Posted on Jun 8, 2018
Will enrolling in ROTC while in Army Reserves help me attain my goal of going active duty in an Infantry MOS?
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this is my first rp post. I have a few questions about the rotc program but first I'll explain my current situation.
My goal was to enlist in the army as an active duty infantrymen I passed my asvab & was set for meps next week. Unfortunately my recruiter informed me that GED slots for active duty were no longer available & that I would have to go reserves. I was really not trying to do reserves for 3 years it's not for me I initially backed out but my recruiter persuaded me by telling me to use the army benefits to go to college & take the rotc program that way by the time I go active duty I'll be an officer. It made sense & motivated me to take on the reserves. I leave for a 4 month army bct in October & when I come back I'll be a 92y which doesn't get me excited but it'll do for now. Remember I go to meps next week so I have not signed a contract yet so if I'm making a mistake by joining the reserves please let me know. Here are my questions.
1. Can a reservist that graduated from Rotc /ocs go active duty ? I've read that AD is not guaranteed?
2. Do you need a 4 year college degree ? I've read that if you complete bct/ait the first 2 years are waived off for Rotc is this true ?
3. Am I taking the right path here? My goal is active duty in a infantry mos . Will being a reservist & enrolling in the rotc program benefit me ?
I'm sorry if these questions sound foolish to you guys I'm just a 19 yr old civilian who planned on enlisting as AD. Now I'm here debating if the reserves is the right path to take or just wait until more ged slots open up .
Please any advice helps. Thank you all.
My goal was to enlist in the army as an active duty infantrymen I passed my asvab & was set for meps next week. Unfortunately my recruiter informed me that GED slots for active duty were no longer available & that I would have to go reserves. I was really not trying to do reserves for 3 years it's not for me I initially backed out but my recruiter persuaded me by telling me to use the army benefits to go to college & take the rotc program that way by the time I go active duty I'll be an officer. It made sense & motivated me to take on the reserves. I leave for a 4 month army bct in October & when I come back I'll be a 92y which doesn't get me excited but it'll do for now. Remember I go to meps next week so I have not signed a contract yet so if I'm making a mistake by joining the reserves please let me know. Here are my questions.
1. Can a reservist that graduated from Rotc /ocs go active duty ? I've read that AD is not guaranteed?
2. Do you need a 4 year college degree ? I've read that if you complete bct/ait the first 2 years are waived off for Rotc is this true ?
3. Am I taking the right path here? My goal is active duty in a infantry mos . Will being a reservist & enrolling in the rotc program benefit me ?
I'm sorry if these questions sound foolish to you guys I'm just a 19 yr old civilian who planned on enlisting as AD. Now I'm here debating if the reserves is the right path to take or just wait until more ged slots open up .
Please any advice helps. Thank you all.
ROTC
Reserves
Officers
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 13
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If you want to Plus up your chances on going active duty go the University of North Georgia. They're a four year Army ROTC program with a Corps of Cadets. The Leadership trading is awesome. Going Reserves even 92Y Supply will never hurt you. If your gonna be an officer no matter what branch the better you understand supply at the unit level especially the better off you'll be. Regardless of when you start ROTC by starting out enlisted in the Reserves you'll get the clock started on completing 20 years service toward retirement. I know that's way off in your thinking right now but as you get older it looms big! Take all four years of ROTC if you can get that degree. The leadership training is some of the best anywhere! Good luck in all your future endeavors Larry!
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Larry Fajardo
Thanks for the response. Would just a 4 year degree do it or would I still need to graduate from rotc?
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MAJ (Join to see)
It helps to be in ROTC. Unless you are medical and can apply for direct commission Much more difficult to commission if you are not ROTC
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CPT Lawrence Cable
Larry Fajardo - If you have a MOS, you can skip the first two years of ROTC and join as a Junior. Then do the last two years of ROTC and commission when you graduate. If you chose that path, I would seriously look at the Simultaneous Membership Program with the Reserves/National Guard while attending ROTC. You would get paid as an E-5 for Drill weekends and AT's, you pick up experience and all of your time counts toward Time in Service for pay. Be aware that Active Duty slots in ROTC are not a guarantee and you need to be in the top of the class to get a slot. You get a wish list of Branches, but it's needs of the service in the long run.
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With your goal in mind, it seems like the more direct route would be to enroll in an adult education program to earn a HS diploma then enlist as an 11b. The 15 college credit hours mentioned in another response seems like a good idea as well, but might be more expensive than simply finishing your HS diploma. If you end up going reserves, why not go National Guard as an 11b? At least that way you'd be an infantryman. You cannot tell what branch you'd get if you did OCS.
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Going on the assumption that Recruiters have a mission to fill and don't always tell you all of the rules.
