Saluting the U.S. flag every morning, Bellevue East’s AFJROTC members of today are working toward improving themselves and East’s community.

AFJROTC or Air Force Junior Reserve Officers’Training Corps is a national, co-curricular program that anyone can join. Although it is structured to prepare students to join the military, students are not required to enlist.

“Being a part of Junior ROTC is such an enriching experience,” Lt. Col. Brian Yates said. “It’s so much more involved than just taking a class or course. Having those events, having all the activities outside of school, all the things we can be involved in like the aerospace parade, the veterans parade, it’s all the involvement that makes ROTC such a unique experience to be a part of.”

AFJROTC teaches members a variety of skills and occasionally history lessons about different military actions and technology for their in-class learning, but they regularly do out-of-school activities to apply what they learn.

“I recommend almost anyone to join ROTC. It’s still a really fun class. You can learn a lot from it, especially life skills while not being required to join the military,” Cadet Senior Airman junior Matthew Holstein said.

Being a part of AFJROTC does allow members to participate in special activities, such as the military ball where similar to homecoming, they get to enjoy a formal event full of just AFJROTC members and their invited guests, but the ball is much more formal.

“I love the military ball. It’s a formal dance and dinner we do,” Holstein said. “I like to dress up in my suit and go out there. But we also do a little ceremony to remember P.O.Ws and M.I.A. people. We get to experience all the military costumes for a while.”

Another important event in AFJROTC is Escape and Evasion where members dress in camouflage and go to an outdoor area to try to capture the flag without getting caught by real National Guard members. They use tactics they learned in class, like compass and topographic map reading, to stay hidden in their surroundings and successfully complete their mission.

“EandEisalotoffun;we get to go out in the forest and run from the National Guard trying not to get caught. It’s one of the activities we do that gets your heart racing,” Cadet Chief Master Sgt. junior Ty Yoon said.

Drill team is another activity in AFJROTC where cadets learn drill movements, and then compete and perform those movements against other AFJROTC units in the region. Older drill team cadets get to work with and teach the freshmen.

“Drill team has got to be my favorite activity over all of them. We get to go to the freshmen and get them in line, teaching all about ROTC and it’s a lot of fun teaching them everything,” Cadet 2nd Lt. junior Tavin Alderman said