Joining Reserve Unit While Contracted Scholarship

Chris17236

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Oct 7, 2014
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Greetings,

I'm currently in my MSII year and I am a scholarship contracted cadet under a 4 year scholarship (with extended benefits for a 5 year program). We had a reserve recruiter come today and talk to us about joining the reserve while in rotc. I had a few questions on whether or not this is feasible.

a) If I am already contracted/scholarship, will I need to attend BCT/AIT? I don't mind not receiving MGIB benefits (again, scholarship), but is it obligatory to join a unit?

b) Will this alter the status of my scholarship? I'm on a 5-year program for engineering and don't want to mess with that seeing that i'm only in year 2.

c) How will cadre react? I'm fairly competitive as an MSII (3.94 GPA, 300+ APFT, Ranger Challenge, ETC.) Will they be pissed if i elect to go reserve?

d) Does my 8year service commitment start before I commission?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Greetings,

I'm currently in my MSII year and I am a scholarship contracted cadet under a 4 year scholarship (with extended benefits for a 5 year program). We had a reserve recruiter come today and talk to us about joining the reserve while in rotc. I had a few questions on whether or not this is feasible.

a) If I am already contracted/scholarship, will I need to attend BCT/AIT? I don't mind not receiving MGIB benefits (again, scholarship), but is it obligatory to join a unit?

b) Will this alter the status of my scholarship? I'm on a 5-year program for engineering and don't want to mess with that seeing that i'm only in year 2.

c) How will cadre react? I'm fairly competitive as an MSII (3.94 GPA, 300+ APFT, Ranger Challenge, ETC.) Will they be pissed if i elect to go reserve?

d) Does my 8year service commitment start before I commission?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

A) You are not required to attend BCT or AIT if you don't need the MGIB.

B) Alter the scholarship, yep, you lose the scholarship when you join the Reserves/NG. You would now be a SMP cadet. You could transfer the scholarship to a GRFD but that would mean you are not allowed to go Active Duty.

C) The cadre will not care one way or the other, their only concern is how you perform. No, they will not be pissed if you go Reserve. Over the last two years the #1 and #2 cadets in the country went Reserves.

D) Your 8 year obligation still starts after you graduate and commission, the same as everyone else.

Think hard before you jump into anything, ask more questions and do your research.
 
A) B) Alter the scholarship, yep, you lose the scholarship when you join the Reserves/NG. You would now be a SMP cadet. You could transfer the scholarship to a GRFD but that would mean you are not allowed to go Active Duty.

jcleppe is correct, but I don't think I would have worded the answer to B the same way he did. You won't lose your scholarship because you join the guard or reserves. You can't even join the guard or reserves unless you convert your scholarship to a GRFD scholarship. (probably a better way of saying it). So, if you convert your scholarship you will be able to begin drilling, but you will absolutely not have the option of going Active Duty when you access. I say again, Active Duty will be off the table. So, if starting to drill now is more important to you than going Active Duty, or you are sure you want to be in the Guard or Reserves when you graduate then the SMP program is a good way to get a head start on your career in the Reserves.
 
Just to add on the SMP experience. DS (MSIV) is doing SMP although he is an ECP cadet. He loves it, his unit loves him. He has said that he has learned alot about how things operate outside ROTC and it has helped him in ROTC. However, don't expect that you will necessarily be doing everything the unit does.

The SMP's in his unit do not weapons qualify as that is used for promotions. Some times they do not let them go on the summer 2 week training, which you might miss due to ROTC commitments. It costs the state money and if it is not beneficial to the unit they will not have you attend.

Some of the time on field training you are left at the command operations center, you do not always get to be in the field.
And sometimes the unit you get with has had a bad SMP cadet so they treat you like the their worst experience. This was explained to him by his units commander as he was being complemented on his performance.

Now not all units are like that but it can happen. More than one cadet has been sent back to school from his unit for not showing up on time or not knowing anything.
As stated, DS is extremely dedicate to his drill time but some cadets aren't.

And if you have a time conflict with ROTC or school then your unit will tell you that those have priority so you will miss that training time. DS also is about 1 hr from his unit but has reliable transportation to get to and from.

He did his time in running errands and doing paperwork and filing and after about 3 months started getting saluted and gets platoon leadership time, even during field training. He made up the summer training he missed during a week before school started and spent time shuffling Humvees and MRAPS to and from the maintenance facility about 2o miles away and even delivered a vehicle to the state headquarters. They trust him.

Last field training they did they had a new LT as a platoon leader, he got his op orders and DS said you could tell he had no clue what he was looking at. After a few minutes he said "Cadet, come over here. If you were me and you received these op orders what would you do?" So DS proceeded to tell him step by step how he would proceed. The LT repsonded "That sounds about like what I would do too".

DS was platoon leader for half the training that weekend.
 
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