Desert Hot Springs High School ROTC honors Marine Corps
DESERT HOT SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) - The United States Marine Corps celebrates its 250 year anniversary today. Desert Hot Springs High School Junior ROTC is hosting an event with Marine Corp veterans, city officials and community members to honor Barbara J. Chovenac who served in the Marine Corp from 1963 to 1984.
Chovenac encourages young cadets to focus on their education, "that is most important to get ahead in life."
The high school's youngest and oldest cadets, Amelia Montanez and Luis Ipina Raudales, will also be honored at the event. "I just want to go in there to protect the people that I care about,"Â says Montanez about one day enlisting in the marines.
Master Sergeant Terrance Simmons is the director for the JROTC program. He served in the Marine Corps for 20 years. "The Marine Corps gave me a path to success and I followed it. I used everything that they gave me — the tools, the leadership skills, the time management, everything that that I could obtain from the military service," he says.
The Junior ROTC program at Desert Hot Springs High School is one of two in the Coachella Valley. They currently have 102 cadets in the program.
"It honestly just feels like a family away from your family," Montanez says.
