Military Veterans Continue Life of Service By Inspiring Students in JROTC Units

At Herndon High School, two veterans remain committed to service, years after retiring from the military.

Retired Coast Guard Captain Jim O’Keefe, now the senior Naval science instructor for the Navy Junior Reserve Office Training Corps (JROTC) unit at Herndon High, has 34 years of military experience to his name. His work as a helicopter pilot — in both the Navy and the Coast Guard — took him to Florida, Alaska, Alabama, and ultimately to becoming the Coast Guard liaison to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Now it’s taken him to Herndon High, where he oversees a unit of roughly 200 students. The group has quadrupled in size since he took the position in 2021.

“We have a mission statement: to create the best-prepared alums to walk across that stage at graduation,” O’Keefe says. “Whatever a student is doing after that — getting a job, going to trade school, enlisting in the military, going to college, or going to college as part of a military program — we want them to be ready for that future.”

The Herndon JROTC Navy unit is one of eight such programs across Fairfax County Public Schools. Five other schools — Edison, South Lakes, and West Potomac high schools; and Hayfield and Lake Braddock secondary — all have U.S. Army JROTC units. Mount Vernon High School has the lone Marines unit in FCPS and Chantilly Academy has the sole Air Force unit.

Students in the JROTC units are not pushed to enlist, but some, like Airman Addison Bolt who graduated from the Chantilly Air Force unit last year, choose to do so. Bolt, 19, is working in public affairs now at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.

“The Air Force offers more than 200 jobs. Everyone thinks of the pilots, aircraft engineers, and aircraft maintenance workers, but the military offers jobs like mine too where I’m doing all types of communications work including writing, photography, videography, and graphic design,’ she said.

Bolt values what she took from her time in her unit.

“I was able to learn the foundation of not only how the military works, but also skills that will help me in whatever career field I decided to choose: they teach you how to respect one another, how to address one another, communicate, you make connections with fellow students to gain trust to make progress towards a goal.”

O’Keefe’s fellow Herndon unit instructor, Aaron Smith, is also a veteran. Smith was a U.S. Navy chef for 22 years who medically retired from the military in 2022 after stops in Japan, Chicago, Texas, Mississippi, Portsmouth Naval Hospital, and ultimately the U.S.N.S Comfort, a hospital ship that provided support to overwhelmed hospitals during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He’s been with the JROTC unit at Herndon for two years.

“I love it,” Smith said. “I can relate to the majority of kids we teach — I’m somebody who knows what it’s like to have a clue, and someone who knows what it’s like to not have a clue. I quit high school two weeks before graduation and now I’m working on my Ph.D.”

The students they teach say O’Keefe and Smith’s ability to mentor students is what has led to the dramatic growth of the program.

Shayla Roca, a senior who is the unit’s top cadet this year, says she hopes to go into the medical field and plans to continue her work with ROTC in college. She credits Smith and O’Keefe for pushing her.

“Captain said when you face your fears, you overcome them,” she said of O’Keefe. “So I’ve sought out obstacles to try to get rid of my fear of heights, like going off the diving board — it did help!”

Senior Adam Kowalchuk joined the unit as a freshman, his grandmother — who he says was the “glue” of his family — died shortly thereafter, and a few months later his parents divorced.

O’Keefe and Smith were there for him during the tough times, he said.

“A big part of the military is never giving up. They drove that home and I was able to stay on track,” he said, mentioning he’s waiting for a decision on his application to the U.S. Naval Academy. “Technically they teach naval history here, but they are really getting you ready for the outside world. They emphasize the importance of responsibility, and consistency. This is not just a class to learn how to put on a uniform or march, although they’ll teach you that too. This is about building character in general…the qualities and traits you need to succeed post high school.”

Learn more about JROTC programs in FCPS