The Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps passed the Joint Program of Accreditation for the first time on Tuesday and became an official program credited by the United States Army Cadet Command. They passed with the rating of honor unit with distinction, earning a star on their uniforms and national recognition.

“It signifies that we are an official JROTC and that we do have everything we need,” senior Cadet Battalion Commander Yodhaakshaya Ghattamaneni said.

The program started in 2019 and was previously a National Defense Cadet Corps. After seeing the program was consistently getting 100 students each year, the Army sent out a request for them to become an official JROTC program and scheduled an inspection for accreditation.

“They started [checking] JROTCs to make sure that they are doing the right things so they can support the school’s mission of [preparing] students to succeed after high school,” Sergeant Venson Herron said.

Every three years, JROTC programs are required to go through the JPA where two representatives from the Army Cadet Command evaluate their instructor portfolio, supply room, color guard, endurance inspection, continuous improvement plan briefing, service learning project and performed cadet interviews. The instructor portfolio and supply room evaluations are instructor led while the other five parts are cadet led.

During the color guard evaluation, cadets performed drills around the target area. Twelve to 16 cadets also performed marches in position while the platoon sergeants gave them commands in the endurance evaluation.

Herron said the platoon being inspected on their marching has been practicing their sequence every time they’re in class.

“They’re supposed to bring their uniforms in early [morning of inspection] so I can make sure everything is on their right,” Herron said.

Ghattamaneni is required to give a continuous improvement plan briefing to the Army where she sets a goal for the next five years and a plan to reach it.

She also briefed them about their service learning project they did last year at Dover Elementary school where JROTC helped with their field day.

“We briefed on the outcomes we had, what we can improve better on and just overall performance,” Ghattamaneni said.

During the inspection, two cadets from each class level were interviewed to make sure they’re being taught and doing the work required by the curriculum.

“I’ve been preparing my cadets for interview,” Ghattamaneni said. “I’ve been giving them interview questions – I’ve been doing mock interviews with them.”

Herron said to practice briefing the Army, the staff has briefed them as well to make any necessary changes before presenting them to the army.

Ghattamaneni said she’s made sure her staff is on task to prepare their slides for the briefings along with ensuring their grades are high which “ties highly back into [their] goal.”

First sergeant Adriana Calderon said during the drill inspection they had some wrong answers to the questions the Army asked causing a setback. However after their second time, she felt confident that they passed.

JROTC was inspected on their supply room two weeks prior Tuesday and received a score of 58 out of 59 right answers.

“They wanted to make sure that we were keeping track of all the uniforms and all the equipment the U.S. government has given us,” Herron said. “And if we’ve issued it to kids, we know what kid we issued it to and what we’ve given them.

During the supply system inspection, they had to make sure everything from the U.S. government was marked, making sure only certain people were allowed in the supply room and they’re storing the equipment behind locks.

Herron said during the inspection they are notified if there’s anything they need to fix. The more stuff they find wrong, the longer the Army will stay to inspect them. If they didn’t pass the JPA, the Army would’ve put them in air probation for a year and then terminated the program if they don’t pass the re-inspection.

“JROTC [had] the potential of leaving us forever,” Ghattamaneni said.

There are different levels of passing the JPA. Proficient meaning passing, distinguished unit and unit with distinction being the highest level. Herron said passing with unit with distinction was mostly for the cadets.

“They’ll get a star that all of them can wear on their uniform,” Herron said. “And so they really like that because they like to show off the stuff on their uniform.”

Herron said the cadets have been working a lot of early hours, late hours, coming down to the JROTC room in between classes and their lunch periods. They’ve been practicing what they want to show to the Army by “doing it over and over and over again.”

Ghattamaneni said while preparing for the JPA, it’s been hard for her to keep the cadets on track and manage all of them by herself. Despite the minimal resources given, she said she was confident they were going to pass.

Calderon said passing JPA after four months of hard work felt like a huge weight off their shoulders since this was one of the hardest things JROTC has ever done.

“It shows us that Richardson JROTC can do what you give us to and nothing’s a challenge,” Calderon said.

Ghattamaneni said she hopes new opportunities arise to the cadets, especially with having the star on their uniform.

“I do hope that the JPA serves as an overall betterment for the program in terms of motivation,” Ghattamaneni said.