Aiken High welcomed one of its own home Thursday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the school's NJROTC program.
Janie L. Mines, class of 1976, talked about her experiences as a cadet and her commander, Sgt. Charles Eugene Sides Jr., during a Pass in Review ceremony in the James A. Taylor Students Activities Center.
After graduating from Aiken High, Mines was one of 81 women in the first class of female midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy and, in 1980, she was the first African American woman to graduate from the academy.
Mines, a daughter of the late Rev. William L. and Daisy S. Mines, joined the NJROTC at Aiken High four years before Congress authorized the admittance of women to its military service academies.
“One of the things it taught me is that we should take advantage of every opportunity that is put forth to us as positive in our lives because we never know what the future is going to hold,” Mines said after the ceremony. “I never knew I would have the opportunity to be in the first class of women to attend the Naval Academy, and if I had not taken advantage of the wonderful opportunities – the discipline, the education that was available to me here – that never would have happened.”
Mines said the Naval Academy was not ready for women in 1976 when she entered.
“I literally had to fight my way into the building,” she said. “If I had not already known how to march, already had the discipline, already understood something about the Navy, I would have been at a disadvantage because they made it hard for us.”
Mines wrote a book about her experience at the Naval Academy, “No Coincidences: Reflections of the First Black Female Graduate of the United States Naval Academy.”
“I talk a lot about Aiken in every chapter,” said Mines, who now lives in Fort Mill. “There's a chapter specifically about the NJROTC and the foundation – the moral foundation, the Christian foundation – and the discipline that I got here in Aiken.”
Mines said the foundation that NJROTC provides is "something that you won't get any place else."
“I was able to take advantage of the program to my benefit, and I pray that these young people do the same,” she said. “I am so excited. Aiken High School continues to be an outstanding educational institution. The cadets are wonderful. There are so many more than when I was at the school. I am just proud of the accomplishments of the school and of the corps of cadets. I feel honored to be here.”
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