The Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) came into being with the passage of the National Defense Act of 1916 as the US prepared to enter WWI in 1917. Under the provisions of the Act, high schools were authorized a loan of federal military equipment and the assignment of active duty military personnel as instructors in order to help enlist recruits and officers into the Army.

From a modest beginning of 6 units in 1916, JROTC has expanded to more than 1800 schools today and to every state in the nation and American schools overseas. Cadet enrollment has grown to 281,000 cadets with 4,000 professional instructors in the classrooms. Although the program retained its military structure and the resultant ability to infuse in its student cadets a sense of discipline and order, it shed most of its early military content, as it now hosts a student-centered curriculum focusing on character building and civic responsibility. Today, JROTC has become a citizenship program devoted to the moral, physical and educational uplift of American youth instructors motivate students to become better citizens.