The bottom line is for those of us who have gone through this process and lived it know that when we interview a 17 year old and they are adamant a military career is all they will do, we know the chances of that are slim based purely on stats...
All I want to hear from a kid is they will be open to their options and want to serve. I have talked to kids who only ask questions about the education and grad school and don't ask a single military question... That sends warning flags to me. At 17-18 things seem so clear...
I throw these situations out there to show that making that statement at 17 is not the same at 28 and having a family, knowing the good and bad of the military, making all the cuts, and understanding what your future could or could not in the military.
Navy, this is one of the smartest posts I ever read on this forum.
Been gone for a while. Parent of Army 2LT, commissioned through AROTC in May 2015, six weeks into his deployment in the Middle East.
As parents of DS/DD's who like competition and have shown decent amounts of maturity and good judgment, we forget they are still 17-18 years old. We give them too much credit. There is a reason why they have sky high auto insurance rates and can't buy alcohol.
Even the mature seventeen and eighteen year olds, in most cases, know very little about themselves or about the world that awaits them. Unless they come from military families, they know nothing about the military. If anything the news media and Hollywood have given them a warped view of what awaits them, whether it be in the military bureaucracy or on the battlefield.
I know in the case of my DS, his biggest struggle in those first years of college/ROTC was coming to terms with what he didn't know, couldn't Google and couldn't talk his way out of. His success up to this point is owed to his ability to think on his feet, his ability to be self-critical and an incredible ability to adapt; the last probably being the most important.
I have read your posts in the past. Every SA/xROTC aspirant or parent, especially the young women, should go back an read all your posts. There is much wisdom borne of real experience.
Wishing you and your family all the best!