Interesting.
The information I got from GCs, friends’ ROTC instructors, and people I knew who went through ROTC is that once someone accepts an ROTC scholarship even from the first year, they are obligated to a minimum service period* after graduation as commissioned officers or if they fail to graduate/commission…must pay back the scholarship and/or serve that minimum service period as enlisted personnel at the complete discretion of the service branch.
The ones who can “try” ROTC for up to the first 2 years of undergrad without commitment were those who didn’t receive the scholarship.
- Was a minimum of 5 years** when the people I knew went through/served from the '80s and '90's.
** One’s minimum could be increased if one entered some MOSes like Naval Aviation. They incurred a minimum of an 8(NFO)-10 year(Pilot) minimum commitment after receiving their wings. Only exception to this is if the service/military is in the midst of a heavy drawdown as it was after the Soviet collapse and the end of the Cold War. That was why my Naval aviator relative was honorable discharged when he still had a few years left on his minimum service commitment after receiving his wings and had received a promotion not too long before.