U. S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Frederic Magare calls students to attention following a first-week-of-school inspection of the group of third-year Marine Corps JROTC cadets at Hays High School. Magare and Senior Marine Instructor Major David Hamil lead the unit, currently 116-cadets strong, in building confidence, self-discipline and leadership. (Photo by Jim Cullen)
by JIM CULLEN
Hays High School Marine Corps JROTC’s leader likes to say “the Marine Corps JROTC landed 16 years ago and the situation is well in hand.”
Hays High was the school district’s only junior reserve officer training corps for many years, until the Lehman High program began.
Hays High School Marine Corps JROTC is amazingly entering its 17th year, having been established during the 1995-’96 school year. Its Senior Marine Instructor, Major David Hamil, has led the unit since its arrival on the Rebel campus. Gunnery Sergeant Frederic Magare assists him today. In a program that justifiably prides itself on multiple accomplishments, Hamil singles out two that he considers as having special significance.
First, the unit was designated as an “Honor School” (top performing unit) in all but five of its first 16 years. Second, Hamil reports the program has stayed above 100 participants to start in every one of its years at Hays. This is especially significant, he says, “since the opening of Lehman,” as that historic event took students—potential cadets—away from Hays High School.
Over the unit’s history, its founding leader points to other accomplishments. That includes what he terms the “very satisfying” feat of building the unit’s reputation “at school, in the surrounding communities, and throughout the MCJROTC establishment, to the highly-respected level I have been told it holds.” Locally, he cites the unit’s annual community service efforts as leading to that level of respect.
The goals of the unit, as with most JROTC units in high schools across the country, remain the same year in and year out. They are not, as some mistakenly believe, to create recruits for the armed services. While that may end up a personal goal of cadets, the program, Hamil says, is designed to “help all the cadets, old and new, to become confident, self-disciplined, contributing individuals at school, at home, and in the community—and to develop them into potential leaders for the future.”
“We are all about character development and leadership education—not the sort of things that lend themselves to easily measurable feedback,” he adds. “But seeing a student who has had difficulty with school in their past begin to flourish and succeed in school while in our program reinforces one of our main purposes at Hays High School.”
As for the unit’s impact on the Hays campus, the passing years have seen the Marine Corps JROTC program become an integral part of the fabric of the campus. Its leader believes the student body, faculty and administration appreciate and respect the program and the students in it. Hamil terms his program “extremely fortunate” for the support it has received from the district.
“The new facilities provided us five years ago are absolutely top-notch—probably among the best in the country for any Junior ROTC program. Both the campus and district administrators have always been completely supportive of our program,” Hamil said.
An ambitious schedule for the coming year will see the Hays High unit attending several military skills meets (first in Seguin in early November), the Color Guard providing its “flair” at campus and community events, and all of the cadets engaging in a wide variety of community service events. All of those involved attest that the unit’s social highlight of the year takes the form of the annual Marine Corps Birthday Ball in November. Some students—not all of them cadets—tell Hamil they consider the unique event more fun than prom. The unit hosts the 7th annual Hays High School Military Skills Meet in March, of late the largest Marine Corps JROTC-only event in the nation. Twenty-four units appeared to compete last year.
The unit’s fundraising efforts on behalf of the Make-a-Wish Foundation has accounted for almost $46,000 over its 16-year history. Suffice it to say that those results and the other cited accomplishments are major reasons Major David Hamil says the unit’s community acceptance came early, adding, “The community found out quickly that we were a ‘positive.’”
