I just heard that freshman coming in that have a ROTC contract can't choice their Outfit anymore, thoughts?
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ROTC freshman cannot choice their outfit an more
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Last: 5 yr ago by AgFlags74
Welcome to the military controlling your life for the next 8-12 years.
Sounds good to me.
That would be good and all but the crops isn't a military organization anymore
choice/choose
crops/Corps
hth
crops/Corps
hth
If you are in scholarship, you are there for the ROTC program and not just to have fun in the Corps. So it is still a military organization for scholarship and contract cadets. If this is true, I am sure it is the ROTCs wanting to protect their investment.PhilipHarrison said:
That would be good and all but the crops isn't a military organization anymore
I didn't think you could contract until your junior year. Do you mean ROTC scholarship cadets?
So what if an ROTC scholarship wants to be in the FTAB, is the Army going to tell them they can't?
The person that is not willing to fight and die, if need be, for his country has no right to life.
James Earl Rudder '32
January 31, 1945
James Earl Rudder '32
January 31, 1945
My guess is that the Band would be the only exception. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a heritage exception, too. I know that the Air Force Academy assigns cadets to squadrons their freshman year. At the end of that year, they do a fruitbasket turnover, and redistribute the upcoming sophomore class to the squadrons. So you will be assigned to say, Squadron 5, as a freshman. Then as a sophomore you'll be moved to 6 or 35, or whatever.
They do have a heritage exception. So if your dad or brother was in a squadron, you can ask to be assigned to it. I don't know if that's as a fish, or as a soph. Probably the latter.
They do have a heritage exception. So if your dad or brother was in a squadron, you can ask to be assigned to it. I don't know if that's as a fish, or as a soph. Probably the latter.
Once upon a time, in an Aggieland long forgotten, fish did not get to choose their outfits. They were assigned based on ROTC preference - Air Force or Army, and their major. I was in an engineering outfit, AF ROTC. Of the 8 of us that made it to wear boots, six commissioned upon graduation, two were D&C - one of whom went Army after he graduated. Only three of us graduated with engineering degrees.
Was still that way in my day. I think it changed over the intervening years when the Commandants of the time started awarding brownie points for "recruiting". Not for recruiting to the Corps, but to your outfit. Made it more of a frat than a military unit.
And I know it ain't the military, but the whole point is to follow the military model.
And I know it ain't the military, but the whole point is to follow the military model.
I don't believe they get to "choose". They're asked for their top 3 preferences and then Bulls decide. I don't know their criteria but I'm sure they take the fish preference into consideration but ultimately it will depend on whats best for the Corps.
Currently, or is this a change coming?INOX said:
I don't believe they get to "choose". They're asked for their top 3 preferences and then Bulls decide. I don't know their criteria but I'm sure they take the fish preference into consideration but ultimately it will depend on whats best for the Corps.
Don't outfits get to recruit cadets to their unit?
Iirc that is what it was when i signed up
Seems pretty evident that the current master goal is to remove all outfit uniqueness in favor of conformity. Pretty much how West Post does it. Definitely not my preference, but I was in a very strong outfit. Might have a different opinion if I was in a struggling one.
If this is the ROTCs "protecting their investment," would that mean they'll push all the ROTC cadets into the outfits with good grades and/or PT scores? Would that mean other outfits would get have a higher proportion of D&C cadets? Would that have an effect on whether or not leadership positions stay within the outfit?
