For the spring semester, I thought I’d transition to a new passion blog topic. This blog is going to be all about what I do in Army ROTC here at Penn State. A lot of people don’t know much about it and I get a lot of questions about what it’s really like. On this blog, I am going to choose different aspects of Army ROTC each week and describe them in detail. They will be on things such as Physical Training, Leadership Labs, and Training Exercises. I am excited to write about these things, they are such a big part of my college experience so I thought it would be fun to share it with others.
For my first post, I am going to simply give an overview of Army ROTC and break it down into a few parts.
First, the history of Army ROTC as a whole.
ROTC stands for Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. It is a group of programs at colleges and universities that provide military training with the intent of producing commissioned officers into the US Armed Forces. ROTC graduates can serve in all branches of the military. Currently, Army ROTC is the largest ROTC program with over 20,000 ROTC cadets in over 273 ROTC programs among colleges and universities in the United States. Since I am in Army ROTC, anything I talk about on this blog pertains to Army and is not necessarily the same as what those in Naval or Air Force ROTC experience.
ROTC was developed with the Morrill Act of 1862, which established land-grant colleges. It was a requirement for these colleges to provide military training in their curriculum. Up until the 1960s, ROTC was required for all males attending these colleges. However, it became voluntary due to protests involving US opposition to participating in the Vietnam War.
Cadets are taught many military topics such as tactics, weapon skills, first aid, good leadership, and more. Classes are taught by cadre, who are members of the military themselves. However, much of the instruction is done by juniors and seniors in order to practice leadership and exercise previous knowledge. The structure of Army ROTC is similar to that of a real Army unit. There is a battalion commander, company commanders, company first sergeants, platoon leaders, and squad leaders, just to name a few. All of these roles are held by cadets and trains them in Army organization and function and allows them to gain valuable leadership experience.
After a cadet completes the Army ROTC program and commissions as a Second Lieutenant, they must fulfill an 8 year service obligation. They can serve a certain combination of years as Active Duty, in the Army National Guard, Reserve Forces, Inactive Ready Reserve, and more, depending on what kind of job they are pursuing.
Scholarships
Although ROTC can be joined completely voluntarily, the Army gives out scholarships to many high school students as an incentive to join the program. As a senior in high school, you can apply for a National ROTC Scholarship. The National Army ROTC scholarship offers either a 4-year or 3-year tuition or room and board scholarship, as well as a monthly stipend. Air Force and Navy ROTC Scholarships offer similar incentives. You fill out an application online, providing your grades, a list of activities, and answer a few essay questions as well as going to an interview with a Professor of Military Science at a school of your choosing. There are three different rounds of scholarships given out throughout the year.
The applicant must also pass an extensive medical test (DoDMERB) and pass the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) in order to fully secure the scholarship. I applied for and received a 4-year full tuition scholarship in November of my senior year, and I chose to use it at Penn State. There are many scholarship cadets at PSU, but there are also a bunch of students who signed up for Army ROTC without a scholarship of any kind. Penn State itself also gives a certain amount of scholarship money to cadets currently in the program every semester.
Penn State Army ROTC
Army ROTC at Penn State is very unique. It is known as the Nittany Lion Battalion. It is currently the largest Army ROTC program in the country. PSU was established as a land-grant college in 1863, and in 1917 they established an official ROTC program due to the demand for officers in World War I. 19 of the 24 Penn State campuses either have their own ROTC program or can participate in one through another university. University Park ROTC is in close conjunction with PSU Altoona ROTC. Penn State ROTC also has a number of extracurricular clubs, including Running Club, Tactics Club, Lion’s Guard (a drill and ceremony club), Cadet Recruiting Team, Ranger Team, and Kaizen (a THON organization).
My Personal Schedule
Throughout the week I have several ROTC responsibilities. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday we have physical training (PT) from 0550 to 0700. We have an Army class twice a week, which is just a typical classroom setting. In addition, we have a leadership lab every Thursday for a few hours, where we take what we learn in class and apply it to real-life situations and scenarios. Cadets wear some kind of uniform whenever they are doing anything Army related.
I plan to go more in depth about many of these things, but this is just an overview of what PSU Army ROTC is all about. If there is anything specific you’re interested in and would like me to talk more about, let me know in a comment!