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Was it a bad recruiter? Probably, but it was MY experience.
ROTC is not a branch of service. ROTC is not a job, like mechanic or electrician. Therefore your experience has nothing to do with the question asked here.
ROTC is not a branch of service. ROTC is not a job, like mechanic or electrician. Therefore your experience has nothing to do with the question asked here.
My question for the army officer assigned to ROTC was what job experience would my son have after the army. It should have not been a hard question for an army officer assigned to ROTC to answer.
My question for the army officer assigned to ROTC was what job experience would my son have after the army. It should have not been a hard question for an army officer assigned to ROTC to answer.
Maybe things have changed since I was in ROTC, but the officers at the detachment would not have been "recruiters", they are instructors who can recruit informally but the actual process was through the ROTC system.
The flippant "Walmart manager" response is unprofessional, if it's what was said. But to answer "Well, your son can be a 14A (Air Defense Officer) leading a Patriot battery and then after that he can manage a Fortune 500 company at the junior VP level" is unrealistic because no one can predict what post-Army options are available, nor what kind of leader the candidate is. Frankly, asking "Hey, if I get in as an officer for six years and then get out, what kind of civilian employment is available for me?" suggests a lack of dedication and a what's-in-it-for-me? attitude. It's called "service" for a reason. If, during my interview with the PAS when I was applying for my ROTC scholarship all those years ago, I stated "Yeah, I wanna be a pilot so when I am done with my commitment I can go to the airlines" I probably would have not gotten the scholarship. (I said no such thing, and got a full ride, then spent 28 years in.)
Certain career fields have civilian equivalents; obviously a pilot has a civilian equivalent, as does a JAG, a comptroller, a contracting officer, and the like. A missile control officer does not have a clear direct equivalent, nor does a cavalry officer. I'm not sure how the assignment process works, especially now, since I knew my follow-on after commissioning was pilot training, but most of my ROTC classmates had to wait until 3+ years in before they had any idea where they were headed career-wise. Only those of us going to rated fields (pilots, navigators, missileers) had that fore knowledge.
Last edited by SluggoF16; 04-13-2024 at 02:47 PM..
Air Force may have the "best" quality of life in many regards. But if you care about where you are stationed (e.g. big cities vs. smaller towns/even rural areas), I'd recommend the Navy hands down. Sure, the Air Force has duty stations that are in bigger cities, etc., to include on Oahu, Germany, parts of CA, etc. But it also has plenty of "less desirable" duty locations if you are looking to be stationed in bigger cities. But it goes with the mission of each service. The Air Force has to maintain big parts of the nuclear triad, and as a result many of its bases are in the "middle of nowhere."
On the other hand, the bulk of Navy bases and installations are along the coasts (or close by), near larger cities, etc., which for me has been very important.
For some people that may not matter, but just something to consider all the same. One of my good friends is an E7 in the Air Force. Throughout his career so far, he's had the opportunity to be stationed in some great locations for him, to include Italy and Germany. But he's also had to do tours in North Dakota and Missouri (not reasonably close to any large population centers). Again, might not be a problem for some folks, but something to consider.
I'm currently in the Navy on the officer side and work with enlisted intel/cryptologic technicians/cyber warfare technician types so can speak best to those communities, but can also shed some insight into some of the other naval communities as well.
I agree with m1a1mg and would recommend Air Force. Navy would be a close second but their deployments are longer and are usually considered hardship tours. Army deployments are generally a year long and they are never in nice places like the Philippines or Greece. The drawback on Air Force is that promotions are harder to gain once you’re past your initial commitment. That being said army life is what you make of it generally. It can be rewarding and fun but all in all service in the army isn’t bad.
Depending on what enlisted (or officer) officer Navy community one joins, sea deployments are minimum to non-existent, with some pretty desirable duty stations to boot.
Maybe things have changed since I was in ROTC, but the officers at the detachment would not have been "recruiters", they are instructors who can recruit informally but the actual process was through the ROTC system.
The flippant "Walmart manager" response is unprofessional, if it's what was said. But to answer "Well, your son can be a 14A (Air Defense Officer) leading a Patriot battery and then after that he can manage a Fortune 500 company at the junior VP level" is unrealistic because no one can predict what post-Army options are available, nor what kind of leader the candidate is. Frankly, asking "Hey, if I get in as an officer for six years and then get out, what kind of civilian employment is available for me?" suggests a lack of dedication and a what's-in-it-for-me? attitude. It's called "service" for a reason. If, during my interview with the PAS when I was applying for my ROTC scholarship all those years ago, I stated "Yeah, I wanna be a pilot so when I am done with my commitment I can go to the airlines" I probably would have not gotten the scholarship. (I said no such thing, and got a full ride, then spent 28 years in.)
