FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)
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Welcome to Voices, a national award-winning podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District.
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Jeff Krakoff: This is Jeff Krakoff. We have two guests here today to talk about Seneca Valley's junior ROTC program. With us is first sergeant retired Angelo Lettiere and Colonel Howard Keebler. Thanks for joining us today.
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Angelo Lettiere: Thank you. Appreciate it.
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Jeff Krakoff: So, you're both Army instructors for the Seneca Valley Junior ROTC. Why don't we just start with I think everybody that's listening has heard the term ROTC. It stands for Reserve Officers Training Corps. And I think most people think of ROTC as being more of a college thing than high school. And that's where the Junior ROTC comes in. Can you just give me a quick overview? What is Junior ROTC?
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Howard Keebler: Okay, Junior ROTC is it is a sister to the programs you see in college. So that is part of the reason why it's confusing. But it's the junior part where it's just high school kids who want to challenge themselves. They would like to lead their peers, excel physically and be a leader of a group of high school kids. So, there's no military commitment or anything where in the ROTC program you could potentially join the Army where JROTC is just becoming a better citizen and becoming a better person through the training and the opportunities that we provide.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. Well, let's start with a little bit about the two of you and your backgrounds and how long you've been involved. Angelo, why don't you go first. Tell me a little bit about your background with Junior ROTC and Seneca Valley.
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Angelo Lettiere: Well, I was born and raised in the Pittsburgh area, so I know the area very well. Um, was active-duty Army for 20 years where I retired out of the University of Pittsburgh in the ROTC program down there and came on board to Seneca Valley Junior ROTC program in August of 2012. And I've been here for 11 years.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. How about you, Howard?
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Howard Keebler: I am new to the program. I joined it June 1 of last year, so I'm coming up on my anniversary, but I had 33 years, and a variety of army did 23.5 on active duty. I retired as a full bird colonel in a G3, which is chief of operations of a one-star command, was my last assignment. Been all over, done different levels of leadership. I've been trained in the army through the basic all the way up to command general staff and the War College. So, I've been through quite a bit.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay, great. So, Angelo, specifically to Seneca Valley, how long is the junior ROTC program been around and how to get started? What's the history there?
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Angelo Lettiere: I think when we talk about the history, we have to kind of touch on JROTC as a whole, which started in about 1916 under the National Defense Act. And that's what established JROTC programs in public and private schools. For Seneca Valley, this program here was activated on April 26th of 1968, and it's been here ever since then.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So, it's been a while. Howard, what you explained a little bit about what Junior ROTC is, but what are some of the details as far as high school students? How do they, you know, get involved, what’s required of them? What's the process, What's it all about?
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Howard Keebler: It's quite a simple, easy process. We're considered an elective. We also offer a gym credit. So, when you sign up for JROTC, it's through the standard procedure where you go to your counselor. You say, hey, want to start. There are four levels. The first level is introductory, the fourth one culminating in your senior year project, and it builds upon each level, builds upon the last level. So, if you want to join, we are looking for people who want to challenge themselves physically, mentally want to be leaders. If you're one of those people, you join our program, we issue you, we give you some uniforms to wear. And about once a week you wear a uniform. We do physical fitness training once a week, sometimes twice a week. And then we also have a classroom. Um. A classroom piece of it where the kids will come in and we'll learn about the. In the first level, you learn about the basics of what is JROTC, what do I do, what do we have to do? And then it builds on that where the second and third year you start learning lessons on learning leadership skills.
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Howard Keebler: The third year and the first third and I agree is probably the most important because they're taking the leadership that we've taught them, and they get to apply it to the junior classes. So it's a tiered program. And each year, as the as the cadets go through this process, they gain a little more knowledge and the opportunity to lead, the opportunity to, you know, steer their peers in a direction which they normally wouldn't get in a classroom.
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Jeff Krakoff: All right. So, you mentioned earlier by joining the junior ROTC program, there's no military commitment of any kind. But is it a prerequisite or preferred, whether it's getting into military service or a university ROTC program?
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Angelo Lettiere: Absolutely not. I mean it's not a prerequisite. What it does, though, it does help the students gain an advantage in the ROTC program. It also helps them, if they do choose to go into to service and be enlisted, it gives them the opportunity to advance in their rank, which they'll start off as a private first class versus being a private. But you basically got to do three or more years in order to receive that. Now that we have nothing to do with that, that's more or less on the recruiters and stuff like that.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So again, it can give you a leg up for down the road. But you know, for today, if I'm a student joining Junior ROTC, what are some of the benefits things I'm going to come away from this experience with?
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Angelo Lettiere: Students will learn leadership skills through our accredited curriculum with a hands-on approach to applying those skills through managing the program. And that's the hands-on portion. These skills include time management to learn about time management. They'll learn about how to communicate through written and oral means. Whether it's briefings, whether it's doing an operations order, they learn how to manage resources, supervise. And the big thing what the colonel said. Uh, their junior year, we teach them the seven-step planning process, which is important that they can take out into to the real world and actually apply that. And that gives them a basically a leg up against their peers whenever it comes to jobs and job promotions and positions that they apply for. Also help them in college when they doing research with a group in a group setting.
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Jeff Krakoff: Yeah, a lot of great benefits. So, is there anything else you want to share with parents and or students that might be thinking about Junior ROTC?
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Angelo Lettiere: I think the big thing for the parents that we want to share is that our JROTC program fits into all the pathways that are provided by the school. You know, it's important to have some type of leadership skills and we actually give the students those skills or we introduce those skills for them to develop. And it's just a skill that that just helps them out in the future. I encourage the parents to go ahead and on the district website to look at the program of studies for JROTC and they get a good a good look of everything that we're teaching and what we're about and think they will see that we do connect to these different pathways. We are providing a leadership curriculum that will better prepare their student for the future.
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Jeff Krakoff: So, you mentioned the website. So, there's a lot of good information about the program there. Can you actually apply or join via the website? What's the process there?
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Angelo Lettiere: Think whatever they need to do for they go through their counselor and their counselor will guide them through it. Think there is a way that they apply online, but I don't know what that process is.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay, so the first step is talk to your counselor. Correct. Thank you so much for for all the great information. Again, that was first sergeant retired Angelo Lettiere and Colonel Howard Keebler. Have a great day.
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Angelo Lettiere: Thank you, sir.