and citizens, while also providing outstanding waterborne defense against all enemies.
Petty Officer Aaron Deaton leads and mentors the current assemblage of cadets and officers. Last week, for homeroom he had the officers line up the cadets in formation. Recruitment served as the subject of the day.
To remain viable, a reserve officer training corps program of any type must maintain a certain level of involvement. At Lincoln, that threshold sits at just over 50 – 10 percent of the school population. The task of recruitment took the form of a campaign. Those who succeeded in bringing in the requisite goal number of new cadets received ribbons, just as they would in full time military service.
“The students run the program,” says Petty Officer Deaton. They lined up their classmates, issued instructions, took roll, and advised the cadets of expectations. They, in turn, must report up the chain of command to the Petty Officer.
Although he did not start the program, Petty Officer Deaton described Commander Paul Kast as the program itself. Kast shared that administrators originally wanted an Air Force program that would connect students to aviation education and job opportunities developing at the regional airport and elsewhere.
When the Air Force did not pan out, the Navy did. Kast arrived in 2000 and relied on the help of Navy SEAL Dave Finch. Kast said “I’ve done ROTC in high school in Texas. I loved the program and thought it was a good deal.”
Since then, he has served in the Navy and also taught campaign planning at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
He had goals for his mission at the program. First, he said he “wanted to teach the kids something at Lincoln, let them have fun and not realize they’re learning something.” Next, he shared that he noticed that many “kids in Lincoln didn’t get out of the county much” outside of extracurricular activities.
Kast set up a program of trips up and down the East Coast, so that participants could see every state there, even if just driving through. They went to Maine to undergo training and sail in a vintage late 1800s schooner. Trips have also taken them to Florida and Norfolk, Virginia.
Students stayed on military bases that charged little or nothing to JROTC. Kast, in his 22 years with the program, also took advantage of the Navy’s granting of a “wide berth” in programming and modeled it after his experiences with the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets.
Kast shared that he has seen some of his cadets grow up and become leaders in their field while, unfortunately, some others did not take full advantage of their training. He expressed great pri
After being dismissed from their lineup, the cadets filed into the library for homeroom. Petty Officer Deaton, after a few technical hiccups, showed a video from Rear Admiral Craig Mattingly. While he emphasized physical training and duty, the main message lay in good mental health. He said that admitting to stress and anxiety was not a sign of weakness, but of strength.
Also, students received strong encouragement to sign up for different skills trainings, such as rifle and drill.
Both Kast and Deaton emphasized that the main importance of the program lay in building good citizens. One does not have to join the military or play a major role in the community for the program to succeed with them. While several have enjoyed careers as military officers, others have become teachers, nurses, deputy sheriffs, or also exceptional parents.
Many of these have encouraged their own children to join JROTC. Deaton explains that the community and family dynamic helps to encourage students to join. He pointed out on some of the many group pictures that cover the walls examples of parents whose children served in JROTC as well.
The values of family that helped to build the program may also have been inspired in part by Kast. He moved to the Mountain State because “I heard it is a good place to raise a family. And it was.”