Does anyone have any valuable advice for a new midshipmen?

[Vidofnir]

I will say this, not because of personal experience, but more because of the amount of people I have seen get reemed for not doing it...

GO TO CLASS

For some reason, despite class being your "official place of appointed duty," some midshipmen cannot fully comprehend and follow this simple task.

 

[Recovering LSO]

^ easy there killer. one of the best things you'll learn at college is time management. sometimes managing your time means sleeping in

 

[Yardstick]

it's ok to skip a class every once in awhile, just dont make it a habit

 

[MIDNJAC]

^ easy there killer. one of the best things you'll learn at college is time management. sometimes managing your time means sleeping in

+1. I remember I took math 306 (some infinite series and sequences class), learned almost nothing from the instructor, and proceeded to miss just about every day aside from midterms and final. Lucky for me, there was an option to take your final grade as the grade for the class. Studied my butt off for a week, went and aced the final and pulled an A. Gave me lots of extra time to study for more important classes, drink, and work on my car. Just don't try this approach in flight school, and don't try it in college if you can't make it work of course

 

[CAMike]

If you're lucky enough to get winged and proceed to an operational command, DON'T ARGUE or protest at all about your command provided call sign -no matter what. (Some folks never get this specific advise early on in their schooling.) If you do protest you'll probably create a firestorm at your command- at worse you'll have your face and marked career featured in Navy Times.

... and DO Very Well in all that you do.

 

[SWACQ]

^ easy there killer. one of the best things you'll learn at college is time management. sometimes managing your time means sleeping in

+2

I skipped a lot of classes in college and still graduated. You have to be able to hack it though. If you skip all your classes and end up on academic probation, well, maybe you shouldn't skip class. If you skip class regularly and still make the dean's list, good on you.

BTW, its been 13 years since I graduated from college, and I still have those dreams where I'm in school, I'm registered for a class, but I skipped it so many times that I can't even find the class to take an exam let alone know what's on it, or the dream where its 2100, I have a paper due the next morning and I haven't even started reading the book yet.

 

[Bevo16]

For your freshman year, GO TO CLASS. Every one of them. Every day. After you figure out what the coursework is going to look like, you can start managing your "skip schedule".

Don't try to change the Mickey Mouse ROTC games, especially as a freshman. Just roll with it.

Know that whatever ROTC unit/Corps/Brigade or whatever is NOT the the Navy, it's damn sure not like the fleet, it's not even the military. Whatever silly games/vocabulary/rituals that you do in college stay in college. Bring "red ass" with you to flight school and you are going to get laughed at.

Take your annual ass-kicking from your "friends in Austin" like a man.

Don't complain about your football team to your Athletic Director by e-mail. You might get your ass kicked.

 

[Pepe]

Don't join the corp of cadets. They're gay.

 

[Kyoowashugi]

For NSO/INDOC/O-week, or whatever your individual unit calls it, keep your head down and do what you're told. Don't skyline yourself by, for example, rolling your eyes at an instructor and telling everyone you had lots of JROTC ribbons (not saying you do or would, but I've seen it done and the results were unpleasant).

After INDOC, your main responsibility is to be the followers to the upperclassmen as they learn how to be leaders. There are rare instances where a 4/c might be put into a leadership positions - don't bank on it. As others have mentioned, all you need to do is show up on time and do what you're told. As you go along, you will notice opportunities to show initiative. Take them wherever you can - they will benefit you later.

Since you'll be trying to score a scholarship in addition to your schoolwork and other responsibilities, you need to excel at both PT and academics early on. Use the lack of other tasks to get ahead in your work. Also, 3 and 2-year scholarships are hard to come by these days, so make sure you talk to your class or company advisor to establish what you need to accomplish to be competitive.

Also, this will not be emphasized at all by your unit, but have some FUN at school. Just don't do anything stupid and you'll be fine.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me. I'm a rising 1/c, so still in the thick of the program.

