The Air Force Junior ROTC program at Columbus High School celebrates its forty-first anniversary in the Columbus Municipal School District with the start of this school year. The unit was first established at Lee High in school year 1967-68, which was only the second year that AFJROTC was offered anywhere in the nation. AFJROTC in Columbus has seen many changes through the years. While Lee High School first offered an AFJROTC program in Columbus, it was followed a year later with a program at Hunt High School. Shorty thereafter, the newly established Caldwell High School inherited the program when Hunt became a junior high school. But the most significant change was undoubtedly the combining of the Lee and Caldwell programs with consolidation of the two schools in school year 1992-93. At that time, there were only three high schools with AFJROTC units in the entire state of Mississippi. Today there are eighteen, with MS-021 being the first and oldest unit in the state. MS-021 was recently selected as a 2007-2008 AFJROTC Distinguished Unit. This award recognizes AFJROTC units that have performed above and beyond normal expectations, and that have distinguished themselves through outstanding service to their school and community while meeting the AFJROTC mission of producing better citizens for America.
