Hello guys,
How can I cope with the fact that my oldest son wants to be in the army? he is currently an ROTC cadet going on to his MS III year after this semester is over, but in order to do that he must contract otherwise he cannot be enrolled in the ROTC curriculum anymore and cannot commission (he also has a small window of opportunity to do so) I am very concerned about his choice to be an officer in the army due to my fear of him dying or losing a limb in combat. My other fear is the possibility of him coming home with PTSD from seeing the horrors of war--seeing those around him die; soldiers and civilians alike. He has been considering active duty then going reserves but I do not want him to deploy due to the possibility of him going to a warzone and being in the front lines but he doesn't seem phased about that since he has internalized this as a fact. So far his branch of choice is MI, ADA, Armor, JAG, AG, CA and I am not sure if a junior grade officer only focuses on his/her branch and not specialize in anything else (my son was talking to me about S-3 positions and how, as an officer, you must go through this phase) another thing I am not so sure about is how exactly the role between an officer and NCO differs I know one gives orders and one executes them, but how INVOLVED are officers that branch in the combat arms versus those that do not. I know this is a rant and to be honest I do not know much about how the military works; but to me, I think everyone in the army including officers are trained to kill anyone they find suspicious and to simply carry out orders.
How can I cope with the fact that my oldest son wants to be in the army? he is currently an ROTC cadet going on to his MS III year after this semester is over, but in order to do that he must contract otherwise he cannot be enrolled in the ROTC curriculum anymore and cannot commission (he also has a small window of opportunity to do so) I am very concerned about his choice to be an officer in the army due to my fear of him dying or losing a limb in combat. My other fear is the possibility of him coming home with PTSD from seeing the horrors of war--seeing those around him die; soldiers and civilians alike. He has been considering active duty then going reserves but I do not want him to deploy due to the possibility of him going to a warzone and being in the front lines but he doesn't seem phased about that since he has internalized this as a fact. So far his branch of choice is MI, ADA, Armor, JAG, AG, CA and I am not sure if a junior grade officer only focuses on his/her branch and not specialize in anything else (my son was talking to me about S-3 positions and how, as an officer, you must go through this phase) another thing I am not so sure about is how exactly the role between an officer and NCO differs I know one gives orders and one executes them, but how INVOLVED are officers that branch in the combat arms versus those that do not. I know this is a rant and to be honest I do not know much about how the military works; but to me, I think everyone in the army including officers are trained to kill anyone they find suspicious and to simply carry out orders.