As Joe "Sarge" Burke put it simply, after three years of teaching in the Junior Reserve Officers Training Course (JROTC), "It's time to go."

That may be the case, but he'll be sorely missed by his JROTC cadets at Pahrump Valley High School.

The beloved sergeant was given a fond farewell by his battalion outside the Eve-N-Keel Tavern, where the students took turns making sure he got soaked plenty of times in the dunk tank set up outside.

Clothed in a bathrobe while drying off, Sarge admitted that "this is definitely a different kind of going-away party."

The youths had nothing but good things to say about their sergeant, and everyone said he'd be missed.

"He's a very dedicated person, and he loves to make us laugh," Sarah Denny, 15, said of Sarge.

Mandy Horton, 14, said she was going to miss all of his "awesome stories."

"He actually teaches us stuff we can use for the future," Horton added.

But it's not just his students that love him.

Lisa Ragels, a long-time friend of Sarge, said he'll be just as missed by many of the students' parents.

"He's a mentor," Ragels said. "He's had some of these kids since they were freshmen, and the parents say their kids have turned around like you wouldn't believe."

Sarge is far more humble about himself, but he admits, "I've changed the attitudes of teenagers."

The 42 years he spent in the Army before retiring in 1995 taught Sarge the importance of discipline and self-respect, values which he works hard to teach his ROTC students.

Although he emphasizes that the program is not a recruiting program for the Army, as it is often perceived to be by parents, Sarge stresses that it helps to teach kids self respect, teamwork, self worth, and respect for others.

He believes that through drill and other ROTC activities, students learn how to control their emotions or anger.

But it doesn't happen overnight.

"They come in as ninth graders," Sarge explained. "And it's not developed over a week, not developed over a month; it's developed over the course of a year."

To hear Sarge tell it, there's no great secret to how he implements the lessons.

"I treat them all the same, I'm approachable, I encourage them, and I treat them as an adult and not a child," Sarge said. "They're a person to me more than a student. I don't criticize them unless it's absolutely necessary, and I brag on them."

But that doesn't mean Sarge is a pushover.

In fact, he's been known to have his battalion stand in formation while hosing them down, but under Sarge's watch, formation is never broken.

"I build on the fact that they can do something, and they will do it," Sarge explained. "It's expected, the task I've assigned to them, and most of the time they exceed my expectations."

Sarge described his decision to come out of retirement to Pahrump as "a kind of a calling."

After leaving the military, at first he went back to the family farm in Arkansas, but said he "was bored to death."

"My whole life has always been dealing with people in some way or another," Sarge explained.

Having earned a bachelor's degree in education while in the Army and after being a senior instructor, Sarge came to Pahrump and found himself the master sergeant of the Trojan Battalion.

There's no question that he's touched the lives of his students in that time.

"One kid told me I'm the best friend he's got," Sarge said. "I told him, 'No, I'm your sergeant.'"

Now the sergeant is looking forward to returning to the family farm again, and spending time with a grandchild he's been waiting for the last 18 years.

In the meantime, as Sharon Primm, 14, put it, "I hope he comes back to see us."