2003 Texas Drill Team Champions

2002 National Drill Team Champions

2002 Texas Drill Team Champions

"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows."
---------- ~ Sydney J. Harris ~

The Air Force first established a Junior unit at John Jay High School in 1979 with 82 students. We have grown to be the largest Air Force Junior ROTC unit in the world. We have averaged over 550 cadets in the program over the past few years. This year we exceeded 635 top notch cadets. Our Wing is set up to emulate an active duty Wing on any Air Force installation. Our enrollment is approximately 20 percent of the Jay population. Academically, 24 percent of our corps is National Honor Society members, 22 percent are enrolled in advanced or honors classes and 8 percent are enrolled in the gifted and talented program. No other organization can come close to our community involvement. Our cadets contributed over 7 tons of food to the Society of St. Vince De Paul to help feed the needy families in our city. The collected 634,000 pennies for the Make-A-Wish foundation to enable children with life-threatening illnesses to have their wish come true. Our cadets also raised five hundred dollars to provide shoes and toys to 20 young children in the Jay community.

The cadets are very giving of their time during the holidays as well. On Thanksgiving they deliver dinners to needy families; During Christmas they gifts and goodies to a Senior Citizens home. They plan and rehearse the entertainment and visit each of the residents of the home. Four times during the year we clean a section of the highway around John Jay at 151 and 410.
We have five outstanding drill teams: they are the Varsity; consisting of "Silver Eagles" (Armed Rifle) and "Snap II" (Unarmed) and Junior Varsity: "Marching Mustangs" (Armed) and "Tops in Blue" (Unarmed). Our Royal "T" step is unequaled. These teams average over 150 trophies each year. We have won district championship thirteen times and state eleven. Our color guard and saber teams have performed for numerous civic events, national sports competitions, i.e.: The Spurs, Missions, Rampage, San Antonio Speedway, NCAA Big XII soccer championship and NCAA Tennis Championship. Throughout the year our cadets go on several curriculum-in-action trips, which include locations such as NASA Space Center, Texas A&M, Southwest Texas State, UTSA, Randolph, Kelly, Brooks, and Lackland Air Force Bases, and the Medina Annex. The Explorer Scout Post visits Canyon Lake, the Natural Bridge Caverns, raft on the Guadalupe, and spend the night aboard the U.S.S Lexington. We march in several parades during the year, which include: Mary Hull Red Ribbon Week, Valley Hi, Dies y Seis, and the Battle of Flowers and Fiesta Flambeau parades. We believe our cadets exemplify our motto of "EXCELLENCE IN LEADERSHIP." We are sincere to our belief that the cadets of the TX-782 JROTC program does in fact "BUILD BETTER CITIZENS FOR AMERICA."