 

[Pags]

+2

I skipped a lot of classes in college and still graduated. You have to be able to hack it though. If you skip all your classes and end up on academic probation, well, maybe you shouldn't skip class. If you skip class regularly and still make the dean's list, good on you.

If you skip class and fail, the first question they're going to ask you is "did you go to class?" If you say "no," you're going to be in a bad position with respect to headwork and judgement. If you're going to fail a class, then you need to make sure you're doing everything you can to pass that class (going to class, doing all the assignments, going to office hours, tutors, etc).

If you can skip class and still pass, then more power to you.

 

[AirAggie92]

If you're lucky enough to get winged and proceed to an operational command, DON'T ARGUE or protest at all about your command provided call sign -no matter what. (Some folks never get this specific advise early on in their schooling.) If you do protest you'll probably create a firestorm at your command- at worse you'll have your face and marked career featured in Navy Times.

... and DO Very Well in all that you do.

Thanks CAMike. I would love to get winged, hence the reason I want to transfer to Texas A&M.

Also, I'm a Christian, so I don't drink underage or anything like that. And yes I have always gone to class every time at my Community College.

For NSO/INDOC/O-week, or whatever your individual unit calls it, keep your head down and do what you're told. Don't skyline yourself by, for example, rolling your eyes at an instructor and telling everyone you had lots of JROTC ribbons (not saying you do or would, but I've seen it done and the results were unpleasant).

After INDOC, your main responsibility is to be the followers to the upperclassmen as they learn how to be leaders. There are rare instances where a 4/c might be put into a leadership positions - don't bank on it. As others have mentioned, all you need to do is show up on time and do what you're told. As you go along, you will notice opportunities to show initiative. Take them wherever you can - they will benefit you later.

Since you'll be trying to score a scholarship in addition to your schoolwork and other responsibilities, you need to excel at both PT and academics early on. Use the lack of other tasks to get ahead in your work. Also, 3 and 2-year scholarships are hard to come by these days, so make sure you talk to your class or company advisor to establish what you need to accomplish to be competitive.

Also, this will not be emphasized at all by your unit, but have some FUN at school. Just don't do anything stupid and you'll be fine.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me. I'm a rising 1/c, so still in the thick of the program.

Thank you, I needed that post! I may PM you later.

For your freshman year, GO TO CLASS. Every one of them. Every day. After you figure out what the coursework is going to look like, you can start managing your "skip schedule".

Don't try to change the Mickey Mouse ROTC games, especially as a freshman. Just roll with it.

Know that whatever ROTC unit/Corps/Brigade or whatever is NOT the the Navy, it's damn sure not like the fleet, it's not even the military. Whatever silly games/vocabulary/rituals that you do in college stay in college. Bring "red ass" with you to flight school and you are going to get laughed at.

Take your annual ass-kicking from your "friends in Austin" like a man.

Don't complain about your football team to your Athletic Director by e-mail. You might get your ass kicked.

Hmm well we missed our annual ass-kicking from our "friends in Austin" in 2006 and 2007 =P But anyway that's all good advice, thanks!

 

[Uncle Fester]

Also, I'm a Christian, so I don't drink underage or anything like that. And yes I have always gone to class every time at my Community College.

Wow...you know how your character winds up in the College Hijinks movies, right?

 

[SWACQ]

Take the honor code seriously. Seriously. Your integrity should always be above reproach.

A few examples that come to mind from college...

A female MIDN was hooking up with the SSgt AMOI. She got knocked up. There was an investigation into it and who knew what and when. Female MIDN was kicked out and 2 female MIDN who knew about it went before a board and were almost kicked out for not turning the other chick in (fraternization issue).

I was a senior dating a freshman. Penn State at that time had a policy that seniors in ROTC don't date freshman in ROTC. I broke the rule. My best friend/faternity brother/roommate turned me in. We got an ass-chewing, I made a stink about it being a stupid rule and got the rule changed (not a great example, I was still wrong). My buddy was best man at the wedding, 11 years later we are still married, and he's still my best friend, so I think it worked out ok. I still give him shit about it, but he did the right thing and I don't hold that against him.

