Travel restrictions?

iTooamsam

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I know that after you commission, you have to get permission if you want to travel abroad during leave. But is it the same during ROTC? Hypothetically, if I wanted to go to Iraq during summer break (I'm not insane, just posing a hypothetical), is there anything stopping me beyond my common sense? I'm just trying to gauge the freedom aspect here. How much control do they have over these kinds of decisions?

Thank you from a longtime lurker
 
Yes. OCONUS travel is still monitored and approved in ROTC. Outside travel is also reviewed during clearance reviews. Generally the military follows the state dept recommendations and travel restrictions. I would shocked if you get approval to venture over to Iraq for a holiday.
 
Actually, unlike USNA, NROTC mids are not considered active duty (they're IRR). Therefore, we do not approve or disapprove of any foreign travel plans for our students. If a kid wants to go to China or Russia or anywhere else, they're free to do so. HOWEVER, this travel will have to be disclosed during the process of obtaining a security clearance, in addition to any foreign contacts made and/or maintained. For those mids already possessing security clearances (upperclassmen), it could trigger issues. It may also impact one's ability to obtain a higher level of clearance down the road (which are required for many officer billets).

So, bottom line, NROTC mids can go anywhere they want in their time off and don't need approval from their units. But do yourself a favor- go to a "friendly" country. Spain is beautiful.
 
I'm interested in this as well for my son. Longtime lurker, just made an account.

@NavyNOLA I'm curious - do you have personal experience with this? Or rather, do you have experience in the running of an NROTC unit (your use of "we" seems to imply that)? I found the attached on a PDF online, and it said that the midshipmen DO have to get permission from their PNS. Can you give a bit more insight? I really appreciate this. Thanks!
 

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NavyNOLA, has this changed recently, or maybe it is unit specific? We parents were told during parent brief 2 years ago at our son's school (NROTC) that they must obtain permission to go oversees and there are many places that they are specifically restricted from going (some areas in Mexico, Middle East, Africa, China, Indonesia...). Son had to send a request up the chain of command to get authorization to go to London this summer for a school club trip.
Son has a fellow MIDN friend whose dad is in foreign service "somewhere" and he was denied authorization to go for a visit.
 
I'm interested in this as well for my son. Longtime lurker, just made an account.

@NavyNOLA I'm curious - do you have personal experience with this? Or rather, do you have experience in the running of an NROTC unit (your use of "we" seems to imply that)? I found the attached on a PDF online, and it said that the midshipmen DO have to get permission from their PNS. Can you give a bit more insight? I really appreciate this. Thanks!

Yes I'm a current instructor and yes I have personal experience with this. The document you are referencing is called the ROD- Regulations for Officer Development. You'll notice that it states STA-21 and MECEP students (active duty Sailors and Marines) are required to abide by DOD travel regulations and approval procedures. However, it uses the word "should" when discussing how a PNS should handle midshipmen. In the military, should means its a recommended course of action, not a requirement (which would read "shall"). A Unit SHOULD take an active roll in any unofficial foreign travel made by Mids, and we all certainly will. However, a PNS does NOT have the authority to deny a midshipman the ability to travel abroad; Mids are on IRR, not active duty.

The approval process that an active duty service member goes through to travel abroad is quite extensive and requires approval above the CO level; I've gone through it personally. If a kid wants to go to China, we can't stop him. If I want to go to China, I'll slowly die of hundreds of paper cuts filling out the paperwork. This isn't for Mids.
 
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NavyNOLA, has this changed recently, or maybe it is unit specific? We parents were told during parent brief 2 years ago at our son's school (NROTC) that they must obtain permission to go oversees and there are many places that they are specifically restricted from going (some areas in Mexico, Middle East, Africa, China, Indonesia...). Son had to send a request up the chain of command to get authorization to go to London this summer for a school club trip.
Son has a fellow MIDN friend whose dad is in foreign service "somewhere" and he was denied authorization to go for a visit.

Units will have their own internal processes in place for reviewing intended foreign travel by Mids; we do. It's just that tho- internal. It's not the "real" process that active duty Sailors and Marines go through. Your unit may have oversold it. We've sent mids on study abroad trips to places such as Jordan and Morocco recently and we do not go through the normal military approval process to do so. Now if one of our guys came to us and said he wanted to take a trip to a county I had concerns about, I would be sitting down to have a long conversation with him.

The request your son sent up the chain most likely didn't even leave the building- it was for the unit chain of command only for their awareness.
 
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Do yourself a favor and don't go to country that likes to hold on to Americans. It's always a good bet to follow state dept guidelines. If it's a country that likes to collect Americans their guidelines will mention it.
 
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