Marching Taller

“Forward march!”

Senior Connor Zaharko shouts to his cadets standing rigidly at attention in front of him, dressed in their formal khaki pants and navy blue uniforms. Connor pivots sharply to face the gym wall and begins to march, his platoon following in perfect unison behind him.

“Halt!”

Connor comes to a sharp stop and pivots to face the four judges inspecting his every move, and the audience of almost 100 people.

“Right shoulder arms!” Connor shouts, and the platoon follows, each cadet snapping their black performance rifle to their right shoulders in perfect harmony. As Connor, dressed in his officer “blues” uniform shouts out each command, the platoon follows without hesitation.

Two years ago, this scene could have looked very different. Two years ago Connor could barely get through a group English presentation. Two years ago Connor was the kid sitting in the back corner of the classroom, keeping to himself, avoiding the conversations of his classmates.

But then Connor joined the Junior Navy Reserve Officer Training Corp, or more commonly known as JROTC.

When he was five-years-old, Connor was diagnosed with high functioning Aspergers, a rare developmental disorder that makes social interaction and communication with others difficult. During the years before he joined ROTC, Connor’s symptoms of his Aspergers, like blinking rapidly and slurring his words, were more apparent.

“It used to be a lot worse, I had like no social skills whatsoever,” Connor said. “When I was younger, about 10 years old, it was really hard. I just had trouble talking to people and had really low confidence. It sucked.”

Before ROTC Connor hated running the cash register at work, he dreaded any type of presentation or performance assignment at school, and during social interaction he would display social ticks such as dragging his leg or shaking excessively. Even keeping eye contact was a struggle.

“[Presentations were] fine when it was just practicing with a couple of friends but then when it actually came down to do it, I just freaked out,” Connor said. “I just couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t function, and I kind of just shut down because I didn’t know what to do.”

However, things began to change for Connor at the end of his sophomore year when he first spotted two students walking the halls at East–dressed in the same uniform he would wear two years later. Curious as to why they were dressed so formally, he approached them and discovered that they were a part of the ROTC program centered at SM West. After hearing the cadets’ experience with the program and the opportunities it opened up for them Connor decided to give ROTC a chance and joined at the beginning of his junior year, not knowing exactly what he was getting into.

The first time he walked into the Aux Gym at SM West for morning drill practice, he half-expected to see a pack of military G.I. jocks droppin’ 20 in front of a screaming drill sergeant–but that wasn’t the case, not at all. Instead Connor was met by not-so-scary, polite and knowledgeable Chief James Dusek and 48 other cadets involved in a program that would reshape his life over the course of the next year.

“That first experience was just interesting meeting everyone in the program and seeing how diverse it actually was, because I was kind of expecting the stereotypical ‘meathead’ for everybody and it definitely was not like that,” Connor said, laughing.

After only being a part of ROTC for a little over a year Connor’s father, Justin Zaharko, has noticed a complete transformation in Connor’s lifestyle and personality.

Connor’s alarm clock settings have suddenly changed from 6:45 a.m. to 5 a.m. in order to make morning drill practice every day before class. Thursday late-start mornings previously devoted to sleeping in or playing Fallout 4 have turned into Officer meetings at the Big Biscuit to discuss upcoming drill meets or community service projects. And a once quiet and reserved Connor suddenly wouldn’t hesitate to carry someone’s grocery bags to their car if they looked in need of assistance.

The weekly platoon hangouts after color guard performances at football games have forced Connor to make conversation and be thrown into social situations that he used to avoid.

After his promotion to Inspection and Operations Officer halfway through his junior year, Connor was forced to grow even more out of his social norms. He suddenly became responsible for keeping the platoon updated on group events and ensuring every cadet attended practice and dressed appropriately at drill meet competitions, presenting a perfectly ironed uniform and evenly placed hat for the judges.

“He’s become a man, he treats everyone with the respect and dignity that they deserve and up to [the time he joined ROTC] I don’t think he knew what that was,” said Justin.

The kid who once struggled to hold a short conversation now had a literal army of friends standing behind him, bringing him further out of his shell.

“He used to be in a shell, more or less, and going to ROTC and becoming an officer on top of that has really brought him out of that shell and [affected] how he deals with people,” said Justin. “He’s more of a leader now, whereas before he was an absolute follower.”

After finding his niche in ROTC, Connor no longer fears running the cash register at work, and he can hold eye contact while making small talk with the kid sitting next to him in math class. Presentations are still challenging, but now manageable by thinking to himself, “I’ve led a ROTC platoon in a drill meet in front of almost 100 people, this is nothing in comparison”

“I’m extremely proud of him,” said Justin. “It’s something that has completely changed him.”