30-Minute Flash Topics: Army and Air Force ROTC

Alright, so.

Looks like we got a couple of different participants here so we can go ahead and get started. Thank you so much for everybody who's logging on right now. My name is DJ. I'm a graduate assistant here at Kent State and for tonight's flash talk we're going to have Major Finn from the Air Force. And Mr Bill Terry from the Army ROTC to talk a little bit about.

Uhm, their programs. So I will go ahead and get started with a major fan.

Alright, good evening everyone. Thanks for coming out to join us and listen to us.

Spit our recruiting spiel. Like I said, my signature block or my title show is Richard Spencer. That is the actual recruiting officer I am major Chris Finn. I am the operations flight commander so I oversee a lot of the classes and a lot of student activities but we all do the recruiting duty from time to time so you get me tonight.

So I'm going to talk to you about Air Force ROTC. See if I can get these.

Slides to work OK.

Alright, so for over you I'll talk about our detachment, what Air Force ROTC is some of the cadet progression? What you can expect in the program, some time commitments, career opportunities, some scholarships, opportunities and active duty benefits.

So our detachment is comprised of about 10 crosstown campuses, along with Kent State students we have.

15 to 20 crosstown students depending on the semester, so we have. These are the across town universities. We have agreements with and students with at this time.

So we're excited. It's hosted by Kent State. We host all the academic classes and the leadership laboratory here on campus. We do do some virtual courses depending on weather schedules and different things of that nature. But for the most part, we try to be in person.

So we do the fitness assessments here at Kent State and then the crosstown students. We do PT three times a week. Those students instead of driving over here to Kent will actually do PT on their own campus and then just report to us what they do.

So what is Air Force ROTC? So we are one of three different commissioning sources for this US Air Force and the space force, the other two being the Air Force Academy and Officer Training School. We are the largest we have about 145 deaths.

Approximately 100

students per debt. Some more, some less, but OTS and Usafa don't come anywhere near us.

We are a three to four year academic program, so the minimum you can do with Air Force ROTC.

His six semesters. Most students we'd like to have for four years, so we get them as freshmen and press on through so you can get the full.

Full experience and we get to monitor and kind of guide you through your ROTC career to make you a better officer.

After you graduate, you'll Commission and go into active duty is our primary mean or primary? What we were going for. But every now and then the reserves and guard will get opportunities to take some of our cadets if that's what they want to do.

So the Air Force ROTC mission is to develop leaders of character for tomorrow's Air Force and Space Force. So through this program we're going to should be good character. We're going to mold you into a leader. We're going to mold you into a good person and get you out there where you can take care of the airmen and the guardians that are that are working in the aerospace force right now.

So the requirements for Air Force ROTC you have to graduate with an accredited bachelors degree at an accredited university so.

Can't state in any of our crosstown campuses meet that requirement.

Commissioning requirements would be to be a U.S. citizen, so you don't necessarily have to be a U.S. citizen to start the program, but to Commission. You do need to be a U.S. citizen if you are a dual citizen, you would have to be willing to renounce your second citizenship.

They have to go through the Dahmer process with it. It's a Department of Defense and medical Evaluation Readiness Board. So it's a DoD physical, where you get checked out to make sure you're qualified for DoD service.

With that there are a lot of times that Members are disqualified for overall military service, but they can be qualified for a specific branch in a specific job, so waivers are out there for pretty much anything, so don't if this is something that you're concerned about, you shouldn't be.

You must attend and complete the Air Force ROTC classes so there's the S 102 hundred 304 hundred which equate to freshman sophomore, junior senior classes and then the leadership lab, which is a one and a half hour class every week to where you get to practice leading following marching different exercises. Things of that nature.

Physical fitness assessment and weight and body fat measurements. So our physical fitness test is a one and a half mile run.

One minute time, pushups and situps so there's minimum scores on each. You have to pass each component with a minimum of 75. You don't necessarily have to pass it in your freshman and sophomore year, but as soon as you're a contractor cadet after you go through field training.

Then you would have to pass 100%.

Complete fill training, which is basic training. This is a summer a two week summer course down at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.

