A good friend of mine is commissioning this May and he told me some perplexing information. Apparently their CC isn't allowing them to pin on their butter bars during their ceremony because it's a mock ceremony. They come back to the Det a couple of weeks after Graduation weekend to informally take their oath and sign the paperwork. When the cadets asked the CC about it he said it's coming from HQ. This doesn't make any sense to me. There were no changes about this in any of the AFIs I read, in fact it's seems that AFI 36-2501 in paragraph 3.13 details the allowable pin on procedures. Has anyone heard anything about this? Apparently it was also suggested that the use paper ranks for the mock ceremony which just seems disrespectful to the cadets, their families, and the heritage and tradition a commissioning ceremony represents!
AFROTC May Commissioning
- Thread starter JAG
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Yes and it is true. Had friends run into this issue in Dec for the fall grad/commission. They were told 6 days prior the original mock commissioning couldn't happen bc they weren't allowed to get pinned on, etc. obviously causing huge issues with family predetermined to fly out. When questioned about it, Col Staha SWR/CC explained cadet's weren't ever allowed to pin on or swear in or anything of such with the mock commissioning. So every det that has done it prior is "wrong" for doing it since it is not in regs... sucks but it is what it is.
Friend in this case was obviously ludicrous about the whole thing since, as you mentioned, disrespectful to the fam/friends who were flying in from out of state...cadre couldn't help, etc. just said...we need to wait for the official grad ppw. So they suggested...hosting the ceremony outside of the det and proceeding with their own mock commissioning. So they did it across the st in a conference room, got food/cake/coffee/etc. ran through all the motions of the mock & it worked out perfectly. They commissioned "officially" the following week. So again it sucks but the det inspections that happen every few years is when SWR and others noticed all these weird "mock" commissioning stuff with scripts on actually pinning cadets, etc. SWRCC came in and gave a stop to that. Just gotta be flexible.
Friend in this case was obviously ludicrous about the whole thing since, as you mentioned, disrespectful to the fam/friends who were flying in from out of state...cadre couldn't help, etc. just said...we need to wait for the official grad ppw. So they suggested...hosting the ceremony outside of the det and proceeding with their own mock commissioning. So they did it across the st in a conference room, got food/cake/coffee/etc. ran through all the motions of the mock & it worked out perfectly. They commissioned "officially" the following week. So again it sucks but the det inspections that happen every few years is when SWR and others noticed all these weird "mock" commissioning stuff with scripts on actually pinning cadets, etc. SWRCC came in and gave a stop to that. Just gotta be flexible.
Interesting. Thanks for the updated info! I guess there's a way to work around it with a commissioning outside the det but it still sucks!
MSFaygo
5-Year Member
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- Apr 2, 2013
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- 119
Hmmm....DS graduates in about 2 weeks. We have lots of family coming from out of state to see (what we thought) him get sworn in and be there for the ceremony. This is very disappointing. But on top of that, does he really have to go back to his detachment weeks after moving back home? I hope I'm misreading this!!!
It's all University dependent...... some uni's release their grades from the registrar to the det "in time" before cadets take off for summer/winter...others, it could take a few weeks after graduation to "receive final grade inputs" from professors, process it, then deem the cadet eligible to be commissioned...
For ex..friend's det works with the students professors' to get their grades EARLIER than the other students in the class (non rotc) so they are actually able to commission the last week of school (finals week or whatever)...other friend's det *tried* but profs said they can ONLY submit grades once, and that means waiting for all ppw and assignments to be submitted, the final to be graded, etc- - thus taking a few weeks to process that then release to registrar, then the registrar to process and release to the det.... then the det to look at it, give it a thumbs up and deem the cadet eligible to commission "officially"...
For ex..friend's det works with the students professors' to get their grades EARLIER than the other students in the class (non rotc) so they are actually able to commission the last week of school (finals week or whatever)...other friend's det *tried* but profs said they can ONLY submit grades once, and that means waiting for all ppw and assignments to be submitted, the final to be graded, etc- - thus taking a few weeks to process that then release to registrar, then the registrar to process and release to the det.... then the det to look at it, give it a thumbs up and deem the cadet eligible to commission "officially"...