Hi! I am an incoming freshman physics and computer science major and was wondering about joining Army ROTC. I absolutely love the idea of getting training during college and I believe that it would be a great program for me, especially with the scholarship (my college would be too expensive to pay off without significant loans). However, I had qualms about the military service afterward. I am planning on pursuing a doctorate so, for my service, I would be part-time in the Army Reserves/National Guard for eight years and do not want to go straight into Active Duty. However, I am well aware that there is a decent chance (50%?) that I would be deployed full time maybe for a couple months or so which I am fine with (but an over 1-year deployment might be problematic). If I do get deployed full time, I would be happy to serve my country but I would rather work on something like nuclear missile defense research or programming UAVs. I especially do not want to be deployed to other countries for combat. What are my chances of being called into Active Duty and how much would it disrupt my doctorate or other plans? Also, would the Army Reserves or National Guard be a better option for me? Finally, should I do ROTC?
There are others on the board with significant first hand experience with how the ROTC scholarships and career assignments work, so I will leave it to them. I will just say that you need to be mentally prepared for combat and evaluate how you feel about that. Don’t do it just for the money. Do it because you want to be in the military.
Remember this is essentially a trade off of training/scholarship to you vs. service as an officer to them. You don’t get to say “Thanks for the money, see ya”.
I am aware of that. I would like to complete my service as reserves or national guard officer part time as an engineer or intelligence officer. I am skilled in mathematics, science, and engineering so this is the best way I could serve. I do not want to be forced into direct combat if I choose my job as some type of engineer. In addition, I would rather not be called into active duty for over a year continuously as I will be pursuing higher education. I am not trying to skip my service, merely trying to balance two parts of my life. Also, if I could serve by doing research for the military, like cryptography or by building new defense systems, I would be completely fine with serving full time (especially after my Ph.D.).
Whether you’re in the reserves or the national guard, you can still be deployed. If you get deployed, you would be deployed on the military’s schedule, so you can’t count on it being limited to two months. Most DOD R&D is done either by civilians or contractors. Military largely serve in the role of program managers. There’s a few exceptions, such as faculty at the academies, but not many. It sounds like you don’t want to be in the military. Whether you want to take the National Guard/Reserve benefits and gamble you won’t get deployed is up to you.
I was awarded the 4 year Army ROTC scbolarship. Now what I must tell you is that things like ROTC and Service academies should never be about “free college” or “a cool experience for a bit”. I am not saying this is what YOURE thinking but just think about why you might want to join. If its not because you want to be for the army, then maybe it might not be for you. Nonetheless its your life. Just a tad of advice from someone undergoing into the service