U.S. Navy photo by Doug Davant NJROTC Cadets line up around Lt. Cmdr. Ron Fry for instruction on an “orientational“ (map reading and compass course) problem.

So goes the mission statement of the Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. But there is a lot more that goes into such a pronouncement and one could see it on every face of the students from six different high schools from the greater Southern Maryland and King George County, Va. areas at Naval Support Facility Dahlgren last week for the NJROTC Basic Leadership Training course.

Those young faces gleamed with gritty determination and perspiration as they sweated through physical training at 5:30 a.m. each morning and close order drills in the afternoons, interspersed with instruction and visits to the base’s unique technical facilities to learn about what Dahlgren does for the United States Navy. But most of all they gleamed with esprit de corps and pride—esprit de corps in their units and pride in themselves.

‘‘This course is designed for new cadets to show what NJROTC has to offer,” said Lt. Cmdr. Ron Fry, officer in charge of the 52 young men and women who gave up a week of their summer to master the demanding challenge.

Fry, a former Navy helicopter pilot, teamed with Master Gunnery Sgt. Clive Bailey and Chief Warrant Officer Mike Ladd to guide the high school students through the tough week that consisted of 16-hour day of intense nothing-but-Navy living and repeatedly echoed the NJROTC mission.

The cadets berthed in Dahlgren barracks, ate at the Dahlgren galley, showered in Dahlgren’s heads, marched on Dahlgren’s parade grounds and roads, and learned about the Dahlgren Navy.

The six NJROTC schools represented consisted of King George High School, LaPlata High School, Frederick Douglass High School (Upper Marlboro, Md.), Warwick High School (Newport News, Va.), Northern High School (Owens, Md.), and Bell High School (Washington, D.C.). Fry divided the schools into three platoons and ‘‘let them compete against one another.”

‘‘We put them through close order drill...it is what their drill teams will do this school year in competition,” he said. ‘‘A lot of the students have had a year or two of (NJROTC) but it was also new to many of the cadets here. They had to learn how to march, do the oblique and flank (maneuvers) and the other things we were teaching.”

Fry, the commander of LaPlata H.S. unit, added that the majority of his school’s charges were all new to the training. ‘‘But they picked it up pretty quickly,” he said.

The Dahlgren unique training consisted of visits to the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division’s electromagnetic (rail) gun launch facility, NSWCDD’s laser laboratories, its hazards of electromagnetic radiation (HERO ground plane) facility and laboratory, the base’s anechoic and reverberation chambers, tours of the main range, the Aegis Training and Readiness Center laboratories, plus history briefs about Dahlgren’s involvement in pioneering computer usage for the world and a visit to NSWCDD’s modeling and simulation, and chemical and biological laboratories.

‘‘We got a daily dose of the Navy’s technology,” Fry pointed out.

And it was much enjoyed, according to the NJROTC students.

‘‘We learned a lot here,” said Kordell Strauss of King George High School.

‘‘It was a lot of fun,” agreed schoolmate Cassandra Breton.

Fry said that the goal of NJROTC is to focus students on a future of service to the country in some capacity, not just the military. He said that NJROTC cadets must maintain a military bearing and maintain a spotless conduct record to remain in the Navy high school units during the year. There is zero tolerance for any type of school expulsion, gang activity, drug involvement or brushes with law enforcement.

‘‘They also must maintain a good academic standing to be invited back the following year,” he said.

‘‘We have good parental involvement with NJROTC. Parents help out just as they do with other (extracurricular) activities in high school,” he noted. ‘‘This is all about doing good service and learning about such things as personal discipline and what the military has to offer kids. Parents, teachers and school administration like what we do so we have a lot of local support.”

The Navy supplies uniforms and training materials for the students and some funding for special events, but, just as with high school bands and sports teams, funding for ‘‘extras” such as visits to military museums or trips to military air shows, etc., must be generated by NJROTC units.

Beside unit affiliation, high school ROTC offers team air rifle and drill team competition against area schools. Fry noted that in Charles County, Md., there are six different junior ROTC units for each of the county’s high schools.

‘‘Two Navy units, two Air Force units and two Army units,” he said. ‘‘When we have area drill meets against one another sometimes it gets a little tough to judge because each service teaches drill just a bit differently...but we’ll always figure out a way to get it fairly judged.”

The Junior ROTC is a Federal program sponsored by the United States Armed Forces in high schools across the United States. The program was originally created as part of the National Defense Act of 1916 and later expanded under the 1964 ROTC Vitalization Act.

According to ‘‘The History of Central High” a military science program at Omaha Central High School (Neb.) kicked off a national interest in Junior ROTC at the nation’s high schools. It began in the 1892-1893 school year. It became the most popular activity at the school, and at one point in the school’s history all male students were required to participate. Soon military science popularity spread to other states.

However, the first JROTC program was conceived in 1903 by an Army veteran who first implemented an unofficial troop at Central High School (Cheyenne, Wyo.), and the first official JROTC battalion was formed in the nation soon afterwards at Leavenworth High School in Leavenworth, Kansas. This was an Army program and is still operational.

Currently there are 3,229 JROTC units in American high schools: 1555 Army (AJROTC) units, 794 Air Force (AFJROTC) units (Lackey High School of Indian Head, Md. is one), 619 Navy (NJROTC) units, 260 Marine Corps (MCJROTC) units, and one U.S. Coast Guard unit (at Maritime and Science Technology Academy, a public high school in Miami).