Rep. Lancia Vows to Keep Coventry JROTC Alive as House Honors Hope High Program

A delegation of the Junior ROTC from Hope High School presented the colors at yesterday’s session of the Rhode Island House of Representatives as Rep. Robert B. Lancia (R-Dist. 16, Cranston) welcomed Lt. Col. Chris Corbett to be honored by a House resolution (2015-H 6201).

Colonel Corbett, US Army retired, began his career in 1989, serving overseas in Germany, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. Since 2013, he has served as the senior army instructor for the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps of the Hope High School Blue Wave Battalion. Under Colonel Corbett’s leadership, the cadets earned the Honor Unit with Distinction designation, the Army’s highest accreditation, making it the only Army JROTC program in Rhode Island with this accreditation rating.

“The quality of a program like this is so needed and so necessary, we should do all we can to preserve it,” said Representative Lancia, who served as a Navy chaplain. “I’ve worked with the Junior ROTC and now the program in Coventry is in danger of going away. I’m going to do all I can to preserve it and build it up working with Representatives Nardolillo, Roberts and Chippendale, and Senators Kettle and Raptakis. These cadets are testament to everything that is right about young people today.”

The cadets perform an average of more than 5,000 hours of community service each year and the seniors have a 95 percent graduation rate and routinely earn substantial college scholarship aid.