Montgomery County Veteran Asks Pottstown Schools To Close JROTC: Report

A veteran of the armed forces and a native of Montgomery County has asked the Pottstown school board to halt their JROTC program, according to a report in the Pottstown Mercury.

“You can’t go from watching your friends get blown up back to a normal life, but JROTC makes this look like this is an acceptable way of life,” Mike Peterman, a 2001 graduate of Pottstown High School, told the Mercury.

Peterman said he didn’t have a negative experience with the military - he enrolled in the Army in 2001 and served in Afghanistan - but that he doesn’t think schoolchildren should be misled, the report states.

He is concerned that JROTC does not talk about the high suicide rate, high post-traumatic stress rate, and high rate of sexual assault while in the service, according to the report.

Peterman is now a member of the group Veterans for Peace.

Image courtesy JROTC.