Every November 11 marks one of the most memorable days in the United States: Veterans Day, a day to honor those who served their country in the military. Unlike Memorial Day, Veterans Day commemorates the heroes who are still alive, while Memorial Day honors those who sadly lost their lives in combat, defending their country.

And taking advantage of this date, we interviewed a high-ranking JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps) member to tell us a little about herself and experience in the class. ” I’ve been a member of JROTC for three years, four if you count my senior year,” says Blanca Muñoz, deputy brigade commander in JROTC.

“The normal JROTC class consists of teaching you how to enhance your skills, learning how to do CPR, things about mental and physical health, and about what to do to be financially stable when you get out of high school,” she says.

Munoz told us that although she didn’t initially choose this class, her experience in it has been a good one.

“Personally, it has been a great experience for me because I’ve gotten the opportunity to meet a lot of new people, learn things about myself that i didn’t now before and to take my interpersonal and leadership skills to a whole new level,” she says. “They just put me in the class my freshman year, but I decided to stay because I felt that I finally belonged somewhere and that it was a safe place where I could definitely grow, mentally, morally and physically,” she adds.

We asked her about what her training is like and a little bit about her duties, to which she replied, “We do physical training, which is not as tiring or hard as others would think, they mainly consist of cardio and resistance exercises. And we also train for color guard, armed and unarmed drill competitions against the other EPISD schools or just for events.”

Besides that, she told us a bit about her duties as a member of JROTC. “As Brigade Deputy Commander, my obligations are to assist the Brigade Commander and to keep myself informed of operations, plans, intentions, and problems so that I can assume command at any time if the Brigade Commander is not there”, she concluded.