Thoughts on the selection process for ROTC

BlueBulldog said:
Now it's at best a huge waste of time and effort on everyone's part at worst it allows a politician to spread some sugar
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Respectfully, I disagree.

The law ensures geographic diversity, which builds an officer corps that represents the whole of the country.

Elimination of the law could skew the military leadership toward the most populous, or more wealthy regions. The Constitution was written to create representation from the entire country.

I believe that our military benefits similarly from the congressional nomination requirement.
 
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BlueBulldog said:
Now it's at best a huge waste of time and effort on everyone's part at worst it allows a politician to spread some sugar
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The idea of spreading appointments out across the country is a goal that that goes far past WW1, the same concern of not having appointees grouped from just certain areas of the country still exists today. How does nominations from congress and the senate from each state translate into "Spreading some sugar", I'm not sure what that means.
 
Surely if there was some value to geographic diversity, and I'd argue these days there is none, the Services could handle that with out the massive wasted effort that is the congressional nomination system.

I'm not sure I see the value of a less qualified candidate in say North Dakota over a more qualified candidate from North Carolina -

But we're getting off topic to the point we're going to need bread crumbs, gps or a search party to find our way back
 
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BlueBulldog said:
Jcleppe said:
BlueBulldog said:
A little off topic but if anything needs to change it's the whole congressional nomination system -

If the world made sense there would be one web site where all candidates put all their 'stuff' into and indicate where they'd like to go - academies and rotc pull candidates from there and make offers
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ROTC already works this way with It's national application process.

The Academies have always tried to attract cadets and mids from all across the country, the nomination process helps in this goal.
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I suspect the nomination process came from an attempt to prevent one state to become more powerful than the others. Up until what ww1 units were mostly locally raised and trained. Now it's at best a huge waste of time and effort on everyone's part at worst it allows a politician to spread some sugar

Not that anyone is asking me.
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Interesting article on the history of congressional nominations. The service academies weren't always immune to the college admissions scandal.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...s-congressional-nominations-history/15660721/
 
BlueBulldog said:
I'm not sure I see the value of a less qualified candidate in say North Dakota over a more qualified candidate from North Carolina -
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Not so sure why there couldn't be a more qualified applicant from North Dakota, I believe they still have schools there.

Not saying the system is perfect, I agree with getting rid of the Principle Nominations and keeping with the block of 10 method letting the academy make the final choice. There are clearly geographic areas that surround military bases that have a much larger pool of applicants to choose from. Selecting the majority of applicants from a small number of areas, which could easily happen if they just pooled all the applicants onto one OML, would leave many areas without any representation. If the academies did in fact do away with the nomination process and decided to select from all 50 states and territories, that could be an idea that could work, but you'd still end up with that pesky appointee from North Dakota.

EDelahanty said:
The service academies weren't always immune to the college admissions scandal.
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That darn Aunt Becky gets around.
 
Centurion:

Not sure I fully understand all of the points you were covering, but if the question is "leadership" I am not sure I would look to Netflix or any similar sources for those answers.

First, No college in the US (excepting the Service Academies) teach leadership - formally.

However, there are different paths to accomplish the same goal. ROTC provides good leadership training. All branches. Is it the same as the service academies? No. However a "great" leader could even be successful without military training. Tougher, but still possible. I once had a customer who had 38 employees. Back then I considered him almost crazy in some of the things he said and did. Today he has over 250,000 employees and makes such a wide range of products that I guarantee you have one of his products in your home. Is he or any of his companies well known? Nope. (BTW he has only one shareholder for all of his companies - himself) But I have NEVER met such a passionate, ferocious leader of his people. He could write a check and buy any airline in the US. However, he flies coach. Huh? Why? To set the example for his people to keep costs DOWN. Again leadership in a different form. He is saying to his people - Follow ME.

That last point is to me one of the key ingredients of many if not all GREAT leaders. They lead by personal example.
 
NoS.W.E.A.T. said:
First, No college in the US (excepting the Service Academies) teach leadership - formally.
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Uhhhh.... that's incorrect. Some schools have leadership programs (VTech comes to mind) and some have minors in leadership with widely varied requirements including required internships (I believe). These are independent of any service requirement. I'm pretty sure University of South Carolina has such a program, not sure though. I expect the other SMCs have their own leadership programs.
 
NoS.W.E.A.T. said:
Centurion:

"No college in the US (excepting the Service Academies) teach leadership - formally."

NoS.W.E.A.T. - the above statement indicates you have not looked very carefully at colletes across the countey. Almost all colleges and universities today have at least some focus on formal leader development. At The Citadel, all Cadets must take a formal 4 year "Leader Development" program in addition to completing their academic major and enrolling in one of the DOD ROTC programs. Please see for example, The Citadel's formal Leader Development Program:

http://www.citadel.edu/root/assistant-commandant-leadership-development-program
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Getting somewhat back on topic.

I know a Marine officer that used to sit on selection board for the Marine Option scholarship. He blogged about the experience.

See: http://www.thesandgram.com/2011/01/18/nrotc-marine-option-scholarships/

The whole person is the key. Also, the personal interview needs to "match" the person on the application--meaning candidates often look good on paper but upon visual inspection and conversation, one would only follow them out of idle curiosity. Be confident, competent, but not cocky.
 
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