A total of 30 students at Apache Junction Unified School District are to travel to Camp Pendleton in California Sept. 29-Oct. 3 for a Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps military orientation trip.

Apache Junction High School Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps trip was approved in a unanimous vote Aug. 27 by the AJUSD Governing Board.

Students are to visit Fort Rosecrans, Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Assault Craft Unit 5 and Camp Pendleton Mechanized Museum. The trip, including bus transportation, is to cost $4,000 with $100 being paid by each of the cadets and the remainder picked up by the U.S. Navy, Norvin Deleon Guerrero, retired U.S. Marine Corps master gunnery sergeant, said in a letter to the school board.

“The military orientation trip is packed with opportunities not available in any other form, venue, class,” he said.

The NJROTC mission is to instill in students the values of citizenship, service to the U.S., personal responsibility and a sense of accomplishment, according to https://www.netc.navy.mil/NSTC/NJROTC/.

AJUSD has three elementary schools, a junior high school and a high school. The district is from Meridian Road on the west to the town of Queen Valley on the east and from the Goldfield Mountains to the north, south into the San Tan Corridor. Communities served include Apache Junction, Gold Canyon, Peralta Trail, Queen Valley and unincorporated Pinal County land in-between.