Photo Courtesy of Michael Farley Major Michael Farley, with his wife Jennifer, receives the Outstanding Education Employee Award in 2024.

CALUMET – Since 1998, Major Michael J. Farley has held the position of Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) Senior Army Instructor at the CLK High School. The end of January will close his 28 year stint in the position, but he won’t be leaving the area as he and his wife have grown to love Calumet.

Before volunteering for a military career, Farley had a position at a Pepsi Cola bottling company loading trucks. One day on the job, he thought to himself, “I don’t really want to load trucks for the rest of my life,” and his eyes turned to the recruitment posters for the newly started all-volunteer force in the United States Army. “My dad was a World War II vet, and I’d always played a lot of Army as a kid. So, I thought it was a good match and gave it a try. I liked it, it suited me very well.”

His military career saw him raise in rank to Major and he took a position at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, working for the staff college. “I grew interested in ROTC programs and interviewed several places, and was offered several jobs. My wife and I decided Calumet was where we wanted to live, so the JROTC program was the main reason we moved to this area.” It was more than just the job that caught their eye here. “The beauty of the area, the four seasons, snow, Lake Superior, and we really wanted to be rural.”

ROTC positions are interesting because the school has the ultimate decision who to hire. “The Army certifies you, qualifies you, advertises and puts your name out there,” Farley said, “but it is up to the instructor to go to the school and convince them they’re they right person for the job. You have to retire from the military to take over an ROTC program. This was my first, and ended up being my only ROTC program.”

When he arrived, there were “about 60 kids enrolled in JROTC, and it was a bigger school at the time. We’ve fluctuated up and down,” Farley continued. “We’ve had cooperatives with other schools like Hancock and Lake Linden. Now we’re pretty much self-contained. Currently there are about 75 kids in the program.”

Farley is pleased with what he has brought to Calumet and feels it offers students a variety of opportunities. “Color guard is a mainstay for us. The skating color guard, a unique program here, is an independent team. We have other programs we call Special Teams. Our two most successful special teams are the Raider team and the JLAB team.”

Heading up the JROTC Leadership and Academic Bowl (JLAB), himself, Farley said it has been highly successful” “We’ve been to national championship in Washington, D.C. at least 10 times. That’s really on the kids; they have to study and really have to work it. It’s also a testament to the school because without the quality education that the kids get just in their everyday classes, we wouldn’t be competitive at the national level.”

To put the achievement of the JLAB team in perspective, Farley added that “the top 32 academic teams out of 1,700 go to nationals, and we’re there frequently.”

Perhaps the most well-known contribution Farley has given to the Calumet JROTC program is the hockey color guard, one of the only ones of its kind in the nation. Farley said he got the inspiration when he saw how popular hockey was in the area and it was the sport lacking a color guard. “We here at Calumet have a unique situation to make our hockey color guard work, and it starts with great support. Five minutes from now, we can be in the Colosseum. We have space upstairs where we can store all of our flags and rifles.”

The nation was exposed to the skating color guard at the Kraft Hockeyville event in 2019. What many people might not know was the last-minute change producers gave Farley five minutes before his guard was to take to the ice.

“They put out a red carpet and all these cables for the cameras,” he said, “which was right in the path where we needed to skate. They’d watch the kids practice several times before, but never mentioned anything. So, I gathered the kids together and verbally told them what they’d need to do. Then, on live television and with no practice, they went out onto the ice and were just perfect.”

Farley wants to assure the community the JROTC program will be well taken care of. “We’ve already filled the position. Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Leiter is going to take over the Senior Army Instructor position. We were really lucky to get him through the SkillBridge program.” The DOD’s SkillBridge program allows active-duty service members the chance to get training in their last 180 days of service. Farley continued, “He’s been here since August. He was still on active duty in the Army, but they loaned him to us for five months to train him.”

“On the first of February, he takes over and on the 31st of January, I bow out” Farley said. “He’s familiar with the kids, they know him, he’s learned the program. He and First Sergeant Powell know each other and will develop their expectations. Maybe the program will go in a little different direction, but they both have great ideas and I’m very confident I’m leaving this program in great hands.”

As Farley leaves, he has plans for his new-found extra time. “I’m going to work on my tractors. I’m a gardener, so I’m looking forward to working the soil in May. The school year and the JROTC program gets so busy in May, I’ve missed the chance to get the soil ready and don’t get as good of a garden as I’d like, so I’m looking forward to that.”

He also is looking forward to spending more time with his wife. “We’re going to do some traveling, probably mostly locally. Maybe heading south this time of year to avoid the severe cold. Working on our house and doing some of the improvements we’ve been wanting to do.”

Farley said he has loved working in the JROTC position in Calumet, and has many people to thank. First and foremost is his wife Jennifer. “We’ve been married for 48 years. I go in really early, I stay late. If my wife wasn’t there for me, I couldn’t have done all this. There is no possible way. We met when we were both 19, we’ve been together since then. She’s an amazing woman and I owe her so much.”

Farley said he will miss the people he’s worked with, mentioning that he’s had some amazing partners. “My first partner was First Sergeant Tony Beech and we had a really great relationship, working together to develop the program into something different. Sergeant First Class Mike Phillips was my next partner, and now it is First Sergeant Mark Powell, and it just keeps better and better, and we progress the program more and more. I’m going to miss them all.”

“What I’ve enjoyed absolutely most is the people that I’ve met,” he continued. “We have some of the most amazing, outstanding students here, and we have for the entire time I’ve been around. Just my association with these young men and women, they’re just incredible people.”

Farley credited the support he’s had from the school culminating with Principal Jennifer Peters. “She’s an amazing woman, an amazing leader and a great principal. The teachers and the staff here are great. Calumet is a special place, a very special place, and it’s always going to have a big spot in my heart.”