Knox County Career Center’s AFJROTC program has been recognized with the Outstanding Organization Award by the United States Department of Defense’s Air Education and Training Command (AETC) for the 2023-2024 school year. 

AETC’s Outstanding Organization Award recognizes the personal growth and accomplishments of the cadets, the contributions of the instructors as mentors, and the support of the school and local community. KCCC’s AFJROTC program was 1 of 55 AFJROTC units to earn the award out of 831 AFJRTOC units worldwide. 

“It’s an honor to be recognized as one of the few outstanding JROTC organizations in the country this year. JROTC is most notable as a leadership laboratory where cadets are given the opportunity to organize and lead fellow students. The cadets are responsible for managing and coaching their teammates, maintaining and accounting for their equipment, and planning the unit’s schedule and budget. At the beginning of the year, they set six principle goals for the year ranging from community service events to fitness and drill competitions. Last year was our inspection year so the cadets met several times to plan a unit briefing that summarizes their activities for the past three years. Because a good unit is expected to have strong student leadership and ownership the primary focus of the briefing and inspection is on the cadets,” said KCCC’s JROTC lead instructor Col. Chris Salvucci. 

Salvucci added, “Needless to say, we had high expectations for the cadets and they met our expectations. We are currently on a run of very solid students leading our program and the inspector recognized that sense of excellence within the students. We, as instructors watch the development and growth of our students and are always proud of how much they grow during their time with us. It’s nice to have someone from outside the unit validate the performance of the cadets as developing leaders.”