Yes, the Army, Marines and Navy all restrict GED's, the last thing I read officially is the restricts them to under 10 percent. The Fiscal year for the Army started last October, so by this time of the year that quota is generally gone. OTOH, if active duty Infantry was your goal, you could have just waited until the next fiscal year and enlisted then. The recruiter gave you that information, just didn't lead you to asking the right question, which would have been when would those slots be available. I've never had a recruiter lie to me, but sometimes they don't lead you to asking all the right questions.
The other choice is to enlist with a GED is getting 15 credit hours from an accredited college then enlist. The 15 credit hours puts you as a Tier 1 Recruit, just like a High School Diploma. Don't have to worry about slots at that point. Here the local technical college is about $170 a credit hour.
Option number 3 depends on the State. There are very limited Combat Arm in the Army Reserve, but that isn't true on the National Guard side of things. A lot of States have large Infantry and/or Combined Arms unit that would offer a chance to be Infantry. You don't have to join in your own state. See if you like it, get some rank and experience and then switch to Active Duty. To be clear, that isn't as simple as it sounds, but it's a path that is available.
Yes, the Army, Marines and Navy all restrict GED's, the last thing I read officially is the restricts them to under 10 percent. The Fiscal year for the Army started last October, so by this time of the year that quota is generally gone. OTOH, if active duty Infantry was your goal, you could have just waited until the next fiscal year and enlisted then. The recruiter gave you that information, just didn't lead you to asking the right question, which would have been when would those slots be available. I've never had a recruiter lie to me, but sometimes they don't lead you to asking all the right questions.
The other choice is to enlist with a GED is getting 15 credit hours from an accredited college then enlist. The 15 credit hours puts you as a Tier 1 Recruit, just like a High School Diploma. Don't have to worry about slots at that point. Here the local technical college is about $170 a credit hour.
Option number 3 depends on the State. There are very limited Combat Arm in the Army Reserve, but that isn't true on the National Guard side of things. A lot of States have large Infantry and/or Combined Arms unit that would offer a chance to be Infantry. You don't have to join in your own state. See if you like it, get some rank and experience and then switch to Active Duty. To be clear, that isn't as simple as it sounds, but it's a path that is available.
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Larry Fajardo
Thank you. I go to meps next week so I haven't signed anything. He also told me I would leave to bct in October .... Which would be when the fiscal year opens right? Would I be better off waiting ? I was thinking about doing a 4 year degree while in the reserves.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
Larry Fajardo - If you are really interested in being an Active Duty 11B, I would just ask the recruiter straight out when the next slots will be available in the Active Army for 11B's. I would assume that it would reset October 1 at the start of the new Fiscal Year, but he should be straight up about that answer if you ask it. Again, if you are going to consider Reserve Duty, and there are a lot of us here that served most or all our time in NG and Reserve units, and you still want to be an 11B, I would hit my National Guard recruiter up to see if they have a infantry slot available. You get all the same GI bill benefits of the Army Reserve plus a lot of states offer free and/or additional tuition assistance to in state schools. Either route would give you an Military Occupational Specialty and that exempts you from the first two years of ROTC, and I am going to assume that you aren't going to get a ROTC scholarship with a GED. Then you can join ROTC in your Junior year and then compete with the rest of the cadets for the Active Duty slots, which does not guarantee that you will get Branched Infantry either. If you decide to go that route either Guard or Reserve, I would also recommend that you take advantage of the Simultaneous Membership Program (SMP) that allows you to drill as a Cadet in a Reserve or Guard unit. Besides the experience, you get paid for drill as an E5 and you don't lose any time in service for pay. That means you would commission as an O-1 Second Lt. with over 4 years TIS, which means about $800 a month in pay (although none of us really care about that kind of crass thing, right ;^).). If you don't chose to compete for the Active Slots, you can ask for a Reserve/Guard guarantee and generally the National Guard will let you branch anything they have a slot for in the state. Now the downside of an Guard Commission is that once you get above Company Level, the Rank of Captain, since they only promote from within the State, slots for O4's and up can get scarce. That's is a long way away in your future now.
I enlisted Infantry and commissioned in Infantry, I already had a four year degree when I enlisted and went through OCS. If you have some specific question, you can message me on this site. I'm a service brat, so I kind of grew up around the Military and didn't go in quite as ignorant about how stuff was supposed to work, but it's still a whole different world from what you are use to now and being a Grunt is both a mental and physical challenge.
I enlisted Infantry and commissioned in Infantry, I already had a four year degree when I enlisted and went through OCS. If you have some specific question, you can message me on this site. I'm a service brat, so I kind of grew up around the Military and didn't go in quite as ignorant about how stuff was supposed to work, but it's still a whole different world from what you are use to now and being a Grunt is both a mental and physical challenge.
