I might join someday (after I get my college degree). I don’t want to be a hardcore soldier but I would like some military experience with a short committment if possible (ie, no 8 years of reserve duty if I can avoid it). Goal is to make it a part of my life w/o it overrunning my life, and hopefully get some long term benefits out of it like VA healthcare.
What would be a good program for me? ROTC, National Guard, or what? I am almost illiterate about the military at this point.
What about the state national guard? What do they do?
I thought about the peace corps too after graduation, if I could combine peace corps work with some kind of military committment that would be nice.
National Guard sounds like a great option for you. Though, more than half of the Army’s combat units are guard, you dont have to be a “hardcore” soldier if you don’t want to. There are pleanty of other options out there.
What year in college are you. ROTC might not be a good idea if you’re already a junior. Don’t fret. Talk to your recruiter about OCS. The Guard has their own shorter version of OCS and it makes you the same kind of officer the regular OCS does (a wussy )
You also have more options in the Guard. You get to live where you want without fear of being relocated by the military. You can maintain a civilian career and you have the ability to choose your branch. If you went to OCS in the regular Army, they might just say “You’re going to be an infantry officer now. Tough luck, you’re going to be hardcore whether you want to or not”. In the Guard, you can usually join a unit and then request them to send you to OCS. They’re sending you, so you get a guarunteed position in that particular branch. Engineering for instance. Or Supply. Or Aviation.
The regular Army has a “High School to Flight School” program. You can go right off the street and become a warrant officer and then a helicopter pilot. What an awesome program!! If you wanted to fly helicopter and get some great experiences for about four years, do THAT!!! I would totally recomment flying a Blackhawk around for about four years if that sounds interesting to you. You won’t be “hardcore”. And you’ll log WAY more flight hours than an Apache pilot.
The only drawback there would be you’re controlled by the Army for four year. Not too long for you? Then go for it! Otherwise, talk to a Guard recruiter. You’ll be amazed at the oppurtunities!!
In basic, ROTC helps by giving you a chance of being made platoon leader (or Recruit Chief Petty Officer if you join the Navy) and (IIRC) will give you a higher rank upon completing basic. I’m not sure joining the National Guard would require basic training but being a reservist would.
Of course the National Guard requires Basic. And AIT. You don’t possibly think the Guard is running around untrained and unorganized do you?
ROTC offers you no benefits if you decide to go enlisted. You get no higher rank, and being a platoon leader at Basic is more of a pain in the ass than a privilege. Also, it is offered to anyone without regard to previous ROTC experience.
If you complete ROTC and then enlist, you will be an E4 Specialists. But this is because you finished four years of college, not because you went to ROTC. If you’re already more than half way through college, don’t even worry about ROTC. Go straight to OCS or enlist and go Green to Gold. ROTC would not be necessary for you.
Wes, is this really the best of times to look forward to a “quiet” military career?
AFAIK, the 8-year subject-to-recall obligation (counting from the day you are formally inducted into service) is pretty much absolute. Then again, depending on the billet, you may be likelier to avoid recall by doing a full-time 4-year active duty tour, then taking your chances at spending the rest in IRR. If supply meets or exceeds demand for troops with your particular training, you’re likely in the clear. OTOH going straight into a drilling Selected Reserve or National Guard unit makes you a prime candidate for inconvenient mobilizations.
Now, as mentioned, during the past 30 years a good bet would be going into the National Guard thru ROTC or their own OCS, then making sure you joined a rear-guard branch. Hoowever you may have noticed that these days a lot of the Guard, in both “teeth” and “tail” units, has been spending some considerable time shaking sand out of their shorts, after receiving the bare required notice to get their affairs in order, and subject to term extensions.
You may want to also think Coast Guard (or CG Reserve if you must avoid 4 full-time years) – it IS military service with all the accruing benefits, and it’s mostly home front law enforcement/public safety/rescue work with a lot less emphasis on the “blowing up people and things” issues.
The National Guard are the official militia of the states, organized into reserve units of the Army/Air Force (thus, NATIONAL), and each is commanded in peacetime by its governor who can deploy them to put down civil disturbances and for disaster relief.
The State Guard is a normally unpaid volunteer militia that backs up the National Guard for purely domestic ops.
In many states being in the NAtional Guard entitles you to free tuition in college if you go to a state school. In NJ you get 15 free credits a semester. Check in your state.