Where it's basic training to see if you're qualified to move on into the the junior and senior classes.

And then finally demonstrate effective leadership traits so it's not guaranteed that everyone is going to go through the program. It's a.

It's very competitive right now, so as long as you're picking up.

The the the lessons that we're trying to give you and you're taking every all the guidance and then moving forward. That's what we're looking for if you're if there are students out there that just sometimes don't get it so those students.

They may not make it all the way through the program for the most part. If people want to be here, they're here.

Our expectations, we want you to live by the core values so we have 3 core values. Integrity first service before self and excellence in all. We do so. Integrity first doing the right thing when nobody is looking or when everybody is looking service before self. There may be times where you're called upon to.

Work late, do a little extra stuff, deploy in your Air Force career. So sometimes you have to put service before self that happens in Air Force ROTC as well and then excellence in all we do. That's not perfection and all we do is we excellence is we want you to try as hard as you can. If you fail, that is fine. Just learn from your steaks and move on.

Be totally fit, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically and socially, so these are the pillars of the.

Keep us good airman.

Being able to self reflect and see everything of these these pillars and we want you to be.

We're just going to make you a good person all around. This is also something you'll be looking for in the people who work for you and who you work with.

We want you to be challenged. Embrace it and conquer it. So this like I said, this isn't a. It's not exactly a cakewalk. There's going to be some trying times for everybody, but learn from those those trying times. If you fail, you fail and just move on and.

I think a common term is embrace the suck. Sometimes it's not going to be the best situation, but embrace it and conquer it. And then we're going to prepare you for the future. So we're going through our four years or six semesters. We're going to make you into a second Lieutenant for the Air Force or Space Force.

For cadet progression.

See here, we got freshman, sophomore, junior and senior. The freshmen and sophomores are considered GMC or the general military course. Unless you are a scholarship winner, these two years are freebies you don't owe us anything. You can try out the program.

You like it, you like it, stick around. If you don't like it.

That's fine too if you are a high school scholarship winner, though after your freshman year you would owe a commitment because your school your college is going to be paid for, but your freshman year. If you're a high school scholarship pointer, it's a trial run. If you don't like it, you can. Your first year is free, and then you just forgo the the remaining funding for your college.

So the non scholarship cadets after you go to field training you'll be moving into the professional off score and this is where.

Your active duty commitment comes in, so after you've gone through basic training or field training, Air Force has some time invested in you and money invested in you, so they want return and.

That's where the commitment comes in. Most people, once they get past this point, they really want to do this and no issue making it all the way through.

Some of the time commitment you can expect in our program physical training. Like I said three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, right now. Sometimes we add in a fourth session for people who may not be able to make all the morning sessions. Our leadership laboratories are an hour and a half every week as a freshman and sophomore. You'll basically be attending, but as a junior and senior, you will be leading and preparing the leadership lab. So you spend a little extra time on that.

Air Force academics for your freshman and sophomore classes. They are one hour classes and juniors and seniors. 3 hour classes and then each cadet within the cadet wing will have a some sort of job that they do. Some of the jobs are pretty pretty low level, don't require a whole lot of effort, but others such as the cadet Wing Commander, the one that we have currently she spends a lot of extra time on it up to about 6 hours a week, so anywhere between 6 1/2 to 13 1/2 hours.

But that varies, plus or minus.

Whatever you want to put into it is what you'll get out of it.

So the career opportunities after you graduate and Commission.

Most of the active or active duty service commitment are for.

Four years so intelligence officers, public affairs, maintenance officers, logistics officers, security forces. These are four year commitments due mainly to their time commitment for training. It's about a year less than a year of training for all these career fields. So for your commitment is always required. The six year commitment is for the special forces officers and some of the air battle managers. That is because the training is up to two years long.

So the Air Force wants to get their return on investment there. Then pilots and RPA pilots 2 plus years of training Air Force will pay pay, pays pretty good bonuses to these individuals, but you do. It does come with a 10 year service commitment.

Alright.

So some scholarship opportunities that we have.

Right now I don't know if any of you out there are in high school currently.

