West Montgomery Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps has been a prominent role in the development of the lives of anyone who has ever stepped through its hallowed doors on the grounds of West Montgomery High School. Weather it was just for a semester, or for your entire High School Career and beyond, JROTC molded you as a person and made you into a better version of yourself. It taught you not only respect, but discipline and kindness. Its reach extended far beyond the realm of the Military, and with actions not limited to but including highway clean up, visiting with the elderly, informative and adventurous field trips to places some of us may have never had the opportunity to go, community functions, tree lighting, posting the American Flag at every West Montgomery Football Game, and many many more, JROTC has played a role in every single one of our lives.

Now? Now that Legacy is being compromised. Through no fault of our own, it would seem that the School Board has decided to do away with this program that means so much to those in it, and those that have been apart of it. And what becomes of our Legacy? Nothing more than garbage. Thousands of hours of hard work, dedication, blood, sweat, tears, happiness and disappointment, victory and defeat....the ROTC Room. At West Montgomery it is a hall of hero's to those that know the stories, those who lived it, and those that witnessed the journey. Hundreds of trophies and medals, dozens of model airplanes, countless pieces of history that span two decades lives in that room...and they want it all gone.

We will not stand for this. Those who have had a hand in that will not just stand idly by while our hard work is tossed into the garbage. We will fight for what we love. We want you all to stand with us, and with enough support, maybe we can change the minds of those who do not wish to be changed.

I would not be the man I am today without JROTC, without Col. Thomas Ovbey, and Sgt. Jim McCall. Those men morphed me from a troubled kid, and turned me into a hard working father of 2. I wouldn't have ever made it through High School without those men, and I owe everything that I am and everything I was taught about the real world to them. They taught me taxes, filling out resumes, job interviews, laws, regulation, survival and countless other skills that have benefited me just as much, if not more than anything I learned in any classroom at that school This is not only important to me, but to countless others.

Stand with us, and help us save something that will help shape the youth of Montgomery County and the Youth of West Montgomery for Decades to come. Don't let the Legacy of NC-9511 go quietly into the night. Give them hell, and let them know that we love this to much to let it die.

With sincerest regards

-Matthew Parker