NROTC - A Dad's Blog

[cincymarsdad]

I dropped my twin daughters off yesterday at Ohio State at the NROTC program there. This is what I saw, as a parent:

First, let me mention that the NROTC scholarship is a good deal if you are pretty sure you are committed to a military life for four years. They pay everything but room and board. If you are a junior, check into this. It's competitive, but one of my girls - Sarah - won one.

Check-in was at 1100, and the parents were taken separately to lunch and then a room for a brief presentation by the Navy Captain commanding. A Marine major is the MOI, an acronym I may have wrong, but think is "Marine Officer Instructor" or close to that. A Marine Gunny is AMOI. The Captain seemed to go to some lengths to describe that our kids would not be mistreated etc. and described the possible stages of being warned, Leave of Absence, or disenrollment etc.

Then the kids marched in, led by senior midshipmen. It was amusing to see many of them standing at attention for the first time, especially my other daughter Laura. They also were soaked, as it was pouring outside. I imagine some parents were aghast.

The scholarship students were called down front, and this was about 60% of the 49 students I'd say, and were sworn in to military service. The non-s-ship students were not, and have no commitment, and no "King's schilling". We were told that those of them who had good grades had a good chance at a 3-year s-ship if they wanted, >3.0 GPA. If you drop out, we were told you had to pay back whatever money you accepted and not serve enlisted etc. Seemed fair to me.

The students then marched out and we were free to go. The students were to be freed up at 1830, so I figured I stay around and see how Laura liked all this. I drove down to the Lima Company 3/25 reserve center and chatted with Master Sergeant Halbig and Gunny Bowman for a while. The Gunny was wounded in Iraq and I asked about how he came by it and how he was doing. He said he was waiting on paperwork to clear him for full duty, but was on full duty now anyway. He had an artery severed and nearly lost his leg and was close to bleeding out. Gunny Bowman was Chris' platoon sergeant. They said the unit was "recovering" these days, but not forgetting.

I drifted around a bit and got some chow and a book and parked in the lot near the ROTC bldg and waited, and got to see the three platoons drilling nearby. It was not raining any more. Some of the "recruits" were given personal attention, but relating to drill, and not being screamed at other than a loud voice. They were sounding off.

Around 2100, they were released and told tomorrow would be 0600-1800 day with PT and whatnot. Laura actually said she liked it and seemed happy. I didn't know how she'd take to all this. Sarah said everyone in her PLT was asked various questions and she was only asked when no one knew the answer. Someone commented that she looked like she "had some help" on the drill thing. Ha.

So, I'm back home. Hopefully, they roused themselves early this AM. Their dorm is quite a hike from the ROTC bldg. Hopefully, Laura gets some clarity and benefit from all this and makes her own decision.

At any rate, that's what I saw as a parent about NROTC.

Oh, they have a shooting team, pistol and rifle, a sailing team, a drill team, and some intramural sports teams. They also raise the flag at the OSU home football games, a special detail, a pretty impressive ceremony.