<p>I’m planning to join Army or Air Force ROTC program after I get into a college. There are some questions I wish you answer for me if your S or D is a ROTC cadet:</p>
<li><p>Advantages and disavantages of AROTC and AFROTC compared to each other.</p></li>
<li><p>How stressful is it to be in ROTC training? Of course, it depends on each individual’s ability to cope with stress, but I mean general experiences in physical stress and mental stress.</p></li>
<li><p>ROTC cadets have to spend time for military science classes, fitness excercise, military lab, etc. Does it affect study of cadets not much?</p></li>
<li><p>UCSD, UCI, UCR are among the schools that I am looking at, but unfortunately they don’t have ROTC prgrams. Those schools have crosstown contracts with nearby host institutions which are located far away in some cases. I think it’s O.K. to attend a militaray science classe and military lab once a week, but it’s too much to attend all the physical fitness excercises which are held in the host institution. Is it mandatory to attend physical fitness excercise?</p></li>
<li><p>Any other information on ROTC program?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Sorry, I can't be of any help on this one. Have you checked the UCSD, UCI, or UCR boards for ROTC cadets? Or maybe you could call/email their ROTC coordinator and they could answer your question, or put you in contact with a cadet?</p>
<p>I am not the parent of a ROTC kid ... but I was a Navy ROTC kid a few years back. When I was a ROTC the requirements of Army, Air Force, and Navy ROTC were very similar while in school ... so similar that the differences while in school were not (in my opinion) worth considering when deciding which branch to join. The requirements are not very demanding (especially considering the financial reward). I was in the ROTC program for 2 years and had to chew a couple of my electives on ROTC courses, take a couple of smaller extra courses, and attend the weekly session, and do a little bit of other stuff with the ROTC unit ... it's not really that much. Ths bigger commitment are the summers where your summer jobs will be being in the milary for at least part of the summer. </p>
<p>What is very different is what you do when you do your initial tours of duty. Both the Army and Air Force have similar support organizations such as logistics and IT ... however, the lion's share of the people are in the line groups ... with the Army focused on ground troops and the Air Force focused on flying. Does one of those appeal to you a lot more? In addition, the ROTC programs are not in exactly the same set of schools ... one program may open up a school for you that the other program does not.</p>
<p>My daughter had been looking at colleges with ROTC programs. After doing her research she focused exclusively on the Army. However after investigating several programs she decided to focus on the schools that have a program on campus. She felt that there would be more acceptance/support and less of a time constraint travelling across town. </p>
<p>Best of luck to you. We were extremely impressed with all of the ROTC people we met - both officers and students.</p>
<p>the air force is a country club compared to the army. much more relaxed, almost civilian like. the army has a great deal of tradition and history, and on occasion, pride. either way, if you go in the service you will make the tightest lifetime friends of your life.</p>
<p>ROTC is no more stressful than other classes. certainly helps to spend some time getting in shape, and you can do that at the campus gym.</p>
<p>there is a greater time commitment to ROTC but the service needs the dedication and it starts early. you still have plenty of time for other classes, and non-class activity. remember the servicemen you are expected to someday lead are living and breathing the service 24/7 in basic, then every day as an active duty stiff. you will need to make a similar commitment though it is stretched out over four years. frosh and soph years are fairly laid back. you generally must make a commitment to be an officer as a junior. the program is competitive, scholarships are available, and you might welcome the investment of time you make. </p>
<p>by not attending the host school, you will be at a disadvantage as the other cadets will get to know the instructors and the other cadets much better. plus the pain in the rear factor of schlepping across town. not the best situation but if that's what it is and you want it bad enough, it works. the cadets will accept you as one of their own and the instructors will admire your crosstown dedication. as for physical fitness, that's a key part of navy and army rotc, don't know about those slackers in the air force. as i said before, you can get in shape running and doing cardio at your school but the military loves the "bonding" and the team activities, and that's what the group PT is all about.</p>
<p>ROTC will shape you for the rest of your life, whether you enter the service or not. you will have to get up in front of the group; you will have to lead teams in unit exercises, whether it is marching, outward bound type physical challenges (think fear factor), military operations, or classroom discussions. you will find the level of confidence you possess and use it. ROTC says leaders are made, not born. I agree. you gotta want it.</p>
<p>good luck</p>
<p>michael j
2LT US Army 1976-78
airborne ranger infantry
(and now a chair-borne CPA!)</p>