I assume a lot of you are, but the high school scholarship program it just ended for this upcoming semester or the coming fall semester, but it'll be up and running again in the fall for anyone graduating next summer and then the in college scholarship. It's pretty competitive. We at this detachment typically only get one per semester. This goes to a freshman or a sophomore. It's dependent upon your grades, your fitness scores, how you are involved with in the.

The detachment and also sometimes specifics that Headquarters Air Force RTC gives us if they're looking for a specific degree.

Some other scholarships that are available.

Kent State students are able to apply for a room and board scholarship as well as Akron students and then some of the other cross towns have tuition waivers and matching STEM scholarships and then college specific. So each university has something different.

Right, so you graduated and now you're in officers with some of the benefits. You can look at going into your military career.

There's a military pay, so special pays like I mentioned, with the pilots. Also, special forces officers typically get those special pays medical and dental your your health care and dental care is taken care of for you.

Leave or vacation days you get 30 days a year. We have a blended retirement retirement system in the past. It was 20 years and you get 50% of your base. Pay this new program you can. You don't have to do 20 years. You can. The Air Force will match up to 5% of your contributions to a 401K.

And then if you do decide to do 20 years, they will pay you 40% of your base pay plus the money that you've invested into your 401K and then finally active duty or education benefits.

Just about every officer you meet past Captain has a Masters degree that the Air Force has paid for, so that's just another benefit for tuition assistance. They will cover just about every percent that it cost to get a masters jury. Once you're on active duty.

I think.

Healthcare and dental care Free families members also receive care for little or no cost and then my wife just had a baby a couple months ago and we paid $100. The bill that was originally sent to us was about 9000, so that's covered that way. Service members life insurance. You get about $400,000 worth of coverage for I think $27.00 a month with which is pretty low for price and hours covered. The leave in the retirement system.

This is the base pay right now. Second Lieutenant coming in is going to get about 55,000. Is the average pay and this does not include your location pay, and you're sometimes you're special duty pay.

Two years later, we bump up to about 76,000 and then four years later as captain 88,000.

Your housing allowance and food allowance is generally 1000 to $2000 a month, depending on where you're living. So and that money is tax free.

Tuition assistance talked about that and you can also get the post 911 GI Bill which if you don't need, you can transfer to your dependents. That would be your, your spouse, your children and they can have. They can have that money in 36 months of college paid for.

And.

Alright.

So we're going to skip past Q&A and go to Mr. Terry from the army.

Huh?

Hey thanks Major Finn and thanks DJ for having me on EM.

So my name is Bill Terry, I'm the admissions enrollment officer for the Army ROTC and it's kind of good that the Air Force went first. I will tell you just starting off the briefing that.

That the military is in general is, you know, are you going to have a lot of the same benefits? Obviously the biggest difference is you come through Army ROTC, you're gonna Commission as an army officer as opposed to an Air Force officer.

So hold.

Sorry.

I wasn't.

OK.

I wasn't controlling my slides.

There we go.

So this is what we're going to talk about. What Army ROTC is very similar topics? Progression through the program, typical time commitments and Ross going to look at some other training. You know, training opportunities, scholarships and army careers and benefits.

Armor OTC is a reserve officer training core. It's an acronym and it prepares college students to Commission as army officers once they graduate from college.

Any full-time enrolled student at Kent State is eligible to take ROTC classes with.

Commitment or obligation to the army whatsoever. For the first two years to progress on into the program into the Upper Division courses you would, you would have to make a commitment to just to Commission service officer once you graduate.

Could it progression? Very similar? It's designed to be a four year program, some differences.

Army ROTC can be a two year program, traditionally.

You know you would. You would take all four years, but you can enter in as a sophomore and we do have a.

Voluntary basic course. It's a four week summer course that would essentially gives you credit for the first two years of ROTC, and that's normally targeted towards sophomores that haven't taken ROTC previously.

Then very similar as well to the Air Force, we also have a required summer camp. It's a four week course at Fort Knox, Kentucky and you would you, would you actually attend that the summer between your junior and senior year of college?

