Is there a link between JROTC and military recruiting?
JROTC proponents assert that the program is simply an opportunity to help students develop leadership and citizenship skills. They assert that JROTC is not a recruitment program. However, in February 2000, US Secretary of Defense William Cohen told the House Armed Services Committee that JROTC “is one of the best recruiting devices that we could have.” Indeed, approximately 40-45% of all cadets who complete JROTC enter the military (Department of Defense figures). Military school-based activities such as JROTC are designed to boost recruitment in one way or another. Young people are led to think of military programs as vocational training or as a fun school activity for credit. Consequently, they are left with a false and unrealistic view of what it means to hold a job where a person could be ordered to go to war.
