By Earl Horlyk
The Sioux City Journal
Beginning at 5 a.m. Monday and continuing for 12 hours, cadets with the Sioux City Community School District's Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFJROTC) will perform a special Veterans Day vigil at the Sgt. Floyd Monument.
The ceremony, similar to the vigil held at at Arlington National Cemetery, is just one of the activities featuring the cadets.
They will also perform a color guard ceremony, lay a wreath in honor of all veterans and conduct a flag-folding program to honor 19 Siouxland veterans who died in the past year.
Ready to take his spot as the first to stand vigil during the Veterans Day activity will be Cadet Lt. Col. Omar Montoya, who decided to join the Junior ROTC after learning about the program in middle school.
"I don't come from a military family and really didn't know what to expect from ROTC," the high school sophomore explained. "It taught me so much about discipline that I now want to join the U.S. Marines after high school."
Even though Cadet Master Sgt. Kasten Hovland had some family in the military, none had been involved in any ROTC program.
"To be honest, I didn't take ROTC very seriously until this year," the sophomore admitted. "Then suddenly, this year, everything kicked into place and I became much more active."
Hovland is considering a career in the U.S. Army after high school.
On the other hand, Cadet Maj. Nagalee Reynoso wants to go to college and maybe join the U.S. Air Force while following her dreams of becoming an airline pilot.
"Like everyone else, I learned about ROTC in middle school," the high school junior said. "I knew right away that it was something that appealed to me."
While Reynoso admitted the ribbons earned by junior ROTC impressed her as a middle schooler, Cadet Lt. Col. Ngoc Nguyen was all about the uniform.
"That was actually what I noticed right away," Nguyen, a sophomore, said with a smile. "When the Junior ROTC APT (Awareness Presentation Team) members came to my middle school, I thought the uniforms were pretty nice."
Now with more knowledge, she realized the value of the junior ROTC goes beyond cool uniforms.
Read the entire article on The Sioux City Journal's website.