<p>As a former army officer who went to college on an ROTC scholarship, I can confirm some of the earlier comments. The difference between Army and AF ROTC is not the ROTC part. It's the active duty part. And, if you complete army ROTC in a political environment like now, you WILL be going on active duty. The folks in Iraq will tell you it is no picnic. Army or Airforce? Do you prefer air conditioning or primitive camping? Have you ever spent the day standing in a drizzle in 35 degree weather? Army folks do. AF folks don't.</p>
<p>OTOH, the leadership training and junior officer autonomy is better in the army. I was in Germany as a 23 year old leading convoys of 35 trucks, with millions worth of commo gear. The convoys would have hauled Pershing missile warheads (special weapons) if goings got tough, as they did once. Nothing I have ever done since has been as challenging, as stressful or as difficult. </p>
<p>But, you gotta want to do this stuff.</p>
<p>Regarding specific programs, contact the profs of military science at the nearby host colleges and ask for names of cadets to talk to. And, in general, discuss your concerns. I suspect you'll be pleased at how they handle the situation. Unlike so many places in academe and the working world, the military in general, and especially professors of military science, really do care about people. Their life sometimes depends on it.</p>
<p>Thank you, Lt. J and newmassdad for your kind information!</p>
<p>Army officers have more challenging jobs, and higher autonomy. However, AF officers have peaceful life. I have to think about which ROTC program I will choose. Actually I prefer AF ROTC, but my younger brother prefers Army ROTC.</p>
<p>Lt. J, someday I want to have Army airborne training. I read that even AF ROTC cadets can take summer training for Army airborne training. How dangerous is it anyway?</p>
<p>Airborne training? I never met any dead folks from it. Seriously, given what the military invests in training, they go out of their way to make sure training is challenging but safe. Having been involved in officer training for a year while on active duty, I can tell you that safety takes precedence over everything else. </p>
<p>BTW, Airborne training is relatively safe compared to, say, explosives training or live fire exercises. Plus, there are stringent physical fitness requirements, taken seriously, that weed out many of the injury prone.</p>
<p>newmassdad pretty much hit it on the head as far as safety goes. </p>
<p>situations can arise and they address them as realistically as time allows. how to use the spare chute, how to attempt to untangle, how to properly position yourself to land so you don't hurt yourself, calling off jumps if the wind is too high, etc.. hey, if you get in a flying airplane and jump out, you have voluntarily put yourself in harm's way, right. try convincing your mom how safe that is. yet, it is extremely extremely rare to hear of deaths from jumping, or due to plane accidents at airborne school. they got it down. </p>
<p>as for slots for AFROTC cadets, ask the local instructor for a head count of how many have gone annually the last 5 years from the school you are targeting. gotta think it would be relatively rare, and very competitive getting that slot or two. army will be giving first priority to west pointers, army rotc, and even air force and naval academy kids. </p>
<p>finally, i wouldn't want it misunderstand that either newmass or me said the army is more challenging than the air force. each branch has its own missions, and comparisons would be apples and oranges. most kids your age don't truly know what they want to do, and that's okay. if you do, you can find which branch offers a starting career in your interest and go for it. </p>
<p>hey thanks for the memories, i've said enough and I wish you and your brother well.</p>
<p>I was in AFROTC for a year when I was a sophomore. The training had become much less rigorous when it came to how much stress the upperclassmen could put on you. The only requirements I had were attending the lecture and leadership lab, and working out three times per week on our own schedule. I loved what the Air Force offered as far as engineering is concerned. Just about all of the engineers in ROTC were in AFROTC at my school. The funny thing was that there were more students in AROTC and NROTC who wanted to be pilots than there were in AFROTC.</p>
<p>I did a lot of voluntary activities in order to spice up my experience (drill team, color guard, etc). But after a while the program got on my nerves. I was mentally drained from my academics and it greatly affected my overall attitude and physical fitness tests. I ended up getting disenrolled for a PFT failure. I wanted to get back in so bad but deep down I knew I really didn't want to be in the military. I played ROTC for a year and I guess God was telling me to get my head out of the clouds. There were many cadets in AFROTC for the scholarship money (it was an expensive school) and they were willing to put 4 years into the USAF before doing what they really wanted to do. The best cadets were the ones who wanted to be career USAF officers. Quite a few got slots for pilot training. Their majors ranged from biology to econ to engineering.</p>
<p>Thank you, newmassdad and Lt. J. I'm more and more interested in Airborne traning. I wish someday I would proudly wear a patch of Airborne trainee. My observation is that AF officers' jobs are more career oriented than Army, and they can have more peaceful life and enjoy family oriented life. On the other hand, army officers talk about their missions, leadership and careers very proudly. Actually many people don' mind harder working conditions and go for army careers. That's what I don't quite understand. What attracted you to become Army officers?</p>
