AFROTC Service Commitment

puddingman

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Dec 29, 2016
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So everywhere I've seen, it says that the service commitment for AFROTC is 4 years active duty. However, I was just reading through the information packet sent with my scholarship offer and it says, "You will incur a 4-year active duty obligation and 4 additional years of inactive reserve upon commissioning." So does this mean 4 years active duty then 4 years reserve AFTER that? So basically 8 years, with the last 4 requiring significantly less involvement.
 
puddingman, I can understand the confusion. Looking at the official ROTC sites (AF, Army, Navy), it only mentions the 4-year active commitment.
However, with a 4-year scholarship, it appears you do have a total of 8 (4 active, 4 IRR).

Here is an older thread about that:
https://www.serviceacademyforums.com/index.php?threads/service-commitments.35678/#post-347476

And here is a college website that states the same under FAQ 6:
http://parks.slu.edu/current-studen...tc-207/future-cadets/faq/#service committment
 
FYI, IRR basically means that you are to retain military standards (ie. physical fitness) for those four years. You have no other obligations such as drill.

Edit: Forgot to include that you can technically be called back to active duty during these four years. Although extremely unlikely.
 
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The IRR is different from the regular reserves. As a regular reservist, you have monthly drill and annual training and must meet military grooming, medical and weight standards. As a reservist in the IRR, you are not assigned to a unit nor do you have to attend drill. IRR, to put it simply, means you are a civilian that the military can call back to active duty if they need manpower or someone in your particular military specialty. So once you finish your four-year active duty commitment after AFROTC, you agree to another four years where they have the right to call you back to active duty if they need you, but you can still live a normal civilian life during that time.
 
Be aware that certain career fields can increase your active duty commitment. For example, if you pursue a pilot slot and are chosen, you have a ten year commitment after all training is complete. Count on 12 or 13 years. Not a bad thing, but be aware.
 
For pilots that is 10 years after your earn your wings. Pilot School otherwise known UPT school is about a year long. After your graduate college you may not be called in for 3 months to a year. Even when you called in, you probably wont go to UPT immediately. You could be working around the base for several months until they assign you a class. Its only after all of this and finishing UPT, that the 10 years actually starts. So its a minimum of 11 years before you are done
 
Having been in the Reserves after 9/11, there were a lot of IRR folks (primarily E5-E7) who were unhappy at being called back. It is an 8 year commitment, 4 years of which will be AD Or active reserve.
 
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