Oak Ridge Military Academy

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Oak Ridge Military Academy (ORMA) is a college-preparatory military school in northwestern Guilford County, North Carolina. The academy is located within the town limits of Oak Ridge, North Carolina, which is named after the school. The academy is also located seven miles due north of the Piedmont Triad International Airport, and is approximately nine miles northwest of Greensboro, North Carolina's third-largest city.

[edit] History

Oak Ridge was established in 1852 by the Society of Friends (Quakers) as a "finishing school" for boys. From 1875 to 1914 Oak Ridge was led by two brothers, Professors J. Allen Holt and Martin Holt. Under their leadership the "Oak Ridge Male Institute" became one of the best private schools in North Carolina, boasting business and humanities departments, literary and debating societies, and sports teams which regularly played Wake Forest College (University), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Trinity College (later Duke University) in football and baseball. Several of the academy's baseball players went on to play in the major leagues. Despite the school's official name, women were admitted as students during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the First World War the Junior Reserve Officer Training Program (JROTC) was admitted to the campus. In 1929 Oak Ridge officially became an all-male military secondary school. From 1929-1967 Oak Ridge was a junior college as well as a military school. In 1972 Oak Ridge became the first military high school in the United States to admit female cadets. ORMA is the third-oldest military school in the United States still in operation.

[edit] Oak Ridge Today

Since 1972 Oak Ridge has been a private, coeducational, college-preparatory military boarding school. ORMA is divided into a middle school (grades 6-8), and a high school (grades 9-12). The corps of cadets are divided into several companies: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Band, and Headquarters (HQ). The middle schoolers make up Delta Company. Oak Ridge is the official military school of North Carolina, as designated by the state legislature in 1991. Oak Ridge is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and it was first accredited by SACS in 1899. ORMA is also a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the North Carolina Association of Independent Schools (NCAIS), and the Association of Military Schools and Colleges of the United States (AMSCUS). It is the only active military school to have won the National High School Drill Team Championship (1996). Oak Ridge is a member of the Triad Athletic Conference (TAC), which consists of private high schools in central North Carolina. The school's most famous living alumnus is Dale Earnhardt, Jr., the NASCAR driver. Dr. Roy Berwick, a retired officer of the United States Army, is currently the academy's President.