Cadet Chief Master Sergeant Zari Kieta leads an armed regulation drill during Junior ROTC class at Shadow Ridge High School Monday, Nov. 7, 2022.
Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022 | 2 a.m.
David James enrolled in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at Shadow Ridge High School three years ago as a shy freshman not even 5 feet tall.
The now-senior has physically grown more than a foot since — that’s just nature. And he’s now confident, outgoing — that, he credits to JROTC.
The program follows the structure of the military — at Shadow Ridge, it’s an Air Force affiliate, unit NV-20061 — but with emphasis on leadership and character. It’s a popular program in the Clark County School District, with units at about two dozen high schools. The U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Space Force all support units here.
Shadow Ridge has about 200 students, or cadets, in its wing, or unit, of command. The color guard — the ones who present and salute flags at football games and ceremonies — have recently appeared at a veterans conference on the Strip and Friday during a Veterans Day parade.
“They stay busy,” their instructor, retired Master Sgt. Jackie Zimmerman, said admiringly.
She isn’t recruiting for the Air Force, although several students come from military families or are interested in pursuing their own military career as adults. With Shadow Ridge’s other two JROTC instructors, she instills respect, responsibility, integrity and tenacity.
They have a simple honor code— “I will not lie, cheat, or steal nor tolerate those that do” — and the idea is to be a better person, “whatever that looks like,” Zimmerman said.
Senior Isabella Gardea said she was also once a quiet freshman. She’s now second-in-command in Shadow Ridge’s peer leadership structure and is looking at attending Syracuse University in New York, where she can participate in college ROTC and receive an Air Force officer’s commission with her degree.
“As I grew with the program I was able to make a ton of new friends that I never expected to,” she said.
Zimmerman served 21 years in the Air Force before retiring out of Creech Air Force Base in 2020. As a heavy equipment operator, she deployed to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan; in the Middle East, she was an adviser to the Afghan Air Force.
She said she always wanted to be a teacher, and working with teenagers has her whole heart. She has an aunt-like affection for the cadets, which they return.
“These are the guys that keep me alive,” Zimmerman said. “They kept me going.”
She joined the Shadow Ridge program in January 2021. That May, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She tried to come to school even while undergoing treatment, but it wasn’t always possible—and when it wasn’t, they toted around a more-than-lifesized printout of her portrait in uniform, glued to a stick.
“This is not even a ‘job,’” she said. “This is an amazing opportunity.”
Senior Abigail Ampog holds the rank of cadet major and the title of Shadow Ridge’s wing commander, making her the top student leader. She’d like to be promoted again before she graduates.
She is also interested in becoming an Air Force officer, although she’s not sure yet where she wants to go to college. She’s also still weighing career paths: architecture or pediatric medicine.
Ampog does know that right now, Shadow Ridge High School AFJROTC, NV-20061 is where she fits.
“I felt that there was a place for me here,” she said.
