From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Reserve_Officers%27_Training_Corps

The Code of Federal Regulations states that JROTC is "designed for physically fit citizens attending participating schools."[37] In public schools, JROTC is usually an elective course with membership limited to US citizens and legal foreign nationals, those who will graduate with their 9th grade cohort, and have not experienced an out of school suspension during the preceding six-month period. Often, students who participate for one year receive credit in lieu of a physical education class. Students who excel in the first year of JROTC can apply for a second year. Most schools offer three to four years of JROTC training.

the first thing that comes to mind is that kids have a tendency to find creative ways to describe their actions to their peers. Usually there is more to the story than they choose to share. For instance, a few years ago, when my son was in high school one of his friends was telling us that his schedule included 2 study halls 3 days a week because all of the other classes during the period of one of the study halls was full. I thought nothing of it until a week later when the kid's dad was telling me that he had been struggling in his math class so the school offered to let the kid join the math teacher's study hall for tutoring in lieu of another elective class.

I spent a total of 3 hours in the counselor's office this year for scheduling. They can move mountains when they want to. I think there is more to this story.

This boy is enrolled in the ROTC class.

He didn't request it and he doesn't want to be in it.

And I was told (and tend to believe): He sought to transfer out and was told that there were no other elective classes open that he could transfer to.

For some reason I'd thought that a student actually had to request to be in ROTC. It just seems odd to make a kid who doesn't want to be there wear a uniform to school once a week and march in formation around the parking lot. And this kid is an honor student and has lettered in track and cross country, so it's not like he needs any more PE.

I just find it hard to believe that this was the last option. Maybe it's the last option based on his present schedule and he didn't want to change any of those classes.

Inconvenient? Yeah. Force? I just don't know if a school can force anything.

Your friend's child is not alone in having this done to them. Do a quick search on involuntary ROTC enrollment if you want to find other cases. As someone who taught in a public high school I will say it can be very difficult to effect a change, but entering armed with an ACLU lawyer might get the ball rolling.