ROTC

Article:

The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) is a college-based, officer commissioning program, predominantly in the United States. It is designed as a college elective that focuses on leadership development, problem solving, strategic planning, and professional ethics.The U.S. Armed Forces and a number of other national militaries, particularly those countries with strong historical ties to the United States, have ROTC programs.

The Republic of the Philippines established its program in 1912, with the creation of the first unit at the University of the Philippines during American colonial rule. ROTC in the Republic of Korea started in 1963.ROTC produces officers in all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces except the U.S. Coast Guard. ROTC graduates constitute 56 percent of U.S. Army, 11 percent of U.S. Marine Corps, 20 percent of U.S. Navy, and 41 percent of U.S. Air Force officers, for a combined 39 percent of all active duty officers in the Department of Defense. The Philippine-based National ROTC Alumni Association (NRAA) estimates that 75 percent of the officer corps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines come from ROTC.With the exception of the U.S. Coast Guard, each of the U.S. Armed Forces offer competitive, merit-based scholarships to ROTC students, often covering full tuition for college in exchange for extended periods of active military service.

For example, in the U.S. Army ROTC, students who receive an Army ROTC scholarship or enter the Army ROTC Advanced Course must agree to complete an eight-year period of service with the Army after college. U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force ROTC students are referred to as cadets, while U.S. Naval ROTC students are known as midshipmen; these terms coincide with their service academy counterparts.

The Naval ROTC program commissions both U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps officers. The U.S. Coast Guard sponsors only a JROTC program.Army ROTC units are organized as brigades, battalions, and companies. Air Force ROTC units are detachments with the students organized into wings, groups, squadrons, and flights, like the active Air Force. Naval ROTC units are organized into Naval battalions. If the Marine students are integrated with the Navy students, there are companies; but having the Navy students in departments and divisions like a ship, and the Marines in a separate company is only done when an ROTC unit has sufficient members to warrant an extra division.

External Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_Officers

Cadet conducting Field Training Exercise


Caption: Cadets not only do labs and Physical Exercises on campus. Each year during the summer, they attenend different trainings. In this case, this ROTC Cadet is doing a Field Training Exercise (FTX) in which you have to go through many obstacles just as if you would have to do in basic training for enlisted personnel. They vary from jumpschool to Leadership training courses and gets tougher each year.

Promo Video on ROTC events


Caption: A short promo video re-capping the events of 2009 at the UCLA Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). This is a collection of material shot over a year including a promotions ceremony, FTX, and graduate officer commissioning. They have many events not only FTX and commissioning but also fun barbeques and playing in the beach as physical training.