Leadership for Bellevue West’s Air Force JROTC program will be changing for the 26-27 school year from Col. Stephen Vanderhoof to Col. Garrett Hogan following Vanderhoof’s retirement from teaching.
Vanderhoof said he wanted to retire after the 24-25 school year but principal Kevin Rohlfs was unable to find a replacement and asked him to come back for one more year.
“I always wanted to retire at a certain age, and I’ve reached that age, and so I just want a little more free time,” Vanderhoof said.
Vanderhoof said he wishes to travel and continue with other hobbies, such as beekeeping. He has been a beekeeper for 6 years and keeps them in his yard.
“I keep bees,” Vanderhoof Said. “So I’m a beekeeper. And I’ve got a couple old cars. I got a garden, I got pools, got plenty of hobbies. I want to travel.”
In order to be a JROTC teacher, one must be a retired Air Force veteran who completed a 20-year career and retired as an officer. They must also meet other requirements.
“Most of the time you’re here, you’re going to have a bachelor’s degree, and just about all of us have master’s degrees,” Hogan said. “So that’s the academic requirements. And then there’s the upstanding individual, and no bad things in your background, that’s the other half. So I have to pass two background checks. Those are kind of the hard requirements. And then there’s a lot of software. So you have to be able to instruct. You have to be able to teach. Having a teaching background, or instructing background has helped.”
This year, Hogan is going through an internship to learn how Vanderhoof runs JROTC. He expressed that he will not have any safety rails other than Senior Master Sgt. Guy Hale, the other JROTC instructor at Bellevue West, who he will have around to help him.
“A lot of the knowledge that [Vanderhoof] has for the program is just inherent,” Hogan said. “It’s part of him, the program and him are kind of monolithic in a way, that I’m this new guy coming in with a completely different perspective on a lot of things, and I have to try to get as much of that ingrained knowledge that he just naturally does out of him, because it’s gonna be very unnatural for me as I try to figure it out.”
Hogan said they are always looking for new students to join JROTC. According to Vanderhoof, it can lead to new opportunities and is an excellent addition to a resume or scholarship application. To Hogan, it is a good place to find like-minded people and a community.
“It doesn’t matter what year you are, you can come in for just one year as a junior if you want to,” Hogan said. “There’s no requirement to join the military afterwards. That’s not what we’re here for. We’re just here to provide you another avenue to find your people, find your peer group. So you know, if you feel like you haven’t found that yet, don’t be scared to give it a shot.”
