Less than 1% of our great nation serve the country, so it’s only fitting that less than 1% of our student body is part of the Reserve Officer Training Corps. Sometimes we present the National Colors before sporting events, maybe one of us helped you move in as a freshman, once in a while you’ll notice all of us walking around in our grey and black PT uniforms, or if you’re lucky, on Wednesday you could see us in our combat uniforms (camouflage).
But what is ROTC?
“The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) are a group of college-based officer training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces.” (Wikipedia). In normal person words, that means the US Army is teaching us how to be leaders. Training consists of Physical Training in the mornings Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at Providence College from 6:30-7:30. Then on Wednesdays we have either a class or a Lead-Lab, where we put what we’ve learned into action. That’s when we get to run around the woods of Bryant University, carrying rubber rifles and shouting “Bang Bang” at our friends pretending to be bad guys. Then once a semester we get to fly off in Blackhawk Helicopters to train in the field for three days without interruption. At the end of four years the Army says we’re ready and we are sworn into the service as 2nd Lieutenants.
Why do people do it?
First off, most of us are drawn to it because we want to serve our country. Of course there are other incentives, like knowing you’ll have some sort of career when you graduate. Even better, some cadets are lucky enough to come into college with a scholarship for two, three, even all four years of tuition. Others may be offered a scholarship after earning a contract.
What is the Contract?
When a person decides that ROTC is the path for them, they can go to the Contracting Board. This process is a PT Test, and an examination of transcripts and resumes. There are also interviews with a senior in the program, a prominent civilian leader at one of the affiliated schools, the Master Sergeant of the program, an officer from the cadre, and the Commander of the program. If the person is qualified to be offered the contract, they sign up to learn what they can in ROTC, and then commission as officers and serve for eight years.
What happens when you graduate?
When we graduate from college we will all serve for eight years in some capacity. From each class of 14 or so, about 1/3 will go Active Duty. Active Duty is what most people picture when they think the Army: they live on bases, and the Army is their full time job. The rest of us will go into the National Guard or the Army Reserves. Those that enter the Guard or Reserve have a civilian (normal person) job full-time, and are in the Army as a part-time job. These folks are called Citizen-Soldiers.
Does everyone do the same thing in the Army when they graduate?
When we are coming up through the years of ROTC, we are constantly ranked by our Cadre (Military Professors). Depending on our rank in the class, and how we match up nationally, we get placed in our choices of jobs. There are 17 general Branches within the Army that we could end up in. After we graduate, we attend Basic Officer Leadership Course, where we learn the specifics of the branch we are assigned to, and how to do our jobs. These courses range anywhere from six months to two years. If you were to watch our training during our college days, you’d see we really just train to be infantry officers.
ROTC has been amazing for me. It’s where I’ve met a good amount of my college friends, one of whom introduced me to my beautiful girlfriend.
I get to have a normal life and, even better, myself and my brothers and sisters in arms are all going to end up with either a full-time career or a part-time profession. We’re all very lucky, but very dedicated people with a bright future ahead. And we get to have fun while we’re at it. And hey, if you need that motivation to work out, you can always catch a ride to PT…you’ll even get a free T-shirt out of it. We’re friendly, I promise, just look!