Leavenworth High school was one of the First JROTC programs to be founded.

              It was found by CPT. Huston (USA) of Ft. Leavenworth, in the fall of 1897, it offered to organize a cadet unit.  Students were trained using broomsticks for guns, and drills were conducted in an old courthouse.  CPT. Lowe, the successor of Huston, organized and raised a cadet unit with cadet rifles and uniforms.  Due to the then present anti-war beliefs, the unit was disbanded and not reorganized until 1903.

At the beginning of 1903, there was an effort to start a company of female cadets.  The idea was successfully constructed with minor alterations in the uniform.  The company did not last long; however, in 1912, another unit consisting of females was developed.  The program lasted three to four years. 

In the 1916 The National Defense Act authorized high schools loaned federal military equipment and the assignment of active or retired military personnel as instructors.  The program was called Junior Reserve Officer Training (Known as J.R.O.T.C.) 

On January 13 ,1917, Special Order Number 11:

Made, LTC. Fuller the Professor of Military Science and tactics at Leavenworth High School.

On January 29, 1917, Bulletin Number 6 stated:

By direction of the President and pursuant to the authority vested in him by the provisions of section 42 of the act of Congress approved June 3, 1916, and in response to the application of the Leavenworth High School, Leavenworth, Kansas, the authorities of which have agreed to establish and maintain a two years' compulsory course of military training as a minimum for its physically-fit male students, which course when entered upon by any student shall, as regards such student, be a prerequisite for graduation, to allot a minimum of an average of three hours per week per academic year to military training and instruction, and to use their endeavors to promote and further the objects for which the training corps is organized, there is hereby established in said Leavenworth High School, Leavenworth, Kans., an Infantry unit of the Junior Division, Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

With this Order, Leavenworth High School was established as the first JROTC unit.

On October 10, 1917, Bulletin Number 56 discontinued the JROTC unit due to the failure of the program to maintain the required number of cadets.  The program lost many cadets who joined the Army because of the First World War

On December 29, 1919, Bulletin Number 63 re-established Leavenworth’s JROTC units.

In 1961, Leavenworth High School established the first Ranger unit in the nation.  The platoon performed missions with tactical objectives.  The unit still exists today, participating in many challenging activities.