Time commitment your first the the first year is a one hour course a week and then our our leadership labs or 1 1/2 hours as well.

We schedule physical training four days a week in the mornings for between 6:00 and 7:00.

It's it's not mandatory if you're not what we call a contract to cadet, but we highly encourage enrolled students to come out as much as they can because it's not just about working out and getting it shape, which is obviously important, but it's also about team building and participation in the program, so and that's that's gonna.

Add to other benefits as well as we as we get further into the slides.

Uhm, and we also do a field training exercise each semester. It's normally a weekend event we normally leave on a Friday evening and come back either either Saturday evening or sometimes it's a two day event and will and will come back on Sunday.

Some additional summer training opportunities and this is outside. This is above and beyond regular ROTC class and lab. We actually send our cadets to army schools.

If you're not familiar with some of them, the airborne school is basically a parachuting out of airplanes. Air Assault School is a air load operations with helicopters and national repelling out of helicopters. It's a it's a repel school.

We also have some some other programs. Cultural immersion programs.

Through to introduce you to different cultures just to give you a quick example, we may send you to a.

A similar ROTC program in another country, like for example we, we sent cadets to Estonia, Greece. You know a couple some you know other countries and we also have some other cultural immersion programs design more towards.

Language proficiency. If you're a language major or your or you're taking language courses while in college. For nurses we have a specific nurse summer training program. Basically clinicals and internships at army hospitals not only within the continental United States, but but overseas as well. And the Cadet Troop Leadership Training program is where you actually get to spend time that summer. When you do your advance camp this summer.

Between your junior senior year, we actually send you out to an active duty Army unit to actually shadow a second Lieutenant, basically doing the job that you're going to be doing.

Or anywhere between two to four weeks, which is really great, and we actually send cadets too.

Not just within the United States, but also overseas as well. So I think we said.

One to Hawaii and one to Korea last year and then.

To a lot of army bases actually within within the within the United States so.

Scholarship opportunities or scholarship requirements.

Basically you have to be a U.S. citizen to to be offered and accept the scholarship minimum GPA requirement for high school or college is 222.5.

And you also have to meet the army height, weight standards be medically qualified through the same Department of Defense Medical Process and passed the Army Physical Fitness test right now. Currently the armies in transition were between fitness tests.

The the current the current test for being eligible for scholarship eligibility and what we call contract ING eligibility. In other words, to make to make a commitment and contract with ROTC, is a.

One minute of push-ups, one minute of sit-ups and one mile run for commissioning.

Once, once you get to the point that you're getting ready to graduate and Commission, we're using the the Officer Physical Assessment test, which is what they use for the West Point admissions. The Military Academy, and then we are all we are currently transitioning to what we call the Army Combat Fitness test, which is supposed to be finalized within the next month or so, which is a six event test and it includes Hein release push-ups.

From leg tucks.

Sprint Dragon carry event.

A two mile run, a ball, a weighted ball throw.

And I think I'm missing one, but you can look it up though, and you could all. I mean, that's it's pretty easy information to find.

Benefits I will tell you that most of our scholarships are three year scholarships.

We do we do?

Offer four year scholarships to incoming freshmen. Normally will have one, maybe two, that that that come to Kent State on four year scholarships. I will tell you that.

A lot of our three year scholarships, once they once they once they arrive on campus that first year, we are able to upgrade quite a few of those three years to 3 1/2 years to so it would actually start that spring semester of your freshman year.

In addition to that, you would get a textbook allowance is $1200 per year, or is it's broken down to $600 per semester and then the basic benefit for all contracted cadets once you make a commitment to serve as an army officer upon graduation. Graduation is a monthly cadet pay of $420 a month so every cadet gets that regardless if they're on scholarship or not.

In addition to the traditional rotk scholarships, we also have university funded scholarships. The Military Science Department and we're able to offer these each semester.

And they're based on what we call order merit, so it's based on instructors recommendations and also cadet needs. So like if you live on campus then you would be eligible to apply for a room grant for that semester, and it and these are these. These are ongoing, so we'll do a scholarship selection board each semester for the upcoming semester.

