Massanutten Military Academy

Massanutten Military Academy
The Massanutten Military Academy Shield
Address
614 S. Main Street , Virginia 22664-1205 38.88 N, 78.51 W
Information
Type	Coeducational, Independent college preparatory boarding military school
Motto	Non Nobis Solum ("Not for Ourselves Alone")
Established	1899
Head of School	Dr. David Skipper
Commandant of Cadets	Lieutenant Colonel Lester Layman - U.S.Army(Ret)
Grades	6–12, PG
Color(s)	Purple, Gold
Mascot	Colonels
Nickname	Colonels
Accreditation	VAIS, SACS, NAIS
Newspaper	Massanutten Matters
Yearbook	Adjutant
Website	www.militaryschool.com

614 S. Main Street
, Virginia 22664-1205

Massanutten Military Academy (MMA) is a coeducational college preparatory school for grades 6 through 12 and one academic postgraduate year, located in , Virginia, United States.

The Massanutten Military Academy, named for the nearby mountain, was established by the Virginia Classis of the Reformed Church in 1899. The school opened on 12 September 1899 with 40 students, half of whom were boarders. From the beginning the school was coed, with the first graduating class in 1902 consisting of 3 boys and 3 girls. In 1905 the first of two significant events in the history of the school occurred: Howard J. Benchoff was appointed the school president. He stayed in that position for nearly 5 decades, to be succeeded for the next decade and a half by his son.Lantz Hall, the second structure on the academy grounds, was begun in 1907 and dedicated in 1909, to accommodate a growing student population.

During the early years of his stewardship Benchoff established several polices. The first was expanding the school size to include number of students, staff, buildings, and acreage. The second, as a result of an otherwise undocumented "incident", was limiting the boarding department to boys beginning in 1910. The last policy, and the second significant event in the school's early history, was adopting a military program. While the program was not implemented until 1917, early in his tenure Benchoff described the goal of a military program as "to train the boys with a discipline that is valuable and give them that easy and graceful carriage which is an accomplishment in any gentleman's claim to culture" In 1930 after receiving an application and inspecting the existing program, the U.S. War Department formally made the school a JrROTC unit "placing it on a par with the highest rated military schools in the country".

In 1984 the school began using the name Massanutten Military Academy. However, in many legal documents the name was still Massanutten Academy. In 2013 to end the associated name confusion, the school reverted to its original name of Massanutten Academy. Despite the dropping of Military from its name, the school retained its military tradition and JROTC unit, but in 2014 when certain members of the administration resigned the school decided to return the Military in the name.