My son's ultimate goal is to be an active duty officer. When we went and spoke with his recruiter he made this very clear to them. They suggested he do the SMP program as his quickest path. He asked again if when he was done he would be able to go active duty and they assured him yes it was just some paperwork. He went through basic and his AIT school and then went to the University of Buffalo, not cheap mind you, to complete his college and ROTC commitment. I wasn't stressed because he was going to be getting money toward his education. Once there we discovered that if he takes any of the available scholarship money he will have to complete his reserve contract before he can go active duty. He has not currently signed his SMP contract for this reason. I am really really stressing about trying to help him achieve his goal and any advice or insite would be helpful to me.