Same thing with the meal plans and also partial tuition grants. Depending on funding, we can offer anywhere between 500 and $2500 per semester too.

To enroll students on partial tuition scholarships.

Each semester.

Army benefits the.

Very similar. Like I said, the military benefits are going to be the base pay and everything in the pay scale is across the board between all the branches. So starting annual salary is around $55,000.

Uhm?

Same thing with the healthcare dental care.

30 days paid vacation and obviously continued. Professional and personal development as well as.

Educational not not just in your career field but also in your military.

Occupation as well.

I don't. I don't have a. I don't have a slide for all the basic career fields or what we call army branches, but there there's basically we we Commission into 11 basic branches of the army, which include logistics, aviation, medical service, military, police and then we also have combat, you know, combat armors specific like artillery, armor, infantry.

And those are easy. Actually. You can find those on our on the Kent States Army Army ROTC website as well.

One last thing I'll mention is the component, so when you come through Army Air OTC, you can Commission either full time active duty or you can Commission part time in the Army Reserve or the Army National Guard, which is basically a drilling one weekend a month. So it's a part time commitment, so it's it's your it's it's your choice, it's your option. What component you want to Commission into you.

And with that.

I didn't. I didn't want to take up too much time 'cause I'm gonna leave leave time for some questions and some discussion so.

Uhm?

The floor is.

Open for any questions or comments.

Alright, it looks like we've got one question here.

If you decide you do not want to continue ROTC after sophomore year, would you still have to go for another four years to have a bachelors, or would it just be still two more?

Yeah, that's a great question. Our OTCQX basically think about it as an elective course and actually hear it, and I probably should have mentioned this, but here at Kent State you can actually minor in a joint military studies, but I guess the simple answer is no, it's basically you're taking one additional class in addition to your regularly scheduled classes for your major.

Right, thank you.

Does anybody have any more questions? Well, we still got a few more minutes left. This is a great opportunity to get him out there.

I'll just make one comment and I tell this to everybody. Taking the take ROTC is just a college class. You're not joining the military. You know we're not picking you up in the middle of night in a van with no windows or anything crazy it you're just going coming to class just like any other college class. But what it is doing is is it's. It's letting you kept. Try it out and kind of experience and kind of broadening your knowledge about the military. And then you making a decision if if if if it's something right for you.

And then you decide if you want to make a commitment and actually serve as an officer. Once you graduate from college.

So it's it's you're not making a commitment upfront, you're.

You're making that decision, and it's a really great program, especially as a first year student.

Very similar to Air Force. We have our I mean army. Our main program is here at Kent, but we also have partnerships with Youngstown and Mount Union, but the majority of architects are actually here on main campus and it's it's a really great program to be a part of. We have all different majors so.

Uhm?

I I encourage anyone that's even thinking about it. And obviously if you if you're listening to this flash topic, you you're you. You're mildly interested, so I would say just you know, sign up for the class and talk to the other cadets in the program and see what they have to say about it. I've had. I've had students come in.

Take it for two years and then leave and they talk great about the program. And then I mean we have the ones that stay in Commission and.

Uhm?

It's just it's a really great experience and really great opportunity for you to broaden your knowledge base.

David, I think you're muted.

Sorry about that. Come as we're coming up on time here.

Art do you guys wanna list the where best to contact you for additional questions and additional information.

Yeah, actually my slides up right now.

But yeah, the the best the best way and all a lot of the information is actually good to go to the Kent website Slash Army ROTC and Air Force. I think the same. It's Kent. It's kent.edu/AFROTC or.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, just Google Kent State Air Force ROTC. You'll get the most updated information we go through that about every couple weeks. Anytime we get new information, we updated ourselves and it's it's pretty current.

Yeah, go flash is nice DJ.

Alright, well thank you. Thank you both gentlemen for taking the time to present tonight and thank you so much to everybody who came out to watch this video. Like I said in the chat, this will be posted to the Kent State website at some point. I'm not sure when but alright, thank you so much gentlemen and go flashes.

Mike, Chris.

Great, thanks so good evening.