<p>justinmeche, you were a AF ROTC cadet! Let me ask a specific question. According to my reaseach, AF ROTC cadets have to attend a militaray science class and military lab once a week, plus at least two times of pysical trainings per week. </p>
<p>If I am admitted only to a crosstown school, it'll take tons of time to take all these requirements commuting to and from the host school, for ex., from UCI to USC(almost 50 miles). Is it practical and feasible to enroll in AF ROTC program, attending a crosstown school, or is it better to attend a school that offers AF ROTC program on campus even though this school is not in my list of top choice. I wanna be an engineering career officer.</p>
<p>i have a stupid notion in the back of my head that as soon as you sign the ROTC conformation, you're herded into a plane and shipped of for Iraq. haha stupid yes i know. wait is it true?</p>
<p>"The training had become much less rigorous when it came to how much stress the upperclassmen could put on you."</p>
<p>Even 30 years ago, the upper classmen put no stress on the cadets. Stress time was at summer camp between Jr and Senior year, which was something like boot camp, but not at all stressful - more like "challenging". I think the image of drill seargents stressing folks is more of a movie thing. Whether the image if west point uppers harassing newcomers is accurate, I do not know.</p>
<p>Regarding time commitments etc, I would ask questions before jumping to conclusions. I would guess that regional consolidated ROTC programs are managed differently from one campus programs. They would not want to lose top cadets because of commuting issues.</p>
<p>When I joined AFROTC I heard that the upperclassmen in previous years were allowed to treat you like you would be treated at the field training sessions during the summer. That is only what I heard.</p>
<p>sam, as a sophomore I had to attend one lecture and one LLAB per week. My lecture was on the same day as the lab but that wasn't the case for the upperclassmen. The juniors and seniors had longer lectures in the evenings and more time commitments since they were responsible for setting up the LLABs. Physical Fitness: we were required to work out three times per week but not as a group. We did very little PF during the LLABs. The purpose of the LLABs was to educate and build leadership skills. But a lot of the physical fitness training took place during the summer field training sessions (Florida, Texas, or one of the Dakotas), which I didn't get to go to. Cadets who join as freshman will only have to go to FT for 4 weeks. Since I joined as a sophomore I would have to go for 7 weeks. It is probably a good thing that I didn't get to go because by then I had lost my patience with the training. </p>
<p>Crosstown cadets: there were plenty of them who had to commute to the main campus. Fortunately, they were able to carpool or take a bus. The officers really didn't care if things were inconvenient for them because as officers they would have to deal with problems everyday. Some would have it easy and others would have it hard. Such is the nature of life.</p>
<p>"i have a stupid notion in the back of my head that as soon as you sign the ROTC conformation, you're herded into a plane and shipped of for Iraq. haha stupid yes i know. wait is it true?"</p>
<p>needhelp06, you couldn't be further from the truth. First of all, you sign a little contract and then you spend four years AT COLLEGE, learning leadership and teambuilding skills and training to become a commissioned officer, while potentially earning money from the Army to complete college (not a bad thing last time I checked). Then, if you finish 4 years successfully, you are commissioned as a Second Lieutenant or equivalent (depending on which service branch you choose) in the U.S. Army or Navy or Air Force. After that you deploy to the corps (in the Army there's 14 or so: Infantry, Armor, Artillery, Engineers, Intelligence, Medical, etc.) where you train even more (sometimes up to a few years, but it depends on the corps) and are assigned a section of your division/regiment/whatever to command.</p>
<p>Then, if we're still in Iraq, there is a small chance you might go there. But you are signing yourself up for it, it's 100% voluntary to choose ROTC. If I have to go to Iraq or Libya or North Korea in the future after ROTC, so be it - I might not enjoy it but it will be my job.</p>
<p>CamKerr, "where you train even more (sometimes up to a few years, but it depends on the corps)" what are you talking about here? I suspect that, today, like always, the bulk of cadets are commissioned in a combat arm (prospective cadets, you can figure out what that is...) and go into Branch Officer Basic within a year after graduation. When I was commissioned in 1971, in Field Artillery, FAOBC classes were scheduled throughout the year and lasted 12 weeks. I was in the first of the year, starting July 1, 1971. Many of my colleagues had orders taking them to Viet Nam as soon as they finished. Because Viet Nam was starting to wind down, many of them had orders cancelled, and actually left active duty right after FAOBC. Now, FAOBC is 19 weeks. Infantry is 16 weeks. Others are in the same range.</p>
<p>Right now, I am willing to bet that anyone who graduated from Army ROTC in the past few years has either gone to Iraq or is on the way.</p>