March 8th, 2011 AROTC Board

I have followed this on the forum for over a year now (I applied for the scholarship last year and received it!) and have been frequently looking in on it this year for a friend. He gets too nervous looking over all of the posts himself, so I keep him updated :].

This year has certainly been different than last, so good job hanging in there everybody! I was looking at last year’s March board and the results from that were out around the end of March. I think the first people were notified by the 26th. They had a later board in April, which is why some cadets did not find out they received the scholarship until late May.

Like I said before, things have been really different--I found out I received the scholarship late Jan. So, with all of that said, I hope for all of your sakes (and my friends) that the results come out sooner than later. With the Army, you never know.

Oh and if anyone has any questions, I would be glad to answer! I just realized that i'll be gone for the whole weekend at a training exercise, so I may not get to any questions right away :]
 
Saucdt08,

Welcome to the board!! You sound like a great friend, helping him thru this crazy time. Hope your training goes well this weekend, check back - someone will probably have a question.

Take care.:smile:
 
patentesq said:
Cadet Command is really facing difficult challenges this year.
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PatentEsq,

Happened upon a couple papers I thought you might be interested in: <LINK> and <LINK>
first one is a little out of date, but supplies a lot of interesting facts and figures.

Just a little light reading for ya:wink:
 
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gojack said:
PatentEsq,

Happened upon a couple papers I thought you might be interested in: <LINK> and <LINK>
first one is a little out of date, but supplies a lot of interesting facts and figures.

Just a little light reading for ya:wink:
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You're hilarious:biggrin:...went to print it because the font wasn't large enough on the screen..good thing I caught it in time..would have used a whole tree!!
 
What a difference 5 years makes

gojack said:
PatentEsq,

Happened upon a couple papers I thought you might be interested in: <LINK> and <LINK>
first one is a little out of date, but supplies a lot of interesting facts and figures.

Just a little light reading for ya:wink:
Click to expand...

Interesting papers, although old. Reminds me of Blockbuster and how quickly things change: one year expand like crazy another year almost obsolete.
 
gojack said:
PatentEsq,

Happened upon a couple papers I thought you might be interested in: <LINK> and <LINK>
first one is a little out of date, but supplies a lot of interesting facts and figures.

Just a little light reading for ya:wink:
Click to expand...

Thank you, gojack! These were very interesting, indeed! DS will appreciate the medical officer recruiting efforts. Also, from the second article, I was surprised that retention from USMA was so low.

The retention issues need to be addressed after the junior officers near their service obligation. I'm not sure that showering j.o.'s with money, like they seem to do in the enlisted ranks, is the way to go. I think offers of better career fulfillment is more effective, IMHO.
 
Yes, very interesting article.

So we're winding up the week and still no word. I suppose we have another LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG week ahead.

I wish it was May already!:rolleyes:
 
Texasblues said:
Yes, very interesting article.

So we're winding up the week and still no word. I suppose we have another LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG week ahead.

I wish it was May already!:rolleyes:
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Right there with you. Ohioland is expecting accumulating SNOW tonight. Wev'e had beautiful, sunny, warm weather and my kiddos spring break starts and now we're right back to winter. Oh well, feels kinda like the middle of February again - cold, dark and waiting, waiting and waiting.... Hopefully, the results will come in the next 2 or so weeks and my warm weather will be back sooner!!
 
new to this rodeo

Been following all of you for sometime now. Wishing you all the best. My kid on NWL for West Point and anxiously awaiting 3rd round for AROTC. I started making kids late and the stress is too much for me. Told my wife to keep the heart attack med's close by! Just wanted to tell ya all that I share your pain.
 
Kev Dawg's Pop said:
Been following all of you for sometime now. Wishing you all the best. My kid on NWL for West Point and anxiously awaiting 3rd round for AROTC. I started making kids late and the stress is too much for me. Told my wife to keep the heart attack med's close by! Just wanted to tell ya all that I share your pain.
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Welcome, Kev Dawg's Pop! Hopefully no more pain after next week!
 
paradoxer said:
Anyone else looking at the calendar thinking this is the week? For better or worse.....
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I would love to believe end of this week, but CC doesn't seem to move too quickly. The January award winners have until 3/31 to turn in their acceptance....haven't seen CC move anything in one day, much less about 1,000 award notices(my own approximate guess of how many more and most will be 3 year JMHO). I do hope I'm wrong, but have told DS anything before 4/15 is a gift.:wink:

Kev Dawg's Pop, I've had my meds close at hand thru the whole process, and I'm not even that old:smile: Keep 911 close at hand too, especially once the results start, it will be over a period of 1-3 days and the stress becomes unbearable.

ClarksonArmy, will you let us know again when its officially time to check the status? If was so helpful to hear the "let the games begin" and then the "its over". It helped take some of the stress out of this situation.

Well, off to watch the snow melt. Only good thing about spring snow in Ohio, they don't last long-unlike the process at hand.