Disagree. If you get to maintain your unit members for four years, the character of the unit will be pretty static. Assuming West Point uses the same system as USAFA, that's a whole new deal. They get brand new fish and sophs each year, so the individual unit character can swing greatly
They already did this while I was there. If you had a scholarship student that came in with no outfit preference, the trigon would push them to outfits that emphasized the rotc aspects of the corps, like Rudders Rangers or Ranger Challenge, and had a high percentage of contract and scholarship cadets. I could see them wanting to do this for all incoming scholarship students.
completely agree, in fact I've had quite a few conversations with zoomie buddies in the AF and there is no sense of individual squadron uniqueness like there are amongst the outfits at A&M. I'd hate to see the Corps lose this. I couldn't imagine being ripped away from all my buddies who I went through fish year with only to be thrown in with a random new group of people and start that whole process over again. The Texas A&M Corps is not a service academy and that is OK.Ol Jock 99 said:
Seems pretty evident that the current master goal is to remove all outfit uniqueness in favor of conformity. Pretty much how West Post does it. Definitely not my preference, but I was in a very strong outfit. Might have a different opinion if I was in a struggling one.
I think the difference is that the real bonding probably comes in BCT, which is before the acadmic year. Your platoon is about 4 squadrons. And the academies are small enough that you never lose contact. Plus the training is standard between all squadrons
This is Colonel (Ret) Sam Hawes '81 from Corps Recruiting and I have no idea where you get your news but this is not true. ROTC scholarship cadets still get the opportunity to request their unit and we do all we can to place them in the unit they want. Just like we've done in the past 7 years that I've been in charge of recruiting, we don't guarantee their first choice. Outfits still assist with recruiting and have an opportunity to submit some names of cadets to us to save them a spot. If an incoming cadet is "legacy" we will still place them in the unit just like we've done in the past. Our only recent change is to manage the distribution of ROTC scholarship cadets across all the units so that you don't have some units with a ton of ROTC scholarship cadets and some with none. We ask all incoming cadets for their top 3 choices and we have a method of assigning them based on their NSC date, what the outfits have requested, legacy, etc... This is a balance of honoring student requests, outfit requests and ensuring we take care of the entire Corps and not a select few outfits. I personally work directly with the outfit Commanders and recruiting chain to resolve any issues. This is also the way we work it for the non-scholarship cadets. As some remember only a few years ago we had some outfits with 100 cadets and we also had some under 25 cadets. We have grown the Corps and added about a dozen outfits as well as making all the outfits strong across the board instead of having a few huge outfits and all the others fighting for survival.
bigplay said:
This is Colonel (Ret) Sam Hawes '81 from Corps Recruiting and I have no idea where you get your news but this is not true. ROTC scholarship cadets still get the opportunity to request their unit and we do all we can to place them in the unit they want. Just like we've done in the past 7 years that I've been in charge of recruiting, we don't guarantee their first choice. Outfits still assist with recruiting and have an opportunity to submit some names of cadets to us to save them a spot. If an incoming cadet is "legacy" we will still place them in the unit just like we've done in the past. Our only recent change is to manage the distribution of ROTC scholarship cadets across all the units so that you don't have some units with a ton of ROTC scholarship cadets and some with none. We ask all incoming cadets for their top 3 choices and we have a method of assigning them based on their NSC date, what the outfits have requested, legacy, etc... This is a balance of honoring student requests, outfit requests and ensuring we take care of the entire Corps and not a select few outfits. I personally work directly with the outfit Commanders and recruiting chain to resolve any issues. This is also the way we work it for the non-scholarship cadets. As some remember only a few years ago we had some outfits with 100 cadets and we also had some under 25 cadets. We have grown the Corps and added about a dozen outfits as well as making all the outfits strong across the board instead of having a few huge outfits and all the others fighting for survival.
Thanks very much. Col. Hawes, for setting the record straight. I'm constantly amused AND irritated by folks on ANY social media platforms who are too lazy to contact organizations such as the Corps to get the facts BEFORE they post totally inaccurate and speculative BS. It's disgusting how very few "news" reporters bother with this simple step, let alone fellow Aggies. A&M and the Corps are falsely represented and attacked by ill-informed dolts often enough by "outsiders." Let's not share their ignorance, please. Thanks again, Colonel, for all you and your staff do to support our Corps--past, present and future.
AgFlags74 - College Station TX