Posted on Nov 30, 2014
Prior Military Experience vs. College ROTC before earning a commission as an Officer?
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What are you thoughts regarding recent college graduates commissioning as Officers? And whether or not prior military experience is important to have when in pursuit of a commission?
I am enlisted (still early in my career) and began college to earn my degrees in Business & Communications. I also started participating in the Army ROTC program at the college and through my experience thus far I've found that it is a very different dynamic compared to the enlisted life - even when it comes to [basic] military etiquette (mostly because it is almost entirely student run). The senior cadets (MS4's) who hold ranks think VERY highly of themselves nonetheless. *However, the cadre and Officers instructing the program are very professional.
Having grown up in a family of veteran's and even through my short time in the military, I've learned to respect those with years of experience and have gone through real, tough hardships and deployments. I even spoke with several of my Senior NCO's and they have even mentioned how they've ran into a few Officers themselves who don't really "get it" quite yet.
With that, I still highly admire those in pursuit of a Commission. It is not an easy route, and a well earned one at that. I believe it is important to continue to show respect and professionalism towards all those appointed over me, no matter what background they may have.
So the basis of my question is that, is prior military experience important before pursuing a commission as an Officer? I am wondering if it is better to wait and gain more overall field training experience and have clearer leadership perspectives to add to my background (deployments and maybe wait until I become an NCO and learn how to lead soldiers) or do I continue with the college ROTC program?
I know that it is important take advantage of opportunities as they arise and that my ambitions include working hard towards earning a commission in the future. Just need reassurance that I'm on a respectful path.
Thank you in advance for your input.
I am enlisted (still early in my career) and began college to earn my degrees in Business & Communications. I also started participating in the Army ROTC program at the college and through my experience thus far I've found that it is a very different dynamic compared to the enlisted life - even when it comes to [basic] military etiquette (mostly because it is almost entirely student run). The senior cadets (MS4's) who hold ranks think VERY highly of themselves nonetheless. *However, the cadre and Officers instructing the program are very professional.
Having grown up in a family of veteran's and even through my short time in the military, I've learned to respect those with years of experience and have gone through real, tough hardships and deployments. I even spoke with several of my Senior NCO's and they have even mentioned how they've ran into a few Officers themselves who don't really "get it" quite yet.
With that, I still highly admire those in pursuit of a Commission. It is not an easy route, and a well earned one at that. I believe it is important to continue to show respect and professionalism towards all those appointed over me, no matter what background they may have.
So the basis of my question is that, is prior military experience important before pursuing a commission as an Officer? I am wondering if it is better to wait and gain more overall field training experience and have clearer leadership perspectives to add to my background (deployments and maybe wait until I become an NCO and learn how to lead soldiers) or do I continue with the college ROTC program?
I know that it is important take advantage of opportunities as they arise and that my ambitions include working hard towards earning a commission in the future. Just need reassurance that I'm on a respectful path.
Thank you in advance for your input.
Leadership
Officers
College
Transition
Edited 11 y ago
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 23
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I did a bit of ROTC in College, im doing OCS now. What bothers me is that cadets can land any job in the military eve without having a degree that relates to the job. Example i cant for the life of me find Cyber unit to get an acceptance letter but there is video posted by the army about a LT that got cyber thru ROTC, her major was literature. OCS has to go thru bootcamp, OCS then commission the BOLC. Cadets skip all of that. They go to a 4 week summer training with paintball guns. Still cant hate them for taking the opportunity that is available to all of us.
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This is a perennial question that often adds USMA into the mix,or did 30+ years ago. There are merits to each commissioning route, but in end, by the time an officer reaches First Lieutenant the differences have generally smoothed out and there is little qualitative difference in capability. Every officer is wise to listen to his NCOs, at every level, because there is a natural and necessary separation that comes with he job.
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1LT (Join to see), to me, having been enlisted in two VERY different services (Army and then Navy) after doing high school JROTC (Army and then Air Force) and then being at a state university that had both Army and Air Force ROTC, I saw many similar qualities (both good and bad, especially the seniority issue that CPT (Join to see) mentioned) from people in all of the situations.
Doing JROTC in HS, I was all sorts of gung-ho about joining the military (and being poor from a trailer park, I didn't think college was an option). I got a wake-up call at Army bootcamp. The military is not like JROTC (or ROTC for that fact).
I didn't realize it at the time, but I was just playing soldier/airman in high school and that's pretty much what I saw from the cadets at my university. They don't get it unless they've done the time on watch. Even the guys who grew up in a military family had their eyes opened.
For me, in a perfect world, part of getting an ROTC commission would include some type of enlisted service. Maybe something like signing a 6 year contract to serve 2 years as enlisted Active and then the remaining 4 years to finish your degree. I'm not sure how the logistics would best work, but I'm sure that if they knew what they were getting into, really knew from experience, then the cadets in these programs would probably become better leaders.
Doing JROTC in HS, I was all sorts of gung-ho about joining the military (and being poor from a trailer park, I didn't think college was an option). I got a wake-up call at Army bootcamp. The military is not like JROTC (or ROTC for that fact).
I didn't realize it at the time, but I was just playing soldier/airman in high school and that's pretty much what I saw from the cadets at my university. They don't get it unless they've done the time on watch. Even the guys who grew up in a military family had their eyes opened.
For me, in a perfect world, part of getting an ROTC commission would include some type of enlisted service. Maybe something like signing a 6 year contract to serve 2 years as enlisted Active and then the remaining 4 years to finish your degree. I'm not sure how the logistics would best work, but I'm sure that if they knew what they were getting into, really knew from experience, then the cadets in these programs would probably become better leaders.
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