ROTC, an acronym used for Reserve Officers Training Corps, is a program that is associated with, and highly influenced by, serving the United States of America. Armijo High School is proud to offer this program to students through the Air Force.

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Bruce is one of the teachers that present to us the ROTC program. “I have been here at Armijo for the past 10 years teaching Aerospace science, also known as junior ROTC.”

Before that, Lt. Col. Bruce had a 22-year career in the Air Force. “I was in the US Air Force from 1978 to 2000 (22 years) and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. I entered the Air Force Academy in 1974 and graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1978.” 

Over those years, he was stationed at nine different locations. From 1974-1978, he was a cadet at the US Air Force Academy and then spent the next year at Vance Air Force Base (AFB), Oklahoma in Undergraduate Pilot Training. From 1980 to 1984 he was a pilot of KC-135s at McConnell AFB in Kansas, and then he went on to train pilots from 1985 to 1988 at Castle AFB in California.

He moved on to serve in the 15th Air Force at March AFB in California until 1990 and then was an Air Command and Staff College student at Maxwell AFB in Alabama for a year. From 1991-1994, he was in Nebraska at Offutt AFB, serving as an Instructor Pilot of EC-135s.

He worked at the Pentagon in Washington, DC as a Team Chief for the Open Skies Treaty from 1994 – 1997 before coming to Travis AFB as a Detachment Commander, working with START / INF Treaties.

Throughout Lt. Col. Bruce’s years of working in the Air Force, he felt a great passion in teaching, whether it was while serving the country or in his community, “I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I actually have been teaching for many, many, many years and when this opportunity came up, I just knew I had to take it.”

Over the years of gaining experience and skills in the Air Force, he has remarkable advice to share with us, “I would recommend learning to be patient and to experience life. In my shoes, there is more to being a teacher than just teaching,” he said. “Students can really teach you something new and give you new ways to view things.”