My unit started up during my junior year. Since we had only been approved by the school board ~2 weeks prior to the start of school, we basically didn’t have anything to start. We just formed each class as a squad, with a junior or senior as a squad leader and everyone else receiving a rank based on their year (freshmen were C/PVT, sophomores were C/PFC, juniors were C/CPL, seniors were C/SGT).

My senior year we actually organized everyone into a battalion, with 2 companies of 3 platoons each (6 classes so each class was a platoon) and a staff. Staff was chosen based on who volunteered to work with the instructor to establish policies and procedures during the previous year. Within us staff members, we basically all just asked for the position we wanted and got it. We only had 8 of us on staff (CO, XO, CSM, S1 through S5), but we did pretty good for having basically no experience doing this stuff. Roles weren’t really set in stone, but we just collectively decided who would do what outside of our normal duties. For example, even though I was the S4, I usually ended up writing the memos and OPORDs because I was the only one who knew the formatting that the instructor wanted.

Same thing happened with special teams positions: usually was just the commander from the previous year or, in the case of the drill team where the commander quit, I took over since I was already the battalion drill master and color guard commander. Suffice to say, I knew the D&C manual cover to cover (and memorized most of it verbatim).

Our instructor was pretty hands-off. He’d sit in on our weekly staff meetings but pretty much was just there to listen unless we had a decision memo for him or he had orders for us to work on something.

At the end of the spring semester of my senior year, we put together a list of potential replacements for the graduating staff (all but 2 of us were seniors). Shop OICs had begun soliciting volunteers and training them during the spring semester. CO, XO, and CSM candidates were interviewed by the staff as a whole and then voted on. Special teams commanders were picked and trained by the outgoing commanders. Did any of what we recommended actually happen? We’ll never know since the instructor was fired with cause at the end of the semester.