Certain career fields have civilian equivalents; obviously a pilot has a civilian equivalent, as does a JAG, a comptroller, a contracting officer, and the like. A missile control officer does not have a clear direct equivalent, nor does a cavalry officer. I'm not sure how the assignment process works, especially now, since I knew my follow-on after commissioning was pilot training, but most of my ROTC classmates had to wait until 3+ years in before they had any idea where they were headed career-wise. Only those of us going to rated fields (pilots, navigators, missileers) had that fore knowledge.
Maybe things have changed since I was in ROTC, but the officers at the detachment would not have been "recruiters", they are instructors who can recruit informally but the actual process was through the ROTC system.
The flippant "Walmart manager" response is unprofessional, if it's what was said. But to answer "Well, your son can be a 14A (Air Defense Officer) leading a Patriot battery and then after that he can manage a Fortune 500 company at the junior VP level" is unrealistic because no one can predict what post-Army options are available, nor what kind of leader the candidate is. Frankly, asking "Hey, if I get in as an officer for six years and then get out, what kind of civilian employment is available for me?" suggests a lack of dedication and a what's-in-it-for-me? attitude. It's called "service" for a reason. If, during my interview with the PAS when I was applying for my ROTC scholarship all those years ago, I stated "Yeah, I wanna be a pilot so when I am done with my commitment I can go to the airlines" I probably would have not gotten the scholarship. (I said no such thing, and got a full ride, then spent 28 years in.)
Certain career fields have civilian equivalents; obviously a pilot has a civilian equivalent, as does a JAG, a comptroller, a contracting officer, and the like. A missile control officer does not have a clear direct equivalent, nor does a cavalry officer. I'm not sure how the assignment process works, especially now, since I knew my follow-on after commissioning was pilot training, but most of my ROTC classmates had to wait until 3+ years in before they had any idea where they were headed career-wise. Only those of us going to rated fields (pilots, navigators, missileers) had that fore knowledge.
Army cadets in ROTC receive their branch roughly at the beginning of their senior year, through a pretty complex process that boils down to, the better you do (grades, leadership evaluations, physical fitness), the more likely you are to get a branch that is high on your preference list. Not everyone can be an Infantryman, and someone has to branch Military Police or Chemical Corps.
A confounding factor is the Army sends some Cadets directly to the National Guard or Army Reserve and not active duty.
The ideal situation is everyone gets their preferred component (Guard, Reserve, active) and branch (Infantry, Armor, Signal, Quartermaster, etc.), and every component and branch gets exactly the number of Cadets they need-but someone's going to be disappointed every time.
There actually is usually a formal recruiting officer in an Army ROTC Battalion. It doesn't sound like that is the individual YorktownGal ran into. However, you are correct-every cadre member (and good, contracted Cadets, who often are the best advocate for the program if it's a quality program) is responsible for recruiting.
Army cadets in ROTC receive their branch roughly at the beginning of their senior year, through a pretty complex process that boils down to, the better you do (grades, leadership evaluations, physical fitness), the more likely you are to get a branch that is high on your preference list. Not everyone can be an Infantryman, and someone has to branch Military Police or Chemical Corps.
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That's about how AFROTC was as well. After field training (Between Year 2 and 3) in the Professional Officers Course (POC) cadets put in their paperwork for their desired career field. However, they would not know of their training courses after commissioning until after the start of Year 4, just like the Army. Their actual start dates might not be for as much as a year after graduation/commissioning, because they would be competing with USAF Academy grads who almost always got the first courses available after commissioning. Exception was for pilot, navigator and missile candidates, who had their career fields already chosen/assigned, even as early as day one.
AFROTC didn't have a formally-assigned recruiter at dets; in fact, we only had 4 officers, a Professor of Aerospace Studies (PAS, who was an O-6, who taught the 100-series classes, performed scholarship applicant interviews, and was the detachment commander), and captains or majors for the 200 through 400 classes. Additionally, there were perhaps six or seven enlisted (mostly E-4 through E-6) who ran the massive paperwork trail for accessions and commissioning, as well as supply (uniforms) and security clearances, with one E-8 as the NCOIC.
Last edited by SluggoF16; 04-15-2024 at 05:18 AM..
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