I put my self through college with a great deal of help from the Army Reserve. At that time the Army Reserve still had combat units. I transferred to the National Guard when I got my first job. They paid a monthly amount in addition to my drill pay. It used to be that in many states the National Guard paid 100% of tuition to a ‘state school’ that has changed and most now only pay a percentage although it is usually 50% or better. That in addition to your monthly drill pay is a great help. Also the Guard and Reserve still offer some form of student loan repayment. It used to be they’d pay 10% a year of the principle up to a certain amount. In my case since I enlisted prior to college, the principle of loans I’d taken in my freshman year was paid down by 30%. If you also join ROTC you can often get an additional amount as part of the Simultaneous Member Program SMP. It can be equal to your guard/reserve drill pay.
Additionally bonus when you graduate college you’ve already held a job for 2-4 years and in my case made sergeant so I had management experience. It sets you apart from your peers.
Many military occupational specialties offer enlistment bonuses and re-enlistment bonuses. In my case $5,000 to enlisted in 1987, $2,000 to extend in 1993 and then $3,000 to reup for 3 more in 1996. They spread this out over several years to insure you don’t take the money and run.
Down side. You can get activated. The last two guard units I was in have now been activated one is in Iraq the other was split up and is guarding various American bases throughout Europe.
Makes sense but I didn’t want to say anything without being positive.
Sorry, I was going my my Navy experience. When I was recruited in '87, Navy enlistees with ROTC experience did get preference for RPOC and AROC - the Navy equvalent to PL and APL - and also resulted in one rank higher upon graduation.
The Navy might be like the Marines in that they make sure to start off everyone as a low private. My former Marine buddy could not believe the way the Army starts people off as E-4 if they’ve graduated college, E-3 if they have at least two years of college or recruit (3?) additional people before leaving to Basic, and E-2 simply because they get a buddy to enlist with them.
He said everyone at Marine boot camp started as the lowest private and they had to earn they’re rank.
And from your post I gather that any additional rank from college or ROTC or whatever, would be given AFTER boot camp. Whereas the Army grants it upon enlistment. So you would go through Basic as an E-4. That’s a couple months of better pay right there.
I went into the Navy as an E-3, as was paid at that rank right away. However, I couldn’t wear any stripes until after boot camp graduation, since everybody in boot camp is supposed to be equally lowly.
I am really confused by some of the ROTC descriptions here. If you actually go through ROTC and complete it you go into whatever branch of ROTC you are in and become an officer (a 2nd Lieutenant). That is where many, if not most, military officers come from.
You don’t automatically become an officer from ROTC. You have to apply. There is no obligation if you don’t receive a scholarship. If you do get a scholarship then there will be an obligation for a certain ammount of years but it may be satisfied with reserve or guard time.
Yeah, that’s how it was in the Army. I went in as E3 and paid as one right away. But no one wears any ranks or anything in Basic. And an E3 or even E4 has no kind of authority or power over an E1. I made E4 a month and a half after Basic though, so that was pretty cool.
Shagnasty, your confusion is coming from your misunderstanding of the term “branch”. When I said a person can choose his branch, I wasn’t meaning Army, Navy, Marines, etc. When I said branch, I am talking about an Army Officer’s Branch.
I can tell you right away that it’s not a complete list. Because it’s at least missing the Special Forces Branch. Career Management Field (CMF) 18 baby! How are they going to leave out 18 series. Man. . .
… but I digress.
So those are what the branches are. When you go to ROTC and join the Army, you don’t necessarily get to choose what branch you want. Though I’m pretty sure if you volunteered for Infantry (CMF 11) they would give it to you! But let’s say you were hoping for Signal, you could very well end up with Transportation and not be happy with that.
That sucks for officers. Enlisted people get to choose their MOS.
The National Guard seems to make it easier for someone to get the Officer Branch of his choosing. If one would like to be a Transportation Officer, then he can go talk to a National Guard transportation unit and go from there.
Oh…
It didn’t occur to me until now that the page I linked to was an ROTC page. Since an officer has to be a Captain or at least a promotable 1LT, one cannot go from ROTC to the Special Foces Branch. That explains why CMF 18 was not on that page. I was thinking it was supposed to be all the Army branches. But it’s all the branches one might enter from ROTC…
I joined the Army right out of high school, served in the Guard while going through ROTC, then served in the Army as an officer.
When I became an officer, I was assigned to a branch I never wanted and the satisfying career I was promised became just a whispered tease to be remembered. My service was ultimately unsatisfying and I got out at the first opportunity.
From reading the OP, I would definitely advise against joining the service. One has to be really “into it” to serve in the face of unexpected and possibly unpleasant assignments and transfers. Being in the military actually does “overrun your life”, you know - now more than ever, when even the humblest, Reserve, water-purification unit can be deployed to some Iraqi hellhole for an extended tour.
Maybe the Coast Guard though. That might be OK, you get the military experience angle plus the helping people angle. I like the Peace Corps idea better. Better yet, consider working for the Red Cross, overseas.
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