At ease in America’s military schools

VALLEY FORGE, Pennsylvania – The snow-covered fields of Valley Forge in 1996 were converted into the old battlefields of 1776 to celebrate the bi-centennial of the US Declaration of Independence. Soldiers in Civil War uniforms and heavy boots in freezing weather trudged through the snow.

I watched with fascination this 18th-century American freedom fighter scenario highlighted by the rhythmic beat of a drummer boy and a flutist playing Yankee Doodle Dandy. Refugee families warmed themselves by the fire in old and small colonial cottages. Little did I know that 25 years later, I would be back to visit two military high school academies in the same area after I visited the New York Military Academy (NYMA) by the Hudson River.

Reserve Officers Training Course

During World War II, the famous Philippine guerrilla outfit – the Hunters ROTC Guerrillas led by Terry Adevoso, Frisco San Juan, Jaime Ferrer, etc. – joined the US Army in chasing Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita up to his surrender at Kiangan, Mt. Province near Baguio City. Senator Blas F. Ople recalls this proudly as his own unit, the Bulacan Military Area guerrillas under Gen. Alejo Santos, joined this chase.

The Reserve Officers Training Course (ROTC) was part of Commonwealth Act No. 1, the national defense law that was reported to have been drafted for General Douglas MacArthur, President Quezon’s field marshal, by then Col. Dwight Eisenhower, a senior member of MacArthur‘s staff.

World War II validated Eisenhower‘s vision. The ROTC became the main source of officers for the resistance movement against Imperial Japan, acknowledged by military historians as one of the most outstanding in World War II, not barring the French and Polish resistance to Hitler which similarly covered themselves with honor and glory.

A Must – A Viable Defense Of The Country

The Constitution of 1987 reiterates, "The Armed Forces of the Philippines shall be composed of a citizen armed force, which shall undergo military training...keep a regular force necessary for the security of the state."

Then, Senator Ople stresses the need to keep ROTC compulsory, "Are we not endangering our future national security by draining the major source of the future officer corps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines? This is considered a patriotic obligation and a nation-building program from which no one is exempt, not even the sons of the prime minister. Our own ROTC is child’s play compared with the training that these citizen armies have to undergo."

Senator Ople reiterates, "The requirements of a country’s defense are not built on the path of least resistance or on the avoidance of pain but on a responsible system of military training, boot camps and all. We need tough young officers who will not flinch from the sun or avoid the endurance test. Without good, trained officers, an army will sustain more casualties than necessary and lead its troops to the swamps, to ignoble defeat."

This pictorial article hopes to revive the Filipino ideals to defend and fight for freedom. The flame of national defense can be actually lit up within the classrooms and campuses of elementary and secondary schools.