West Point Class Ring

Q: I'm a cadet in Air Force ROTC. I for one do not think that the four years of time I spend in college, along with the four years of corps duties/activities, along with the six week field training, along with some basic principles and values, (need I go on?) will make me any worse than an academy grad, or an OTS grad. In case you haven't noticed (at least for Air Force), ROTC is getting really damned competitive. For fiscal year 97, there will be 1000 academy grads, and 1500 ROTC grads. It's not that big of a gap. And with recent cutbacks, that is closing still. They are kicking the undesirables out left and right with prejudice. Bottom line is that ROTC is not a kiddie game where we play military for a few years as kids then jump into an officer's slot. To become a military officer, you need hard work, and the will to succeed. Something that is not exclusive to any commissioning source.

A:Whoop-te-doo! George Washington did all right, and he was NOT an ROTC grad. I KNOW you don't want to take a roll call of great American generals and see how ROTC grads stand up.... Listen bud, the only reason you think you have it tough is because you have (in all likelihood) never really sucked it down the way academy cadets do. As a West Pointer, I have friends (and some of them were damned good officers) who were ROTC. When I show them pictures in the Howitzer (West Point's "annual"), their eyes invaribaly go wide with astonishment at the shit cadets have to put up with. They are quick to relate (nervously, and with much relief) that while they had some tough moments, it was frivolous compared to the Academy experience. Humbles them EVERY time. When I was at West Point we had real disdain (hostility sometimes) for "ROTC pukes" who strutted around like they were tough or something. Truth be told, a week at West Point and most of those pukes would have been about as tough as a dried-up turd. So, bottom line--knock of the whining about how your pitiful plight, because you can't even CONCEIVE of what a hard time is. Humility is a great thing for you to learn before somebody with a REAL class ring teaches you in way you will not

soon forget. Who are you????? Eisenhower went to West Point!!!!! That still says nothing about which commissioning source is better. And even then, that is sort of irrelevant once we are all out there. The military today is concerned with efficency and who can get the job done regardless of where they come from. I decided to come to USAFA and I am happy I made that decision. Others may feel ROTC or OTS is the way to go. But what is going to make you a good officer is not how much crap they put you through at the academy or how you balance your checkbook and cope with "real people" if you are ROTC. Character, discipline and duty will do that. Just my opinion.