Now, ROTC's ROTC, and there are bunch of stupid rules you have to put up with in ROTC while there, so lets put this in perspective of this forum and the real world.

As a pilot, your integrity has to be above reproach. This is not just about the special trust and confidence you have as an officer, as that applies to anybody with shiny stuff on their collar. Its that you are being trusted with multi-million dollar aircraft, perhaps passengers in the back or employing ordnance that kills people. When you open your mouth as an aviator, only truth comes out or you are done flying.

Here's a couple examples.

I was in primary and on FAM 6 I got a ready room down without the pink sheet. I studied the gouge instead of the ITS (or whatever the book with procedures was called) and during the brief I used gouge memonic terms for the procedure vice the procedures verbatim. My IP asked me if I studied the procedures in the book. I told him no, I studied the gouge. He took me out to the woodshed, I got my ass beat, and then he told me that since I was honest with him about what I did and didn't study, he was going to skip the paperwork and put us on the schedule for the FAM 6 the next day and I was to go home and study the real book and not the gouge.

I was in the FRS, and a peer of mine departed a jet after the merge on a 2vX BVR flight. Let me know if you need that translated. When fighting, if you lose control, you are supposed to call a "knock it off" to end the fight while you concentrate on saving the jet. At 6000' AGL, if you are still out of control, you are supposed to eject. He never called the "knock it off," didn't eject at 6000', and scooped it out at like 1500'. They get back to base, and the first thing that is always asked in the debrief is "any safety of flights?" Ie, did anything happen that you got scared about and are so deep in thought about that we might as talk about it now because you won't be paying attention to anything else we say? Crickets, didn't say anything. Then they get to the tape review, where they watch the HUD recording of the fight. IP watches the departure and recovery.

IP: "Why didn't you call a knock it off?"
Student: "That wasn't me"
IP: "Why didn't you eject at 6000'?"
Student: "That wasn't me"
IP: "Why didn't you say anything about the safety of flight?"
Student: "That wasn't me"
IP: "Its right here on the HUD tape!"
Student: "That's not my tape"

Back story is student was a gifted pilot, something like 75/80 NSS out of flight school, top of his class in the FRS. End of story is student goes to a FFPB, lies again in the FFPB, and never flies again.

I was in the fleet and made a low pull on a low altitude attack. A bad low pull. Get back to the ready room debrief and fess up about it. PTO yanks me into his office for another debrief and tape review. Again I fess up. I got taken off the flight schedule a couple days, but was put right back on it. PTO told me that he and the OpsO had already watched my tapes and knew what I did, and that if I had lied to him, I would have been FFPB'd, and they were only letting me fly again since I fessed up.

I could tell many more stories but they all end the same. You make a mistake, you man up about it, and you most likely will continue to fly. Even if you crash a jet or somebody gets killed. You tell the truth, a board finds that you are trustworthy and trainable, and you move on.

You lie one time and you are done flying.

So, long post, recap back to the first sentence. Take the honor code seriously. Seriously. Your integrity should always be above reproach.

 

[AirAggie92]

SWACQ, I could not agree more. Honesty is something I take very very seriously. It's a shame that student couldn't admit he made a mistake and continue on.

 

[The Chief]

Small piece of advice. Listen to your elders (elders as in "the older folks"). Now see, you did not pay attention, I said listen to them not necessarily do what they say nor take their advice, unvetted. Weigh their advice and use what you hear/learn to make your own decisions, in all things in life. Constantly hone your decision making skills. Beware of Mr. Unintended Consequences, he will get you where it hurts if you are not careful. Your decisions should always support your goals and objectives; you do have neatly laid down G/O's, no? They should be the basis for your plans for your future. Plan your life, do not stumble along pllar to post.

It sounds like you have great start. Wishing you all the best.