Take care.:smile:
 
Tenin said:
Anyone else wondering why all this chaos had to happen this year...
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I have theories, but in the long run, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. DS has learned a lot about himself and a practical application of personal sacrafice. It will serve him well in the future to have lived thru this and know that even when it looks really dark and ugly that he knows how to survive it. You cannot give someone confidence and self esteem, they have to earn it. He's earning it. I could go on, but that's "why" IMHO. The actual CC, Govn't, DOD craziness maybe the concrete reasons.:rolleyes:
 
Okay I'll bite on why this yr.

The fact is most of you do not understand that there is a direct correlation of AD to ROTC.

Now in the AD world there is a direct correlation of the economy to retention rate for military members. Great economy and they dive at a higher rate, crappy and they stay; a paycheck is a paycheck...insurance is insurance.

Right now IMPO the Army is trying to figure out the drawdown of Iraq and Afghanistan. That means AD members will be coming home, will they bolt or will they stay? If they stay they have to give them jobs stateside, which means the pipeline for new officers will slow down.

If they bolt, life is good and they can stay at the traditional pace.

If they stay, they are looking at being the AF and going through a force shape re-structuring.

Why? Because there is a mandated ratio between Flag (Generals) to Field (Col, Lt. Col. Major) to Company (Capts., !st and 2nd Lts). On top of that Officer to Enlisted.

If not enough are diving at the marker, they are going to be bloated, which means they have to hit certain yr groups.

Use the AF as an example.

Back in 08, it was much easier to get a scholarship for ROTC, than even today. However in 08 they had about a 2 month turn, in 09 it was about the same. Yet, in 10 they announced the RIF and force shape re-structuring. They canceled OCS and scholarships were coming out with board results in a few weeks after they met, for some it was @2 weeks.

Why? Because by 10 they realized that commission yrs 09-13 were too big. They not only stopped OCS, but for 10 graduates they actually told them 3 months prior we know we gave you a career field, but after long deliberation, we are releasing you from your obligation. For 12 they reduced SFT to 40+%, and now for 13 it is expected to be @35%. They also halted IS scholarships.

The Army is now trying to figure out manpower. They don't want to be like the AF and pay even 1 yr of scholarship money if in the end they are going to say we will let you walk.

This is all about the Army's needs and this economy it is too hard to predict where we will be in 4 yrs when they graduate. They don't know if we will really leave Afghanistan or Iraq in the next 12-24 mos. They don't know if the economy will recover and people will hand in separation papers. They are really caught in the what if?

My guesstimate and it is just that. You will see them taking the safer route. Lower scholarships for this yr.

Here's my argument:

Taking this route, cadets will apply for IS next yr. That allows dust to settle re: Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya. Yet, at the same time they will graduate in 15.

It also saves money for the DoD.

If they are short for officers in 15, in 14 they can amp up OTS.

They also do not know the 11-12 budget that will be in place Oct 1st. If they use up all their money now, they could be like the AF and have to cancel OTC/OTS or cut loose ROTC cadets.

Again this is just MPO. I am happy to eat crow (I prefer it plucked and grilled), but that is how I see it.
 
I think you are right on the money, Pima. The only twist I think is that the economists who work for DoD are very sophisticated in predicting the upcoming economic cycle (I know, it's not an exact science).

The two bigger wildcards, I think, are (1) the FY2011-12 budget (DoD sees a lot of MOCs salivating over the $500B DoD budget), and (2) we have an upcoming Presidential election that could totally re-direct the DoD's priorities in 2015. On the budget, I expect that DoD may have submitted a somewhat inflated budget to Congress, knowing that it wouldn't get everything it asked for, and has an undisclosed "realistic" budget that more reflects reality (and isn't being shared publicly).

All of these factors, including the others you pointed out, suggest that the better part of valor is to be cautious.
 
Patentesq,

Here's the thing regarding the economists, they usually say if all of this holds true we will be out of this problem by X yr. However, if one of these factors has an issue it will boff the results.

What is usually a big player in those factors? OIL!

Right now, if we can't get the mid-east under control, oil will continue to rise in prices, slowing down our economic recovery.

If the recovery slows down, less military members will leave. Less leave and that means uncertainty for the fed. budget. Not only from manpower, but if we can't get more tax revenue, we will have a smaller budget and DoD will be hit, because we will need to spend more on things like unemployment benefits to try to maintain economic growth.

I would love to say that the military is not tied to the economy, but it is BIG TIME. Everything from jobs (Boeing, Grumman, GE, Pratt and Whitney, etc) to cost of wars and tax payer dollars.

It is truly about the economic uncertainty IMPO, and the Army is waivering on the cautious side.
 
Did you folks notice on the CC Facebook page that someone posted on March 16, asking when CC would announce the March 8 Board results? If you look at the other posts on FB, CC is pretty good about responding to inquiries -- except this particular post!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:

It's kind of funny that someone directed FB members to take a look at this "March 8th, 2011 AROTC Board" thread on SAF for greater insight!


BTW: I've decided to nominate Pima for President of the United States -- who's with me???? :smile:
 
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