Son in HS exploring military as career, was leaning Air Force and now Army. Main point is...Thinking going via ROTC. Anyone have recent experience in such matters themselves or as a parent?
The good the bad and the ugly? Let me know.
Oh boy.... teen son wants to go ROTC.... good/bad?
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Is he looking to do JROTC in high school or ROTC in college?
JROTC is just another high school class, albeit with some actual structure. He'll either have the discipline for it, or he won't.
As an Army Veteran, tell him to go Air Force and to go into a technical field. Aviation has served me well outside the service.
If he's doing ROTC in college, I'd remind him to listen carefully to his senior enlisted and to follow their lead.
Good decision.
Daughter's BF is AF ROTC at college.
Haven't talked to him about it in detail, but I'm pretty sure every Saturday is all ROTC for him. Gives the DD more time to study, so I like it.
i was in JROTC for my freshman year in HS. Learned nothing. College is probably a much different story
Originally Posted By: E150GT
i was in JROTC for my freshman year in HS. Learned nothing. College is probably a much different story
Experience isn't recent, but I was an Army ROTC scholarship student back in the 1980s.
They paid my tuition and books and provided a $100/month stipend. I had to come up with living expenses. Went to a 6 week camp at Ft Riley the summer between my Jr and Sr year.
Commissioned as an officer. I served 4 years active duty and 4 years IRR (Individual Ready Reserve.)
It was a good experience for me. At that time, there were no caps on tuition. Today, I believe the scholarships are capped.
If you don't take a scholarship right away, you can try ROTC with no commitment the first two years, IIRC. I believe once you take a scholarship and/or continue the program in your Junior year, you incur some commitment.
So the good is you can try it for the first two years without commitment as long as you don't take a scholarship. If you take the scholarship or continue on in your Junior year, you owe at least three years.
I’d recommend he go to the U.S.NAVY as I did and thoroughly enjoyed it. Plus, Astro14 and my stepdad and flyNavyP3 will tell you the NAVY has better pilots
Nephew was a junior in college when the 9/11 attack happen. He was royally urinated off and wanted to enlist right then and there. His father didn’t want to see him waste his college work so made the deal- finish school then do what you want with blessing. After graduation, he walked into an Army recruiting office and signed up. They told him,”you’re a college graduate, you can go into officer training school”. He said no, he didn’t want to be a book-learned soldier, he wanted to learn it from the ground up. And he did. He became a paratrooper stationed in Italy.
He survived his first combat tour in Afghanistan so they made him a corporal. They sent him back as a platoon Sargeant for tour #2. He survived that so they sent him to Ft. Bending as a master Sargeant to train the newbies. He got tired of that and went to Ranger school and became one of this country’s elite badasses. He’s been on many missions he can’t talk about. He has finally decided to return stateside and take a desk job, yielding to his mid-30’s body that has been through a lot. He has constant back pain from numerous paratroop jumps. But, he’s survived it all and made a career of it. Hopefully the second half is much safer and less strenuous. These are the young men out there doing the job for us. I’m very proud of him.
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Son did the full JROTC program in HS from Freshman through Senior yr. He finished as Battalion XO. JROTC helped keep his GPA up, honestly. He received some good counsel from the retired Army NCO (E8 Msgt) that was the #2 of the program. He chose to join Army NG and enlisted December of his senior yr. Chose college program in force at the time which was a six yr nat'l guard hitch in exchange for $20K in bonuses and college tuition reimburse as long as he maintained 2.5 GPA (I think). All in all serving served him very well as much in the process of going from boy to man as financially.
I would encourage the OP not to discourage his son from college ROTC. Different than JROTC not even comparable since finishing ROTC earns a commission as 2nd Lt or Ensign, but still a good experience. In my opinion of course. I did a year of (non-scholarship walk-on) Navy ROTC at Purdue Univ in the 80's and enjoyed it but ultimately it wasn't for me and my degree and career field choice went a different direction than military.
My best friend recently died. His 19 year old son has well above average intelligence, he's tall and good looking, articulate, a capable worker, a newly minted private pilot and more. This guy is head and shoulders above the average kid. However, he also makes a string of seemingly endless bad choices, hangs with the wrong people and so on and has an attitude a mile long.
He also inherited money and does not really need to work, ever. I see his life going two ways. One involving repeated visits by law enforcement, court cases, rapidly depleting funds, contentious relationships, decades of child support and so on. OR one involving career focus, heading towards flying the F22 (for example) , and more.
More than anything, I believe that if he could focus on an Air Force career via ROTC, he could do absolutely anything he wanted. Rather than rely on dad's money, he has the opportunity to forge his own way towards awesomeness. To be one of mankind's best.
I hope your son gets good guidance, makes good choices and succeeds beyond all expectations.
As I wind down my aviation career, I recognize the value of those good choices made years ago. The value of focus, and determination. The value of education, discipline and the resulting opportunity. I've succeeded where others failed, not because of luck, but due to knowing what I wanted and making sure I got it. In the end, I've had the best of the best!
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I work with a lot of ex-military folks. Some as young as mid-late 20s. IMO the benefits they get afterward are excellent. Paid tuition, etc. I'd be happy if my children chose to go this route.
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Originally Posted By: SumpChump
Son in HS exploring military as career, was leaning Air Force and now Army. Main point is...Thinking going via ROTC. Anyone have recent experience in such matters themselves or as a parent?
The good the bad and the ugly? Let me know.
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Definitely not my thing but I had some friends who did it in high school and had positive experiences for sure.
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
JROTC is just another high school class, albeit with some actual structure. He'll either have the discipline for it, or he won't.
As an Army Veteran, tell him to go Air Force and to go into a technical field. Aviation has served me well outside the service.
If he's doing ROTC in college, I'd remind him to listen carefully to his senior enlisted and to follow their lead.
Good experience and teaches responsibility. Ed
My son drifted after his college (no ROTC) but always wanted the military. He jumped in the Army at age 26 and has excelled at everything they’ve put in front of him.
He’s been at Fort Drum, NY for several years and is happy as a clam with a new wife and a has a very bright future.
Nothing but good things to say about military life from all of us. GO ARMY!
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My Son in law just joined the Air Force. He is in School right now learning Aviation hydraulics. I just talked to him yesterday and he said he is loving it. His goal was to learn a trade that he can use when he gets out. He told me that compared to other jobs he has had this was cake. He just turned 27.
<span style="font-family: 'Verdana'">One thing good about the military is you're guarantied a pension if you finish out your 20. You're only 38 when you retire. By time you're 80, you can have 3 pension checks rolling in. I wish I would've listened to my own advice!</span>
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