Christian Cochrun 

12

How’s your school year going: Pretty good so far, I’m liking it. It’s my senior year and I’m about to be done.

So I heard you’re in NJROTC, how’s that going?: It’s a pretty good program I’ve been in it for three years now, going on my fourth year were called Naval Science Cadets, by every year you’re in naval science longitude, one, two, three or four so I’m in naval science four now.

So since you’ve been in NJROTC for three years, are you a higher ranking than other people?: I’m the Unit recruiting officer so I’m in the top 13 of cadets; it’s what we call staff members.

Do you feel accomplished now that you’ve worked your way up?: I’m pretty accomplished and proud of what I’ve done so far in my service; It’s been a great experience, and I’ve learned a lot.

What does NJROTC mean to you?: It means to me helping out my community and learning about service and learning the meanings of our core values — honor, courage and commitment — also learning the meanings of integrity and leadership, so learning those and becoming a better citizen and helping out the public.

How does being in NJROTC make you feel?: Proud. Whenever I wear the uniform around the school I get a lot of compliments from the teachers, and even other students sometimes. It just makes me proud to wear the uniform of the United States Navy.

Do you have any highs and lows like, moments that you’ll remember or anything that stood out to you?: A high moment would be when at our basic leadership training boot camp during the summer, I received the Distinguished Cadet Medal, which is second highest personal decoration.

What’d you receive it for?: I received it for my service at BLT and for being an exemplary cadet there.

What do you think people should know about ROTC?: That were a program that’s designed to help make you become better citizens and you don’t have to join the military after service. It’s just an overall wonderful program.