Will it be football, wrestling team, or Junior ROTC?
A retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel has begun exploring the waters with the Oxford school district of establishing a Junior ROTC Air Force program at Oxford High School.
“It’s such a wholesome, great experience,” said Lt. Col. John Coffindaffer, of Oxford, who hopes to be one of two instructors in the Junior ROTC program.
ROTC stands for Reserve Officer Training Corps.
The students enrolled in the program learn skills such as military drilling that earn them two stripes, or pay grades, if they enter the Air Force after the program. There is no obligation to join the Air Force upon graduation, though, he said.
The idea is character building — learning how to be a better citizen. The program is an alternative to team sports and other activities at school, Coffindaffer said.
“The kids go to a lot of place, like field trips to Air Force bases and specialty camps,” he said. They have an honor guard to present the colors at football games, and march in parades, showing school and community spirit and pride.
Uniforms are provided. There is no training in combat skills.
“There are a lot of kids out there that just do not fit in with the football folks and the baseball, maybe kids that aren’t in a band, but want to participate and belong to something big and this is it,” Coffindaffer said.
The Board of Education’s curriculum committee began discussing the Junior ROTC concept for the high school during a meeting earlier this month.
Schools Superintendent Edward Malvey told the board members he understands the Air Force has the capability to offer the program at 11 high schools in Connecticut, but only four are now participating. They include Naugatuck, Norwalk, and Danbury.
The Air Force would want no fewer than 100 students participating, or, at least 10 percent of the school population. And there would be a cost involved.
The Air Force would cover half the salaries of the two ROTC program instructors, but the school district would have to pick up the rest, said Frank Savo, principal of Oxford High School.
The exploratory process has not gone that far, Savo said.
“We didn’t go that far, to ask students if they are interested,” Savo told the board members.
Board member Paula Guillet said she can’t imagine that the district would pay the colonel to recruit Oxford kids.
Sub-committee chairman Ted Oczkowski suggested the item be tabled until Coffindaffer can make a personal presentation before the Board of Education. Others agreed.
Congress set up the first Junior ROTC program, for the Army, in 1916.
