Originally Posted by
Clue32
Like you I didn't understand what ROTC was about back when I was heading off to college. I figured if I was going to be an officer I wanted to be a "real" officer, so I tried the service academy route (only one school, only one congressman... now I know that was too limiting).
Back on track. ROTC will make you a "real" officer just like any of the academies. I'm fairly certain that there are more ROTC and prior enlisted OCS officers than West Pointers, if not it's a fairly even split. I've see great officers, average officers, and terrible officers from each commissioning source; none is better, just different.
Good point. The academies are actually rather small, annapolis and west point probably only account for about 10% of the new officers which enter the army and navy each year. Back in my grandfather's time, you had to be an academy grad to get anywhere in the military, but that is no longer the case. he higher ranks tend to have more academy grads but that probably has to do more with desire than anything else. The ROTC scholarship vs. academy decision really hinges on your personal preference. Do apply to more than one branch, like he said. I was always a navy wannabe, but I did army ROTC for a year before I got what I wanted from the navy.
Originally Posted by
Clue32
Commitment is 8 Years. This is for every service, officer or enlisted.
True, this applies to anyone who joins the military period. But when we talk about commitment, we usually refer to the active duty commitment, which can be anywhere from 2-8 years depending on what you do. If you leave active duty prior to 8 years, you go into the inactive reserve, with little risk of ever being called up unless you have some really special skill (ie SEAL, Doctor)