Political Crossfire Forums

Would you? Back when I was in school everyone thought it was cool. Is it worth it or is it a waste of time?

I suppose it would depend if you enlisted, went to Westpoint, did ROTC at a state school, etc. Probably would suck if you just enlisted.

Air Force, sure. I wanted to be the guy who told UFO investigators to buzz off.

Mom and Dad talked me outta that one back in HS. On retrospect I probably would have gotten more out of college if I was a bit more grown up.

I went through AFROTC. It was great. Taught a lot of leadership skills that you simply DO NOT get anywhere else.

For instance, when you are in a business management course curriculum in college, you are taught to use all these nifty tools to run a company. While it's never explicitly stated, you are taught that managers are the ones that make decisions, and as long as you use the proper tools, those decisions are right.

But, AFROTC taught me that, when I graduated, I was going to be a 2nd Lieutenant with 0 years experience. Technically, I'd be "above" the sergeants below me. But, because they had 20+ years of experience, if my decision countered theirs, I was probably wrong. All my training and tools might state otherwise, but I'd better listen to my sergeant.

Frankly, that's a VALUABLE lesson to have learned. One that I see far too many kids fresh out of college not learning. They'll come into a meeting with flashy graphs and a formula from some book that points to a decision. Then, a staff employee will state that they attempted this several years back, and that it didn't work. Instead of exploring WHY it didn't work, and if situations had changed that might allow it to work this time, they scoff and say, "Well, I think it'll work because I've done the research on it and it says it'll work."

I would have joined up had I not met my wife.