The Lincoln Log

Photo by Dana Lui

Abraham Lincoln High School's JROTC batallion in the 91st Competition

Sitting behind a rather hefty black office desk, Senior Stephanie Lui certainly looks her part in being Abraham Lincoln High School’s Junior Reserves Officer’s Training Corps (JROTC) Battalion Commander.

However, in October of 2006, the San Francisco School Board passed a resolution to phase out all JROTC programs in San Francisco by the end of 2008, leaving the future of JROTC quite unclear.

As the school year started, many Lincoln students, as well as numerous students from other schools, were confused about the enrollment into the JROTC program. This has affected the amount of LET I’s (First-year cadets) in the program, and in turn, this has affected the upperclassmen of JROTC, whose main roles are to help educate the LET I’s.

“There are, I believe, 17 LET I’s in my company and 19 LET II’s. I’m not sure exactly, [but] the amount of LET I’s aren’t enough to make up an actual squad, [in which they learn in] and it affects the company’s grouping,” Sophomore and Delta Company first sergeant Deanna Datangel said. “We’ve distributed two LET I’s to one LET II, [compared to the usual six LET I’s to two LET II’s].”

The current estimate of students currently enrolled in the JROTC program range from about 1,500 to 1,700 students in San Francisco alone. A good majority of those enrolled are finishing up their second year of the JROTC/Physical Education requirement for high school, and how the forthcoming freshmen of later years will complete their requirements is at this point, unknown.

According to San Francisco’s Brigade Director of Army Instruction and Lincoln High School’s Senior Army Instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Powell states that, “There is a task force that has been trying to find alternatives for JROTC. [This] task force has been meeting, and it has been very difficult to [try to] find and test a JROTC alternative by June of 2008.”

Powell himself is a part of this task force, and because of the difficulties in finding an immediate alternative, Powell also said that “there is a possibility that JROTC may be extended for one more year so that the task force may make up [an alternative] elective.”

If extended for one more year, the JROTC program would run into the 2009 school year, which is also an election year for the San Francisco School Board of Education. This allows for a slight chance the JROTC program will be allowed back into all SFUSD schools during and after the election because of the new opinions that would enter the School Board.

To Lui, however, the number of LET I’s enrolled in the program may have dropped, and JROTC may be facing difficult times, but the program is still running strong.

“We’re still continuing doing what we usually do and the teams are still practicing and competing. People think that it’s closing down because they heard it from other people, [but that’s not the case],” said Lui.

The JROTC program is still a voluntary program, and does not recruit for the military.

After all of these troubles and changes, the mission of this program still remains intact; “To motivate young people to be better citizens,” remains painted on the wall of the JROTC classroom. There may be fewer fresh faces in JROTC, but the program will continue to run until further notice.