Fifty years ago, the Lauderdale County School District welcomed the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps to Southeast Lauderdale, West Lauderdale and Northeast Lauderdale high schools.

The program at Northeast is the only one that remains.

“It’s a testament to how good the program is,” said Ed Mosley, the district’s assistant superintendent. “We’ve had some great leadership with the officers in the program. That’s a testament that it’s still here, 50 years later.”  

The NJROTC program seeks to teach students the values of citizenship, service to the United States, personal responsibility and a sense of accomplishment, according to its website. 

Before graduating in 1971, Mosley was one of the first students to take part in the program. Mosley said his leadership position in the NJROTC prepared him for his role as an educator by giving him discipline and structure.

“Other than the athletic program I participated in, it was the first thing that gave me structure and responsibility,” he said.

2008 graduate Joshua Heim, who served as commander of the unit his senior year, became involved in the NJROTC because his grandfather was one of its commanders in the 1970s.

While Heim didn’t seek a career in the military, he said the program prepared him to be a good leader. 

“It taught me I can do anything I set my mind to,” said Heim, who now works in digital marketing in Utah. “It instilled that confidence in me.”

After seeing an arms competition in middle school, Bill Burkes jumped at the chance to join the program.

“I thought that was the coolest thing,” said Burkes, a 2009 Northeast graduate. “I wanted to get a rifle in my hand and learn how to spin it. I fell in love with the structure of it and the  sense of family it gave.”

Burkes was in the NJROTC all four years of high school, and held a leadership role as an operations officer.

Like Heim, Burkes didn’t go into the military. But he feels like the experience prepared him for his current job as an assistant manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg. 

“I graduated in 2009 and here I am 12 years later, still using things that I learned from that one little program,” he said, adding that his instructors were good role models. 

“Having a chief and a commander in my life to look up to helped me out,” he said.

Northeast senior Elisa Hurst, the program’s current senior commanding officer, joined the program for its family environment.

“It’s been the greatest honor of my life thus far to be part of this program the last four years,” said Hurst, who hopes to attend The U.S. Military Academy at West Point and  become an officer in the U.S. Army.

“Everywhere I go, I feel compelled to serve God and my country,” he said. “And there is no better place than West Point.” 

Aabha Mantri, who took part in the program before enrolling at The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, said the NJROTC provided her with an academic challenge. She credited her instructor, Kent Malone, for helping her get into MSMS. 

“He really pushed me to work for my goals,” said Mantri, who plans to be a pediatrician. “He believed in me…because of his support, I’m able to be where I am today.”

“I’m very proud to be part of this 50-year celebration,” Malone said.  “It tells me that this program has been successful.”