Prior enlisted to NROTC. anyone else in my shoes?

[fattestfoot]

It's funny ,An officer once told me "prior enlisted guys always make either the best, or the worst officers." I think that holds a good amount of truth to it. That's something I've been thinking about quite a bit actually.

I think a good bit of that is what motivated the prior enlisted person to become an officer. If there's a part of them that wants to become an officer so they can boss around the senior enlisted that (they thought) gave them a hard time just because of their rank, then they'll probably end up being poor officers. One size doesn't fit all, but I've seen several that ended up clashing with E-6's and E-7's for no good reason (and oddly never had issues with the lower enlisted).

 

[statesman]

I think its been touched on here previously but in regard to Mids with previous military time:

We had a guy at our unit and he lasted a semester before he quit. We had a large percentage of MECEPs and STA-21s as well. This guy got out of the Marines as an E-4 I believe, came to UNM as a Mid and immediately started complaining about how things ran. He was technically a Mid, but threw a fit when he couldnt wear his enlisted USMC uniform to our events like the MECEPs. (Once you're a Mid thats your rank, he didnt grasp that concept). This pissed off basically every demographic. The MECEPS most of whom were E-5s and E-6s didnt like it because he was whining, and the Mids didnt like it because he didnt want to be 'one of us'. (It should be noted that we had a really good relationship between our STA-21s, MECEPs, and Mids.)

He also pissed people off by being very vocal about how displeased he was with the unit, the program, and basically everything else. He didnt think Officers needed a college degree, and all sorts of other strong and vocal opinions. Which are fine, but he threw himself out there pretty early and didnt make a great impression.

Basically to piggyback on C420 'dont be THAT guy'. You enlisted experience will be a great asset, but it doesnt make you superior. It sounds like you have a good attitude, this guy is more of a cautionary tale.

 

[PapaC03]

I' m not too surprised to hear about guys coming from the Marine Corps enlisted acting like this actually. It's cool to be proud of your service, which I am, but I'm excited to be a mid and maybe an Officer someday. It's really hard for me to fathom why prior guys wouldn't expect things to be different. Especially since we are supposed to be notorious for "adapting and overcoming." Thanks for the positive feedback though, I think i have a good attitude as well. I'm happy to have a chance to better myself and become an officer, and maybe even a Naval Aviator. I just have to process everything one step at a time, I think of my self being commissioned and its really wild picturing myself an officer, coming from the lower echelon enlisted world of the grunts.

 

[Pistol719]

Hey guys, I'm getting out of the Marine Corps here in September ( Honorably) and looking forward to going to college and most likely going into NROTC. I'm not worried about the scholarship I'm going to apply for advance standing and use my post 9/11 GI bill. This way ill have tuition covered and pull in the e-5 BAH and the monthly stipend from advance standing. Basically, I'm posting this thread to hear about your experiences being prior enlisted coming into an NROTC unit. How was it for you? What did you expect it to be like and how did your experience differ? Were you successful in pursuing the career path you wanted? What can I expect? I'm sure this is a common sight on the forums but I am pursuing the gold wings. I've wanted to be an aviator for a long time. Any aviators that read this, I would love to hear about your journey to getting your wings and how you like being an aviator as well!

I wont lie..I just kinda skimmed through this thread and really only read the OP (Kinda been busy unpacking stuff in my place and getting yelled at by the girlfriend) I did exactly what you did and recently commissioned this last may and currently in the aviation pipeline now so I really wanted to give you my two cents on the experience and hopefully answer your questions..

How was it for you?

Well not going in as a MECEP or OC you will be a Middy for rank purposes. Honestly not that big of a deal as long as you don't have an ego problem (Which you shouldn't from the sounds of your post, you seem rather humbled). Honestly I kind of felt like the "Warrant Officer" of sorts... I had the best of both worlds. Some of the more timid middies felt me more approachable just because I was a MIDN, all the while I was able to relate to, and share experiences with the OC's and Marines. I very much enjoyed the experience from that perspective, and honestly depending on your unit you might have it a bit easier being that you are not on active duty during the summer/winter months(I.E. no musters and enjoy your time off as a "civilian")

What did you expect it to be like and how did your experience differ?

I did not really have any expectations to be honest with you as I was not sure what to exactly expect. I knew there would be the general military training but you also do alot more on the professional/management side of the house in terms of contrast from enlisted to officer. Your experience as a prior will help out with this, but you also learn a few things that differ from that side of the house to this one.

Were you successful in pursuing the career path you wanted?

I am commissioned and selected as an SNA so yeah I think so =) Best advice I can give here is Study your ass off.. make good grades, kick ass in PT, and don't be a dirtbag in the unit military-wise and you should be good for selection to what you want.

What can I expect?

I don't know your personal background but I went to boot camp straight after high school.. So I never had a college experience until I got out to come home and start undergrad.. Definitely a humbling and new experience being a relatively broke college kid (sans BAH)... Understand obviously you will learn from other priors experiences in the unit from their time in the fleet.. But the advice/tips the Middies will give you for college in terms of studying, teacher selection, etc are PRICELESS! (This is esp true if you suck in math like me.. thank god for some friends who are calculus gurus)

I hope this answered your questions and I apologize for making this so long.. If you have any other questions feel free to post here or hit me up in a private message!

 

[Flash]

Well from what the LT down at SDSU said was that he hasn't had any trouble getting any of his guys on advance standing. Especially in regards to getting guys scholarships. He basically said the navy either way is getting a commissioned officer, and if they can commission a guy for a fraction of the cost, then there you go.

A note of caution, I believe that some college program MIDN are not getting advanced standing contracts to commission recently because the Navy simply didn't need their numbers. Since the Navy hasn't invested much in them they are pretty easy to cut and with the likely upcoming budget cuts I imagine that might be the story for a few years. Here is a thread from earlier in the year that mentions that.

 

[PapaC03]

Thanks for the heads up, its a bummer hearing about that. Makes an SNA slot seem much harder to obtain than it already was..

 

[cameron172]

A note of caution, I believe that some college program MIDN are not getting advanced standing contracts to commission recently because the Navy simply didn't need their numbers. Since the Navy hasn't invested much in them they are pretty easy to cut and with the likely upcoming budget cuts I imagine that might be the story for a few years. Here is a thread from earlier in the year that mentions that.

Depends on what you're majoring in when you're a mid too. 85% of scholarships and advanced standing spots are given to mids majoring in tier 1 and tier 2 majors. 15% go to tier 3. https://www.nrotc.navy.mil/scholarship_criteria.aspx

 

[PapaC03]

yeah, but 85% of 30 scholarships still isnt much haha. Ill do my best though, Im not going to give up just because there might not be a slot available. Ill get there eventually.