Do you have any input into your duty station?

[nysegop]

In ROTC do you have any input into your duty station? Do you have a top choices list? How does it work?


Or does it work the other way around? You have unit top choices and you get stationed based on that?


Do they even consider your top choices or just completely ignore them?

Sorry, I am fairly new to the whole ROTC system.

[Jcleppe]

Originally Posted by nysegop

In ROTC do you have any input into your duty station? Do you have a top choices list? How does it work?


Or does it work the other way around? You have unit top choices and you get stationed based on that?


Do they even consider your top choices or just completely ignore them?

Sorry, I am fairly new to the whole ROTC system.

All of your questions are valid and good ones to ask, so here's a tip.

Contact the ROTC battalion at the college where you would like to go, make an appointment, if the school is to far away find a closer one. Meet with the battalion, you may meet with the ROO (Recruiting Operations Officer) or the PMS (Professor of Military Science) or even a new 2nd Lt. They will sit down with you and answer all your questions. Make a list of the same questions your asking here, you will get much broader answers in person. After doing this, you will still have some questions on some details, this is great place to ask those.

To somewhat answer your question, your Duty Station is the last thing you as a cadet will be worrying about until you a senior. To try and explain the whole branching and duty station process would take several pages, this would be a great question to ask when to meet with a battalion.

[nick4060]

Everything is subject to the needs of the...(insert Army/AF/Navy/etc)

You put in a dreamsheet for what career fields you want. Some people get their top choice. Some people get one that wasnt even listed on their sheet.

[goaliedad]

Originally Posted by nysegop

In ROTC do you have any input into your duty station? Do you have a top choices list? How does it work?


Or does it work the other way around? You have unit top choices and you get stationed based on that?


Do they even consider your top choices or just completely ignore them?

Sorry, I am fairly new to the whole ROTC system.

There is one opportunity for high OML list cadets to put in an ADSO for a specific duty station (subject to the branch needing 2nd Lieutenants there) in your first assignment. The price you pay if you are high enough on the list is an addition 3 years of AD on top of what you already owe Uncle Sam. There is also an ADSO for specific branch as well with the same payback.

You will learn more about this during your Junior year.

IMHO, there aren't too many good reasons why you would want to choose your first duty station because if location is a problem, you are only putting off the inevitable. I could understand that if you have a close relative near a particular installation dying of cancer at the time you had the option, but the concept of trying to get military to fufill your dreams of living in Hawaii at someone else's expense just seems wrong to me.

[Jcleppe]

Your first duty station can also depend a lot on what you branch, MI has more opportunities then other branches, so does Signal. Armor has fewer, Infantry has more depending on what type of infantry, go 82nd Airborne....your going to Ft. Bragg and so on. Aviation will depend a lot on which Airframe you get.

A cadet at my son's school branched Ordinance, he got Hawaii, no ADSO....lucky Bum.

[-Bull-]

It's all a dream sheet, like said before, unless you ADSO. People have different reasons for wanting different posts. Guys that want the 82nd pick Bragg, 10th Mountain hopefuls are looking towards Drum. Guys that branch armor and want cav usually want the 1st Cav in Texas. Or you have people that want to visit exotic places and pick Hawaii, Germany or Vicenza. None of this is guaranteed so don't get any hopes up.

[scoutpilot]

Originally Posted by -Bull-

It's all a dream sheet, like said before, unless you ADSO. People have different reasons for wanting different posts. Guys that want the 82nd pick Bragg, 10th Mountain hopefuls are looking towards Drum. Guys that branch armor and want cav usually want the 1st Cav in Texas. Or you have people that want to visit exotic places and pick Hawaii, Germany or Vicenza. None of this is guaranteed so don't get any hopes up.

I would love to meet one of these mythical creatures called the "10th MTN hopefuls"

[Pima]

Not to be rude, but why do you care right now? Are you not going to go Army if they tell you that you will be sent to Ft. Rich or Camp Red Cloud?

The reality is nobody here even knows in 4 yrs if the station will still be there. Let's be honest the military is downsizing, which means re-organization.

There are so many forks in the road in front of you that this should not even be a blip on your radar. As nick4060 stated it will always come down to the needs of the branch. You can fill out that dream sheet of your top 3 choices, and think in your mind, anywhere, but Polk...guess what you get? Polk!

The one thing I would say as a spouse who went to OMG NO places, you will love every post if you have the right attitude. Never in my life as a Jersey girl did I want to go to Mt. Home, Idaho or Almogordo, NM, or even Goldsboro, NC, but we did and I loved every minute of it. I accepted this is where we are at, and embraced that area. Idaho we went camping on the Snake River. Almogordo we would go to Santa Cruz for snow tubing, Goldsboro, Emerald Isle for the beaches. Sites and places I would never have experienced in my life had it not been they sent us to OMG NO!

Originally Posted by scoutpilot

I would love to meet one of these mythical creatures called the "10th MTN hopefuls"

LMAO, I have to agree, Bullet jumped with the 82nd and Drum was an option, might as well be in Fairbanks AK regarding the winters.

[EDelahanty]

"See, I did join the army, but I joined a *different* army. I joined the one with the condos and the private rooms. "

Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin

[kinnem]

Originally Posted by Pima

Never in my life as a Jersey girl did I want to go to ...Goldsboro, NC, ...

LMAO, I have to agree, Bullet jumped with the 82nd and Drum was an option, might as well be in Fairbanks AK regarding the winters.

LOL. Ouch, re: Goldsboro. And ouch again from myself and on behalf of Clarksonarmy on Drum. We both lived (or have lived) about an hours drive NORTH of Drum!

You're certainly correct that posting should be the last thing on the OP's mind. And that fun can be found anywhere. I certainly enjoyed the cross country skiing and snowshoeing around the Drum region. The woods are so quiet in the winter.