<p>We should get to know each other and our respective battalions :D haha and any JROTC whether it be army, air force, coast guard, etc.</p>
<p>I'm in an Army one right now but we might be changing to coast guard, which means I get to keep my uniform when I graduate. But I have no idea what use I'd have for it .__."</p>
<p>I’m not, but I’m interested in this (nerd)</p>
<p>Are you going to do ROTC in college?
If you did JROTC and you enlist, do you start at the bottom with no preferential treatment, or do you get something?
Does doing JROTC help your chances of getting into USMA or USNA?
What kinds of things do you do?
Do you have a system of rankings?</p>
<p>Our school doesn’t have this.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Are you going to do ROTC in college?
NO WAY. xD My parents would kill me. It’s a lot more hardcore and geared towards exercise (and I have many physical limitations involving my shoulders and legs that would make this impossible anyway).</p></li>
<li><p>If you did JROTC and you enlist, do you start at the bottom with no preferential treatment, or do you get something?
It should definitely give you a boost, but not too much. One kid went to West Point with a boosted rank. Another went to the Army and started out corporal (but he had connections, too). The point is, they definitely look favorably upon you if you’ve had JROTC experience, but because the quality of JROTC around the world varies so much, the help you’re going to get is minimal.</p></li>
<li><p>Does doing JROTC help your chances of getting into USMA or USNA?
YESSSS. No question about it. :] But it only helps if you’re in the top 3 (Battalion Commander, Executive Officer, and for our school, S-3) in Headquarters or a Company Commander.</p></li>
<li><p>What kinds of things do you do?
Also depends on where you are and what your position is. We spend the first semester practicing drill, memorizing a list of questions, learning leadership principles and sometimes exercising. We also have a lot of events like community service and service learning. We do colorguard at important events and usher at football games (which was awesome when our team was nationally ranked, but now I don’t believe they even scraped state lol). We have a major inspection from dudes from the Army that determines what Honor Unit we are. Second semester, we exercise a LOT for Cadet Challenge. It’s honestly quite fun.</p></li>
<li><p>Do you have a system of rankings?
As in c/Private, to c/Colonel? Yes.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>JROTC is honestly the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I declined an offer to go to a prestigious private school where basically 90 percent of students get into Ivies, just so I could stay with my cadets. xD TBH, though, I don’t think I would like the program as much if it weren’t so highly ranked at our school. We’ve been in the top 2% of JROTC internationally for 18 years now. It’s amazing.</p>
<p>what are the ranks that you can go through?
how are the units divided up? like would there be a regiment that consists of a bunch of schools in your area and your school is just one campany or what?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The first is Private No Insignia, which means you’re nothing and everybody is above you. Then it goes, Private, Corporal, Sergeant, Staff Sergeant, Sergeant First Class, Master Sergeant, 1st Sergeant, Sergeant Major, and Command Sergeant Major for non-commissioned officers. For commissioned officers, it goes from 2nd Lieutenant, 1st Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel, to Colonel. I’m one of two Captains :] We have one Major and no Lieutenant Colonels or Colonels, as those promotions come later in the year. Also, I go to an Army JROTC, so the rankings will be different in Navy, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>We have two feeder schools that are 9-10, Williams and Clark. I go to Plano East, which is 11-12. The battalion covers all these schools, and Headquarters Company is in Plano East solely. We have four Line Companies, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta. Alpha and Bravo are situated at Williams, and Charlie and Delta are at Clark. There’s a commander for each of these companies. All the officers are at Plano East, and all the non-commissioned are at Williams/Clark. 1st Sergeants command the non-commissioned. There are two platoons per company, led by platoon sergeants (who are ranked as staff sergeants in my list above). Each class is seperated by grade level, and each company takes their classes at the same time so they can march together.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Headquarters is its own little company. It’s the smallest - 16 people - and it contains the Battalion Commander, Executive Officer (me woohoo), Staff and their assistants, Adjutant, and Headquarters Commander (who supplies love and babysits us all xD). We basically control what happens in the Line Companies. Each of the staff has their own job (Public Relations, Technology, Inventory, etc.) and their own assistants. I command them directly, and the Battalion Commander has direct control over the Line Companies.</p>
