ROTC, clear it up for me will ya

[Horseshoe]

Okay, I understand basically what ROTC is, but how does it work? And how do you join? And do you need a scholarship? And how much time and when do you attend meetings and military training? And why does the R stand for Reserve? And are your chances of getting a flight slot equal to that of USNA graduates? And how are you chosen for flight school from ROTC?

Damn thats a lot of questions. Scratch my first sentence.

 

[WishICouldFly]

Here, I'll try to give you a legit answer before the rest of AW comes and tears this up From what I understand, NROTC and USNA share the number of slots for flight contracts.
How you join ROTC depends on your school, but I'm sure you can just go talk to your unit on campus and talk to them about it. If it's anything like AROTC, you can either be a scholarshiped MM or just be in program...but I'm not sure about that.
I guess as far as the actual dynamics of NROTC go, I'll leave it to someone who's actually in NROTC, since it seems to be a lot different than the Army.

 

[CUBuffs]

I'll try to answer some questions, and ask some more!

Are you already in college? If so, does your college have a NROTC program? If so, you could directly contact your unit through the recruiting officer. They can tell you if you're eligible for the College Program, which could lead to a scholarship.

The R means 'Reserve', but you will be commissioned to active duty as an unrestricted line officer. No different than the Academy.

As for military training, it depends upon the unit, but you will have at least one drill period per week, PT session, and various competition events. Your involvement could be everyday of the week, or just a couple times per week. It depends how much you volunteer to improve your leadership.

As for a scholarship, they're very competitive, but if you have a good GPA, good fitness scores, and get a high ranking from your local staff, then you could pick up a scholarship for the remaining time in college.

As for getting a pilot slot, theres a ton of threads on this, use the search.

In a nutshell, you'll put your service selections in at the beginning of your senior year, hopefully find out before Christmas where you're headed. This past year everyone who put Pilot as the first choice got it at Colorado, but it changes year to year. You just gotta take that chance.

 

[Brett327]

Okay, I understand basically what ROTC is, but how does it work? And how do you join? And do you need a scholarship? And how much time and when do you attend meetings and military training? And why does the R stand for Reserve? And are your chances of getting a flight slot equal to that of USNA graduates? And how are you chosen for flight school from ROTC?

Damn thats a lot of questions. Scratch my first sentence.

Search, search, search. There are lots of threads from those who have gone before you that will go a long way in answering your several questions. Come back after you've read through them thoroughly and we'll try to address your more specific, informed questions at that time.

Brett

 

[NozeMan]

Do freakin' search then come back with more specific questions. You basically asked us to explain the whole NROTC program to you. Believe me, it's already on this site.

That said, do Purdue NROTC. Why? because it's cool.

 

[NavAir42]

And why does the R stand for Reserve?

Because having "V" stand for reserve didn't make as much sense.

When the NROTC program was originally started in the 1920's, the Naval Academy was able to supply the majority of the officers needed for a peace time navy. However, during World War I, the Navy rapidly expanded and didn't have a system in place to rapidly train new officers or have a standing reserve pool of officers to draw from. Thus when the NROTC program was created it was meant to commission new officers in the reserves, send them to sea for a couple years on active duty to make them fairly competent, then keep them on the reserve lists when they returned to civilian life in case the Navy needed to rapidly expand again.

During and after World War II the Navy officer corps expanded permanently to a size the Naval Academy was unable produce enough officers to support. ROTC and OCS programs were then able to fill that need with officers who simply stayed on active duty even though they were originally commissioned into the reserves. It wasn't until a few years ago (less than 10, sorry I don't have an exact year) that new officers coming from NROTC units were given regular commissions in the Navy, like the Academy, as opposed to reserve commissions. In all reality the R is something of a misnomer now, but calling it NOTC would probably sound funny.

 

[WishICouldFly]

In all reality the R is something of a misnomer now, but calling it NOTC would probably sound funny.

It would give the hippies and other unsavory characters more names to call us...I've been called a 'ROTC Nazi' on more than one occasion (generally as a joke by friends), but with NOTC, we'd probably just become 'Nazis'.

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

Do freakin' search then come back with more specific questions. You basically asked us to explain the whole NROTC program to you. Believe me, it's already on this site.

That said, do Purdue NROTC. Why? because it's cool.

I smell another potential NROTC unit war coming along very soon.

 

[USN99]

Correction

It wasn't until a few years ago (less than 10, sorry I don't have an exact year) that new officers coming from NROTC units were given regular commissions in the Navy, like the Academy, as opposed to reserve commissions.

NROTC Scholarship Mids have been commissioned as Regular Navy for decades- repeat, decades. There was only a brief time period, during the post-Cold War drawdown, that Congress intervened and pressured the services to commission all O-1s in the Reserves- even Academy types. This bit of lunacy - what do you expect from politicians - was cancelled in the recent past. Now all NROTC Scholarship Mids are again commissioned in the Regular Navy as are Academy types.

 

[Gatordev]

NROTC Scholarship Mids have been commissioned as Regular Navy for decades- repeat, decades. There was only a brief time period, during the post-Cold War drawdown, that Congress intervened and pressured the services to commission all O-1s in the Reserves- even Academy types. This bit of lunacy - what do you expect from politicians - was cancelled in the recent past. Now all NROTC Scholarship Mids are again commissioned in the Regular Navy as are Academy types.

Maybe I'm not using the right vocabulary here, but I was NOT commissioned regular Navy from ROTC. I received a reserve commission (1395), as did all Academy types from around '96-ish on. Yes, I was commissioned active duty, but not "regular Navy." When winged, I was designated 1315 until '03-'04 when I augmented. That all changed in '04-'05-ish when they made everyone a 1xx0

 

[HeyJoe]

Maybe I'm not using the right vocabulary here, but I was NOT commissioned regular Navy from ROTC. I received a reserve commission (1395), as did all Academy types from around '96-ish on. Yes, I was commissioned active duty, but not "regular Navy." When winged, I was designated 1315 until '03-'04 when I augmented. That all changed in '04-'05-ish when they made everyone a 1xx0

Same in late 70s through early nineties. We had a plethora of USNR and you had to request augmentation. Back then, only guaranteed regulars were USNA. Some of ROTC types got it if they were top performers (it was offered and did not have to be accepted). Some stayed USNR as long as possible because they claimed they could apply for TAR easier. In drawdown post Desert Storm, that backfired on many who had the big R and were not "renewed".

 

[bunk22]

Back in the early 90's, we scholarship types were commissioned USN....I was commissioned a 1390 (SNA I believe) then once I was winged, I was a 1310. The college program guys were always commissioned USNR. I know as of the late 90's, all NROTC types were commissioned USNR.

 

[statesman]

A buddy of mine who graduated 03 from USNA was commissioned USNR. I know that doesn't speak to anyone coming out of ROTC, but I found it kind of odd.

 

[Gatordev]

A buddy of mine who graduated 03 from USNA was commissioned USNR. I know that doesn't speak to anyone coming out of ROTC, but I found it kind of odd.

It's not odd, that's just how they did it. Around '94 or '95 (I said '96 earlier in error), they changed it so all Academy and ROTC guys got the same commission (USNR). Once the "integration" of reserve and active components happened (circa 05-ish), everyone got USN commissions again.

 

[Horseshoe]

I'm just worried that I will go through all of this work (ROTC) and then not get a pilot slot. That would seriously bum me out. And also, are all NROTC programs equally granted the same amount of pilot slots? For instance, does UFA nrotc have a better shot at pilot slots then say...Villanova nrotc?