East Aurora High School - NJROTC

NJROTC

East Aurora is also known for its involvement in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, or NJROTC. The high school boasts more than nine hundred in the program. Students elect to exchange their required physical education credits for credit in the federally funded program, which focuses on instruction in citizenship, personal discipline and leadership skills as well as regular physical training and exercise. The unit is headed by Lieutenant Commander Darryl Person, USN retired, and his staff of eight instructors.

From among the students that are involved in the program, there is chain of command, much like there would be in the actual United States Navy. The highest leadership role had been Commander. There is only one in the entire regiment and a new one is selected each school year by the eight instructors (YN1 Lachowicz, MCPO Allen, Chief Farmer, Chief Fayfar, Chief Meadows, LT. Carthan, AG1 Moore and Chief Seward) based on involvement in the program and leadership potential. The student chosen to be commander wears five gold bars on his or her right collar. Due to an increase student enrollment in the program, the rank has changed in 2004 to be that of captain, which means the student selected wears six gold bars on his or her right collar.

East Aurora's NJROTC has been the Area 3-Wast Champions for the past several years. Upon this achievement, East Aurora has gone to Navy Nationals held in NAS Pensacola, FL for the past seven years. East Aurora has won many honors including, Distinguished Unit, 2006 National Color Guard Champions and many more. The East Aurora NJROTC Rifle Team (led by Chief Fayfar) has also had very successful years traveling and competing in Colorado, Tennessee, and Navy nationals Ohio in 2009.