New Romeoville High School MCJROTC instructors emphasizing leadership

A familiar face and a 23-year veteran of the Marine Corps are teaming up this year to lead the Romeoville High School Marine Corps JROTC program to new heights.

Former Marine Corps pilot Major (Ret.) Mark Placey, who headed up the RHS program four years ago, has returned. He will work with Master Gunnery Sergeant (Ret.) Jonathan “J.C.” Couturier.

Placey, who flew F4 and F18 jets during multiple tours of duty on five continents and is a former American Airlines Boeing 737 pilot, holds a bachelor’s degree in physical education and is a former football coach at Montini Catholic High School, College of DuPage and Benedictine University. He left RHS to become the Deputy Instructor for the much larger Noble Network of Charter Schools JROTC program in Chicago.

Couturier joined the USMC infantry  when he was 17 and has served throughout the world including three tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan along with many other billets/units. He has worked with several JROTC programs mostly in California.

Those opportunities, both instructors agree, involve teaching leadership as well as personal and professional development.

The goal is to re-build a program that currently has 83 Cadets into a program with 200 or more Cadets.