<p>I know some really huge schools were nearly all students there go to JROTC have two battalions, but the norm is to have one. :]</p>
<p>OK, so it’s a lot like the real military.</p>
<p>Does everyone at Plano East have “commission”?</p>
<p>And you, as the XO, are in command of HQ Company, and the battalion commander has command over that line companies. Is the battalion commander over you, or are you equals?</p>
<p>Yeah, except we don’t do PT nearly as much and we aren’t fighting :P</p>
<p>What do you mean by commission?</p>
<p>I’m command over staff, which is 12 people in the battalion. Battalion Commander is in charge of the four lines, which is 200 people in the battalion. He outranks me and can tell me what to do, but I end up doing a LOT more work than him because there’s already a commander for each company and they go with their own flow. So yes, basically he commands me but he doesn’t do much, lucky butt xD</p>
<p>^and it’s not true everywhere, again. I believe in Plano Senior, they got rid of the XO because the battalion’s a LOT smaller and they didn’t need one. I’m friends with the Battalion Commander there, and I know he does a lot more work than ours lol.</p>
<p>Man, I really wish your school had a JROTC. It’s incredibly fun and everybody’s incredibly close. Not to mention it’s kind of kickass on a resume. xD</p>
<p>I’m in Navy JROTC; I’m starting my third year.</p>
<p>My SNSI is thinking of demoting our battalion back to a company, in terms of staff positions. But whatever.</p>
<p>Dang. Well, at least you guys have hotter uniforms than the pickle ones. :/</p>
<p>Lmao, yeah I have some friends in Army JROTC, and they keep calling it pickle uniforms. Hah.</p>
<p>We call ours “salt ‘n’ peppers”.</p>
<p>haha xD I heard that some schools are beginning to switch entirely into ACU’s…is yours/your friend’s?</p>
<p>What I meant by commission was like…Is everyone at your school an officer? At the younger schools they only had NCOs but I was wondering if you could be an NCO at your school</p>
<p>At Plano, everybody who isn’t in their JROTC for their first time is an officer. There is also one Sergeant Major who works directly with the Battalion Commander, and commands all the NCOs.</p>
<p>At Williams/Clark it’s just NCOs though.</p>
<p>etceterae: Yeah, my unit MIGHT be switching into the blue ACU’s, but someone in the chain of command thinks they look lazy, and the boots would be way too expensive for each cadet; so most likely we won’t.</p>
<p>But I did hear that we’re switching to something else, something MC related. I don’t know what though.</p>
<p>What rank are you?</p>
<p>Combat uniforms are fun and not as much of a hassle but they look way less impressive at important events. So our battalion just decided to give <em>bonus</em> BDUs/ACUs to kids with an all-A average, which is basically just all the IB kids in JROTC. xD</p>
<p>MC uniforms are pretty hot but the collar always bothered me for some reason. Also, cap should be a total annoyance to keep clean .__."</p>
<p>I’m a c/Captain, and you? :D</p>
<p>Well, I’m not doing JROTC (though I wish I could. =( My school doesn’t offer it OR P.E. We have to play team sports instead.).</p>
<p>However, I want to join the military next summer when I turn 17… I want to do air national guard.</p>
<p>Both my dad and grandfather were in the military. (As of June 29, my dad will be officially withdrawing retired pay! yay! And then I get my military ID. Woo.)</p>
<p>But… Are you considering enlisting after doing JROTC? I mean… isn’t that what JROTC is for? To encourage high school students to enlist once they’re graduated?</p>
<p>I still need to take the ASVAB…</p>
<p>Actually, no. I was reading about them on their site. That used to be the purpose, but it isn’t any longer. Now it’s about teaching citizenship. It did say that you get some sort of benefit from being in JROTC if you enlist. </p>
<p>Have you considered doing ROTC instead of just enlisting?</p>
<p>Nope. I want to enlist in the Guard next summer. (They have some program for non-graduated high school students who are 17+ to do military called the softbook program.)</p>
<p>I really need the money for college… and I really want to enlist. =/ It’s just always been something very prominent in my mind. I mean my dad was in the Air National Guard for 26 years and the marines for six. He ended up becoming a Senior Master Sergeant.</p>
<p>ROTC just isn’t what I want to do. =/</p>
<p>Besides Guard is a lot less demanding then say …the marines. You only go one weekend a month and two weeks a year for training. They also don’t get called up very often.</p>
<p>I don’t even know if the college I want to go to has a ROTC program…</p>
<p>It’s really great, AUGirl - I’ve got 6 JROTC friends in the program. They love it. If you recruit, you get crazyridiculous bonuses.</p>
<p>But basic takes up your entire summer. 4 days after school got out my buddies left, and they aren’t coming back until 2 days before school begins again. It’s still overall something good though, since the army takes care of a lot of finances and the GI bill helps out too.</p>
<p>I wish I could join the Air Force :(</p>