I Get Back from Cancun

[Peaches]

Originally posted by Mike AI@Mar 15 2004, 04:22 PM
You should encourage him to go to OSU and do ROTC. Going into military as an officer is a much different experience then going in as an enlisted person.

Yes, an excellent option! That's what my kid was doing until Mom pulled the plug on paying $20K a year for partying. :P

Mike, since I've been going through this for quite a while, a few things come to mind:

If he's not a "student", i.e. not really ready to head out and be disciplined enough to study/attend classes (oy.....), this could be an excellent option for him. In hindsight, I wish my kid had done this sooner. Of course, no member of my family has ever NOT gone to college right after HS graduation so it was never even considered. If it's like the AF, while he's enlisted he can take college classes (even online) and they will pay 100% of it. Again, I'm not sure how the Army is, but the AF's tech school actually produce an associates degree. In addition, there's the GI Bill which I think is around $28K now. And if they play it smart, they can walk out of there after 4 years with $30K+ in their pocket saved from living on the government.

There is also a delayed entry program which a friend of my son's is doing for the Marines. He's already gone to bootcamp but is currently attending college. He may even be doing some sort of weekend/week guard type assignments, I'm not sure. And I'm 99.9% sure he does NOT participate in ROTC because I don't think the Marines have one - at least not at Clemson.

Then again, he could be the victim of a recruiter. These guys would sell their own mother in order to get an elistment. The lies I see told are just incredible. Sit down with him and make sure he understands EXACTLY what he's getting into.

Of course, it's easy for me to spout this because none of the jobs my kid's going into are combat related.

I've found an awesome website for tons of military info and a good chat board for questions:

http://usmilitary.about.com/

In the end, he's 18 and there's not much you can do but we all know what a good guy you are and you'll support him no matter what!

Keep us informed!!!