Sponsored by the Armed Forces of the United States and offered in high schools and in some cases middle schools, the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) was initially authorized with the passage of the 1916 National Defense Act and greatly expanded under the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964. The goals of JROTC is to educate and train high-school students in citizenship, encourage community service, and promote self-discipline and personal responsibility.
While JRTOC is not an officer-accessions program and cadets are not obliged to join any branch of the military, JROTC members are much more likely to pursue a military career than students not taking part in the program. In 2000, Air Force Chief of Staff Michael Ryan told a Congressional committee that half of the Air Force JROTC participants eventually joined the military by either attending a service academy, joining ROTC during college, or enlistment.
As of 2018, the Air Force JROTC comprised 892 units, fourteen of which are National Defense Cadet Corps, with over 121,00 high-school cadets worldwide being tutored by some 1,950 retired U.S. Air Force instructors in a curriculum consisting of Leadership Education, Aerospace Science, and Health and Wellness courses.