Retired Marine and Okinawa JROTC instructor is DODEA’s Teacher of the Year

A Marine in camouflage uniform holds his left fist to his chest and holds a trophy in his right hand while standing in an office with framed memorabilia on the walls behind him.

Retired Sgt. Maj. Brent Cook, Kubasaki High School’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps enlisted instructor, holds his award for 2024 Marine Corps JROTC Instructor of the Year in his Okinawa office on Sept. 25, 2025. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Brent Cook, the Kubasaki High School JROTC instructor recently named Teacher of the Year for all Defense Department schools, has always been inspired by his students, going back to his Marine Corps career.

As a young Marine in the early 1990s, Cook, now a retired sergeant major, taught communications in Twentynine Palms, Calif. Twelve years later, he was in Iraq teaching border security to local teams.

“You look at the young Iraqis, they were young kids,” he told Stars and Stripes on Thursday in his school office. “They wanted a better life for themselves, and they saw this as an opportunity to be part of their nation. They had a purpose, they had direction, they had motivation — that sounds like leadership.”

A Marine in camouflage uniform smiles and holds up a framed certificate while posing with several teachers next to strands of balloons in a school office.

Retired Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Brent Cook, a Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps instructor at Kubasaki High School, poses with staff at the school in Okinawa on Sept. 10, 2025, after being named the Department of Defense Education Activity Teacher of the Year. (DODEA)

Cook, who spent 13 of his 29 years in the Corps on Okinawa, became the enlisted instructor for Kubasaki’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program in 2016. He has led the Dragon Drill team to six Far East and, in 2023 and 2024, two national championships.

Last year, he was named the Marine Corps’ JROTC Instructor of the Year and the Department of Defense Education Activity Pacific South District Teacher of the Year. He learned Sept. 10 that he would receive the DODEA-wide honor.

“This award, teacher of the year, is about my cadets,” he said. “It’s about them just doing what they’ve got to do.”

Cook will enter the National Teacher of the Year application pool along with teachers from every U.S. state, DODEA-Pacific spokeswoman Miranda Ferguson said Thursday at Kubasaki. The award is expected to be announced sometime in the spring, she said in a follow-up email.

A Marine in camouflage uniform smiles while posing next to a shelf with several trophies in front of a window with white blinds.

Retired Sgt. Maj. Brent Cook, Kubasaki High School’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps enlisted instructor, shows off the drill team’s regional and national chamipionship awards at the school on Okinawa on Sept. 25, 2025. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)

Cook will also be recognized by President Donald Trump at a White House ceremony in March and will participate in other events as part of his year of service, according to a Sept. 16 DODEA news release and a schedule of events on DODEA’s website.

“Sgt. Maj. Brent Cook has this incredible energy that lights up the school,” Kubasaki principal Silvanus Thrower told Stars and Stripes by email Thursday. “You can see it in the way students respond to him. They’re motivated, they’re focused, and they genuinely want to do their best. He doesn’t just lead — he inspires.”

Senior Samantha Diaz, a JROTC cadet sergeant major, has had Cook as an instructor all four years at Kubasaki.

“I can talk to him about problems that I wouldn’t feel comfortable talking to another student or teacher about,” she said on Thursday at the high school. “The bond that he makes is stronger because of drill. He always has words of inspiration.”