Posted on Feb 21, 2021
What are the differences for an 18-year-old who enlists Reserves, does ROTC, or is accepted in a military academy?
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I am not sure about when ROTC and or the Academy becomes a federal obligation contractually.
I believe nearly all 18 year olds who do a reserve enlistment are going to college with a reserve GI bill with the goal to educate and commission similar outcomes of a ROTC or Academy Graduate.
A reserve enlistment is obligation federal contract sending you to bootcamp and then maintaining a deployment readiness statues for the entirety of the obligation, and you fail anywhere on that line, you can have a negative discharge, just like an active duty, with the same affects on your life
You could be assigned directly to a operational unit right after bootcamp, basically you are part time active duty right from the jump, getting ready for and going operational and on deployment and sent home back and forth from civilian life and active duty status to the point it all blurs
There is no ROTC or Academy type, education leadership or counseling assigned to you for college or how to manage this back and forth duty status you now have.
I believe nearly all 18 year olds who do a reserve enlistment are going to college with a reserve GI bill with the goal to educate and commission similar outcomes of a ROTC or Academy Graduate.
A reserve enlistment is obligation federal contract sending you to bootcamp and then maintaining a deployment readiness statues for the entirety of the obligation, and you fail anywhere on that line, you can have a negative discharge, just like an active duty, with the same affects on your life
You could be assigned directly to a operational unit right after bootcamp, basically you are part time active duty right from the jump, getting ready for and going operational and on deployment and sent home back and forth from civilian life and active duty status to the point it all blurs
There is no ROTC or Academy type, education leadership or counseling assigned to you for college or how to manage this back and forth duty status you now have.
Reserves
ROTC
Edited 4 y ago
Posted 4 y ago
Responses: 9
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I'm not sure where you were going with your question. You can be in the Army Reserve or National Guard and ROTC at the same time. Any Reserve Component will release you to join an officer producing program such as ROTC (non SMP) or the Academy.
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PO3 Aaron Hassay
LTC (Join to see) Its just my experience in the Navy, and studying other blogs on a reserve enlistment. I am finding out that there are differences between reserve enlistment between branches.
I know there are active duty enlistments that have reserve obligation at tail end of the enlistment for example a 2 by 6 or something to that affect.
If you do direct reserve in the Navy as far as when I was in, I am not sure, that you could also do ROTC. But in recollection that is possibly a reality, I did not know how to explore or was never offered. There was no ROTC type education officer monitoring me.
And I was far to busy and distracted by qualifying for the ship I was assigned.
I know there are active duty enlistments that have reserve obligation at tail end of the enlistment for example a 2 by 6 or something to that affect.
If you do direct reserve in the Navy as far as when I was in, I am not sure, that you could also do ROTC. But in recollection that is possibly a reality, I did not know how to explore or was never offered. There was no ROTC type education officer monitoring me.
And I was far to busy and distracted by qualifying for the ship I was assigned.
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SMP that LTC (Join to see) mentioned stands for Simultaneous Membership Program. While Army allows ROTC cadets to also drill in the Reserve or Guard while in school, I am unsure if other services allow such an arrangement
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ROTC incurs a contractual obligation when you become a contracted cadet. Happens the first day if your scholarship if a scholarship recipient or your start of junior year as a non scholarship cadet.
For Service academies it starts when you arrive at the Academy.
Both of those contracts are to complete training. Once you commission, you incur an Active Duty Service obligation. Mine was 6 years
For Service academies it starts when you arrive at the Academy.
Both of those contracts are to complete training. Once you commission, you incur an Active Duty Service obligation. Mine was 6 years
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PO3 Aaron Hassay
That was the answer I was looking for the ROTC and Academy Contract.
It seems in my head that in general ROTC and or the Academy can not give you an obligation contract until after you earn the degree and commission generally should take 4 years to do from 18-22 . ROTC and the Academies have built in leadership 24/7 for the trainees, I believe.
I look at the lack of 24/7 paid leadership to monitor a 18 years old with an reserve enlistment side by side a ROTC student in that college class.
The 18 year old just got out regular bootcamp. The 18 year old is trying to get a degree and commission.
The 18 year old may get more operational deployed active duty days then anticipated in his first year of service for whatever reason, and sent back to civilian life, and attempt to reinigreate back into college.
Sometimes they talk about TAPS as it applies only to active duty.
But if you are this 18 year old in a reserve obligation this Transition between active duty and civilian life is constant. It can become blurry. Again I discuss the leadership quality that ROTC possesses and the Academy.posseese to monitor these same young Americans in a complete different contractual obligation.
Active Duty get a definite break to just focus on school after service with a the current nice large VA Gi Bill
It seems in my head that in general ROTC and or the Academy can not give you an obligation contract until after you earn the degree and commission generally should take 4 years to do from 18-22 . ROTC and the Academies have built in leadership 24/7 for the trainees, I believe.
I look at the lack of 24/7 paid leadership to monitor a 18 years old with an reserve enlistment side by side a ROTC student in that college class.
The 18 year old just got out regular bootcamp. The 18 year old is trying to get a degree and commission.
The 18 year old may get more operational deployed active duty days then anticipated in his first year of service for whatever reason, and sent back to civilian life, and attempt to reinigreate back into college.
Sometimes they talk about TAPS as it applies only to active duty.
But if you are this 18 year old in a reserve obligation this Transition between active duty and civilian life is constant. It can become blurry. Again I discuss the leadership quality that ROTC possesses and the Academy.posseese to monitor these same young Americans in a complete different contractual obligation.
Active Duty get a definite break to just focus on school after service with a the current nice large VA Gi Bill
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SPC David S.
As well for service academies cadets have a service obligation based on the number of years a cadet attends a service academy. I think its 1 year as a cadet = 2 years in service unless the cadet graduates then its 5 year service obligation. It may have changed but that was the deal when I was at USAFA.
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LTC Jason Mackay
PO3 Aaron Hassay I really don’t know what to take away from this. Are you trying liken the contract as an instrument of personal control over the person? Comparing the cadet contract+8 year enlistment to a standard enlistment is like comparing apples to washing machines.
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