Monday Q&A: Ripon High’s Lt. Col Dunn wraps up career as ROTC instructor

When Sarah Hall entered Ripon High School in the fall of 2011, she was shy.

“Um … shy-ish,” she concedes.

Either way, when she first joined the school’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps as a freshman, she says, she detested public speaking.

Three years later, after achieving the rank of command sergeant major – she’s second in command of the Ripon JROTC Indians Battalion – she no longer is shy-ish.

“I get in front the whole battalion and talk,” Hall says.

She doesn’t just talk, either. She stands in front of nearly 90 cadets and commands their respect and undivided attention … and she gets it, too.

While Hall addresses the battalion, Cadet Lt. Col. Nathaniel Gagnon – the highest-ranking cadet in the battalion, who hopes to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point after graduation – stands in the background, like a lion observing the rest of his pride.

Gagnon and Hall address the battalion’s five companies – Apache, Blackhawk, Comanche, Dogman and Eagle – and go over the assignments for the day.

And they do it all on their own.

Instructor Lt. Col. Patrick Dunn, U.S. Army retired, is busy with school administrative meetings (he’s in his office just a few steps away) on this particular day. And Sgt. 1st Class Everett Perry, U.S. Army retired – who started the program back in 1998 with just a handful of cadets – is not at school this day. It doesn’t seem to matter, though. Leadership and discipline are the cornerstones of the JROTC program, and the battalion runs smoothly.

Dunn, 65, is in his final year at Ripon High and plans to retire in the spring to spend more time with his family.

“I have two daughters and five grandkids spread, so it’s time to relax and see what they’re up to,” said Dunn, an Army brat who spent 26 years – three years enlisted and 23 as a commissioned officer – in the military. “That’s the drawback of the military: You miss out on a lot of that.”

But Dunn is hoping to go out on top.

After taking the top spot in the western U.S. the past two years at the 8th Brigade Army Drill Championships, which qualified Ripon for the All Army National Drill Meet in Louisville, Ky. (the Indians were eighth in the nation last year), the battalion will compete in a national interservice competition in Daytona, Fla., later this school year.

That, of course, takes money, and the battalion will be running a Christmas tree lot, selling candy and conducting other fundraisers to offset costs. This is in addition to a multitude of other responsibilities handled by the battalion, such as running the snack bar during football games, flag running (the cadets carry the R-I-P-O-N flags after the team scores a touchdown), raising and lowering the U.S. and state flags each day, and conducting the color guard for the national anthem at various school functions.

And there’s charity work. Each year the club collects thousands of dollars worth of toys in conjunction with the U.S. Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program.

Obviously, it’s a big commitment.

“These are 16- and 17-year-old kids,” says Dunn. “This is not the only thing they’ve got going on in their lives, OK? That’s where the challenge lies for us.”

Dunn recently sat down with The Modesto Bee and talked about the JROTC program. During the interview, cadets were busy tending to their duties with, well, military precision. They deal with logistics, operations and training, public affairs (working with the yearbook and school newspaper) and personnel. Unlike other courses, where the teacher decides the class needs to get from Page 1 to Page 10 of the textbook on a given day, in JROTC the cadets determine what needs to be achieved. And Dunn and Perry helped them achieve that goal.

“We facilitate,” Dunn says. “That’s a good word for it. We like to facilitate their leadership. We challenge them; we let them make mistakes. More important than anything else, we want to instill in them a sense of teamwork. I think that’s more important than anything else.”

So, where are you from?

Everywhere. My dad was in the military and we moved around a lot.

Let’s try this: Where were you born?

Paris, France. I had to be naturalized.

You weren’t born on a U.S. Army base?

No, I was born in a Paris hospital.

Here’s a dumb one: What does the acronym JROTC stand for?

Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.

In a nutshell, what is the JROTC program all about?

JROTC is a four-year, curriculum-based program that emphasizes character education, student achievement, wellness, leadership and diversity. It provides the means for cadets to develop citizenship, character, leadership, communicate effectively, improve physical fitness, live drug-free, strengthen positive self-motivation, learn the historical perspective of military service, work as team members, graduate and pursue meaningful careers.

How many students are involved in JROTC at Ripon High?

We have five periods with about 15 cadets per period. You’re required to have 10 percent of the school’s enrollment or 100 cadets. The program was started in 1998 and officially became JROTC in 2000. That’s when the U.S. Army begins helping to pay the bills – at least half of the instructor’s salary, equipment, uniforms, etc. So they put a lot of money into these programs. We’ve had four kids go to the academies, and nearly 40 more get ROTC scholarships. We graduate about 15 cadets per year with about a dozen per year going on to college or trade school.

And the program is open to any student? Boy? Girl? Weak? Strong?

Yes, all. It’s open to boys, girls, weak and strong. It is all about improvement and achieving personal as well as team goals and accomplishments.

JROTC is not a club, it’s an elective course, correct?

Yes, it is definitely an elective, four-year course with a defined curriculum.

What’s the curriculum like?

It includes things such as map reading, drill, conflict resolution, leadership theory and application, how to write operations orders.

Can any student thrive in the program?

It’s not for everyone. People think it’s going to be an easy grade sometimes. It’s not. It’s a challenge. They have to work; they actually have to read some things. They have to do some critical thinking. Our ultimate goal is to help you get through high school and have options at the end of your senior year. One of the things we try to instill in the kids is the importance of grades and the importance of getting involved in high school, not only with our program. ... We have plenty of our kids that are athletes, that are in the band, that are in choir and those kind of things. We want to encourage them to do all of that.

How do cadets progress up the chain of command to achieve higher rank?

To move up the chain of command, cadets must stand and do their best in roles and positions they are given. If they do, then they will advance up the chain of command and gain increased responsibility each year. The sophomores are usually squad leaders who are responsible for the freshman in their squads. The juniors become company 1st sergeants and COs (commanding officers). In this position, they are able to test their leadership skills and are responsible for company-level events such as high school football games in the snack bar. Our seniors are in staff positions who are responsible for planning and running the battalion. All these leaders have to plan, coordinate and execute events.

What’s the highest rank a student can achieve?

Cadet lieutenant colonel.

What’s the difference between JROTC and ROTC?

The first two years of ROTC in college is just like taking a course. If you go into years three and four, now you’re saying, I’m going to make a contract with you guys – usually you get some type of scholarship – and at the end of my college, I’m going to serve in the United States Army, Navy, Air Force. So the purpose of ROTC is to commission officers.

Do most of the kids who gravitate toward this program have designs on military service?

A lot of them do. In a small community like ours, we get a lot of kids whose sisters were here before, whose brothers were here before, and in one case, their mom was here before. Now I know I’m getting old.

Finally, JROTC is responsible for many duties on campus. Is it responsible for firing that supercool cannon at football games?

No, some of the students join the cannon club with adult supervision, who fire the cannon at football games and other special occasions.

This story was originally published October 26, 2014 at 10:50 PM with the headline "Monday Q&A: Ripon High’s Lt. Col Dunn wraps up career as ROTC instructor."