Reserve Officers' Training Corps

The Reserve Officer Training Corps ( ROTC, dt as a reserve officer training corps ) is a training program of the U.S. armed forces at colleges and universities for the recruitment and training of officers. The program will be supported administratively by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command ( TRADOC ). It is designed as an elective and includes leadership, problem solving, strategic thinking and ethics.

Go out 60 % of all officers in the U.S. armed forces and 75 % of all officers in the U.S. Army from the ROTC. Each strike force provides it to its own ROTC program in which on the basis of benefits and scholarships will be awarded, and sometimes the whole study is financed. A Military Scholarship is an opportunity to fund a study for students from low-income families. Fellows undertake in return usually to eight years of military service, including at least four years in active service; Different rules there especially in costly training in the Air Force, for example, for pilots. ROTC graduates the army, received no scholarship are not required generally for military service; for Navy and Air Force to make some exceptions here as well.

History

The concept of ROTC was established in 1862 by the Morril Act, which created the first land-grant universities. The U.S. government made ​​sure that even the professional military tactic was taken into account in the curriculum. The first college that had a U.S. Army ROTC unit was the Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont.

Until the 1960s saw many large universities ROTC ago as a compulsory part in the training plans for the male students. In the wake of the protests against the Vietnam War, compulsory ROTC participation in a voluntary offer was converted, which is in many public and private universities today. At some universities the official ROTC offer was at that time completely stopped, even if the local students remains open the possibility of an off- campus ROTC.

In recent times, there have been efforts, particularly in some universities the east coast, including Harvard University and Columbia University, ROTC miteinzubinden again in the official university offer.

Organization

Students of the Army and Air Force ROTC program are called cadets, while students of the Naval ROTC ( NROTC ), the Navy be referred to as a midshipman. The Naval ROTC also covers the training officer of the Marine Corps. Training units of the Army are organized into brigades and battalions, units of the U.S. Air Force in Detachments (German divisions) that are divided into squadrons, groups, squadrons and wings, as in the normal Air Force structure. The training units of the Navy are divided into battalions. Here, each NROTC unit is given an official name by their college, for example, is the unit " NROTCU UNIV OF MN. " that. at the University of Minnesota

Basic principles

The training in the ROTC program can be done at various educational institutions:

Primary confer military colleges or senior military colleges in the USA bachelor's degrees and offer parallel to the training company at the same time courses in military training for those of their students who are physically fit as well as U.S. citizens who have not served in the U.S. armed forces and are male; Women's participation is voluntary. These colleges organize the students in a Corps of Cadets (German cadet corps ) with military discipline and commit their cadets to move on campus in uniform. They are the students after a military model and with military discipline, as do also the military academies of the armed forces.

There are currently six military colleges Texas A & M University, Norwich University, Virginia Military Institute, The Citadel, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and North Georgia College and State University.

In addition, participation in an ROTC program at other universities in addition to the study is possible.

The third type of the ROTC program takes place at junior military colleges that offer a high school education and a college education to the Associates Degree ( no bachelor's degrees ).

The difference between the three types is that the ROTC program is mandatory in civilian colleges voluntarily and at military colleges. Another big difference is that the graduates of military colleges have a claim on the later active duty in the U.S. Army, according to federal law.

Army ROTC

The ROTC in the U.S. Army as it exists today, was created by the National Defense Act of 1916. 1920, the first class of cadets was handed over their patent. It was the British Officer Training Corps modeled, by the most British officers were trained for the First World War.

George H. Decker, a graduate of Lafayette College, in 1960, the first ROTC graduate who was appointed Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA ), and thus the highest officer in the U.S. Army. Other ROTC graduates who were later CSA, Fred C. Weyand are ( University of California, Berkeley ) and Gordon R. Sullivan (Norwich University). General Colin Powell, also a ROTC graduate of the City University of New York, was elected chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( Joint Chiefs of Staff ) and was promoted 2001 to 2005 to the U.S. Secretary of State. Another chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was Henry H. Shelton, who was an ROTC graduate of North Carolina State University.

Most generals of the U.S. Army emerged from the ROTC program at North Carolina State University, followed by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Under current law, there are three types of ROTC programs.

Air Force ROTC

The first ROTC units of the U.S. Army Air Service were 1920-1923 at the University of California, Berkeley, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois, the University of Washington, the set MIT and the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College.

After the Second World War, General Eisenhower led as Chief of Staff of the Army - the U.S. Air Force was only in 1947 became an independent strike force - that were set up at 77 colleges and universities Air Force ROTC.

The Air Force ROTC vitalization Act of 1964 created a two-year senior program, scholarships and a junior program. An experimental program was operated from 1956 to 1960, in which women would be admitted by the U.S. Air Force ROTC her officer's commission. Women in 1969, where a new senior program, and four years later with a junior program, the opportunity to complete their education here. In 1973 was sent to all non-commissioned officers, whether male or female, who were interested in a degree and an officer's career, the opportunity to realize this by the U.S. Air Force ROTC Airman Scholarship. In 1978 the Air Training Command was created based on the Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, which oversaw the entire ROTC program of the U.S. Air Force.

On 1 July 1993, the Air Training Command was merged with the Air University to create the Air Education and Training Command. The Air University was doing under the command directly, the ROTC units in turn were under the Air University. In February 1997, this structure was again reformed in order to streamline them. In the course of the Command Air Force Officer Accession and Training Schools ( AFOATS ) was created. So the U.S. Air Force officer training places were three quarters combined, namely under the commander of the AFOATS, a Brigadier General.

Naval ROTC

The U.S. Naval ROTC program was established in 1926. In 1932, the U.S. Marine Corps participated in this program. In 1990, the first scholarship for the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps was awarded.

Criticism

The program has been criticized because it is for high school graduates from poorer sections of society often represented the only way to get to a higher educational institution. Therefore, opponents of the system criticize the ROTC because young people to study it usually only saw the opportunity and not perceive the possibility sufficiently, but that they are soldiers in the first place.

Proponents see in the ROTC program is an important part of the U.S. recruitment system, which produces a large proportion of the officer corps. Thus, the basic principles of democracy would be anchored in the officer corps, as most officers are trained at civilian facilities.

JROTC

JROTC stands for Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and is a training program that was founded in the United States of America in 1916 as part of the National Defense Act. It includes military training, as well as lessons in military history and civics to high school students. As with the regular college -based ROTC the JROTC subdivided into the individual branches of the armed forces Army ( AJROTC ), Navy ( NJROTC ) and Air Force ( AFJROTC ), and the Marine Corps ( MCJROTC ). As an instructor act retired members of the respective branches of the armed force.

At regular high schools JROTC is an elective. The students wear the uniform of there at one to two days per week. In addition, however, there are also pure military schools and cadet schools where participation in the JROTC program is mandatory. The best known such schools are the Marine Military Academy and the Florida Air Academy.

Other countries

Different countries also have ROTC programs, such as the Philippines, which established its program in 1912 during the U.S. occupation. South Korea launched its program in 1963, Taiwan in 1997.