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Spenser Rapone you forgot how to spell your name, feel free to correct it in your profile, and then verify with a redacted copy of your DD214
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Regular Army commission thru ROTC is very competitive and been on the reserve will not give you any advantage. Also, branch assigmament are competitive as well! The biggest benefit of been in the reserves is the additional school benefits. Additionally, you mentioned that initially you tried to enlist. Are you aware of the difference between an enlisted and commissioned officer? There is a whole world of differences when it comes to duties and responsibilities.
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Larry Fajardo
Yes sir so I've been told, but I won't shy away because of how difficult it might be. If others can do it why can't I ? It sure beats waiting around and doing nothing. I'm going for it I haven't experienced it but sure do want to.
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MAJ Javier Rivera
Just be informed regarding the decision you make. I was enlisted 10’yrs and then commission thru ROTC; immediate active duty. The only one in my whole class.
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Training not Trading! North Georgia has a great reputation in the Army. As of the past academic year they were number 1 receiving the McArthur Leadership award and the placed fourth over all in Ranger Challenge Teams at Sandhurst competition conducted at West Point placing highest among all ROTC units as well as West Point. Google it and check it out for your self. Back in the 80s when I went there we had guaranteed active duty slots even without having to be in top 10% of Commissioning Seniors.
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1. Yes. However, when you contract with ROTC at your university do NOT sign a Guaranteed Reserve Forces Duty (GRFD) contract if you are thinking about going active duty. If you sign one of those, you are telling Cadet Command you will commission into the National Guard or Army Reserves. Instead, request to compete for active duty, aka an "open contract." This gives you the option to compete for active duty or go guard/reserve if you change your mind.
2. You need a 4 year degree. The cutoff to enroll in ROTC is the end of your academic sophomore year because you need to be contracted by junior year. I have seen one person enroll and contract junior year, but know that is very rare. You will not get waived just for completing BCT/AIT. That was not the case for myself or any of my friends.
3. Yes. IMO, you are taking the right path. I enlisted into the Ohio Army National Guard my freshman year of college as a 15P. Went to basic training over the summer, and then contracted "open" with ROTC my sophomore year. I chose open instead of a GRFD because I wanted to keep my options open between active duty and the guard. I joined the army with the intent of becoming an aviator, and I am currently living that dream as a 15A. If you are joining the reserves to eventually become an active duty infantry officer, you will achieve your dream with the right attitude and commitment.
4. If you have any questions about ROTC and the Simultaneous Membership Program (SMP), please feel free to message me. Good luck to you.
-Luke
2. You need a 4 year degree. The cutoff to enroll in ROTC is the end of your academic sophomore year because you need to be contracted by junior year. I have seen one person enroll and contract junior year, but know that is very rare. You will not get waived just for completing BCT/AIT. That was not the case for myself or any of my friends.
3. Yes. IMO, you are taking the right path. I enlisted into the Ohio Army National Guard my freshman year of college as a 15P. Went to basic training over the summer, and then contracted "open" with ROTC my sophomore year. I chose open instead of a GRFD because I wanted to keep my options open between active duty and the guard. I joined the army with the intent of becoming an aviator, and I am currently living that dream as a 15A. If you are joining the reserves to eventually become an active duty infantry officer, you will achieve your dream with the right attitude and commitment.
4. If you have any questions about ROTC and the Simultaneous Membership Program (SMP), please feel free to message me. Good luck to you.
-Luke
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I had an Army ROTC three year scholarship then went on active duty for 20 years.
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LTC Ingrid Centurion
1. Can a reservist that graduated from Rotc /ocs go active duty ? Yes. I've read that AD is not guaranteed? Thats correct, you will be competing with others. So if you really want infantry then you need to be very competitive.
2. Do you need a 4 year college degree ? Get your education and have fun in college.
3. Am I taking the right path here? My goal is active duty in a infantry mos . Will being a reservist & enrolling in the rotc program benefit me ? Your not Guaranteed Infantry like I was not guaranteed Aviation, so you are taking a chance.
2. Do you need a 4 year college degree ? Get your education and have fun in college.
3. Am I taking the right path here? My goal is active duty in a infantry mos . Will being a reservist & enrolling in the rotc program benefit me ? Your not Guaranteed Infantry like I was not guaranteed Aviation, so you are taking a chance.
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1. Yes, going AD is going to be dependent on multiple factors: You're major, your GPA, your leadership score, your PT score, ext. You're competing against cadets from all across the country that mostly want infantry. It will be tough!
2. You can skip the first 2 years of ROTC(MLS 1 & 2), if you've done BT & AIT.
2. You can skip the first 2 years of ROTC(MLS 1 & 2), if you've done BT & AIT.
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