ROTC Programs Offer Students Pathways, Leadership Development

ROTC students march with rifles and flags, in uniform

ROTC Programs Offer Students Pathways, Leadership Development

ROTC students in uniform flank the doors to the OU Armory building

Following the country’s celebration of Independence Day, we are highlighting the University of Oklahoma’s three Reserve Officer Training Corps programs, each with similar impacts and goals.

“A ROTC program – whether Army, Naval or Air Force – is one way to train to become a commissioned officer in the U.S. Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force) after earning a college or university degree,” explained Colonel Justin Boldenow, commander of Air Force ROTC Detachment 675 at OU program. “While in an ROTC program, cadets and midshipmen attend college courses and receive basic military, officer and leadership training for their chosen branch of service, participating in regular on-campus drills during the academic year and off-campus training opportunities during the summer.”

Students who are accepted into an ROTC program at OU may be awarded financial as well as other incentives.

Captain Travis Moore, the recruiting officer for OU’s Air Force ROTC program, said some of these incentives include:

In-state tuition rates for all participating students
Three-, four- and five-year full tuition and fee scholarship based on grade-point average, fitness, and leadership
100% of cadets who make it to year three earn awards that cover full tuition and fees
Flight opportunities to cover $4,500 in flight school costs
Paid travel opportunities in the summer to learn languages in other countries including Brazil, Singapore, Taiwan, Kyrgyzstan, Estonia, and Oman
Paid travel opportunities in the summer to learn to fly at the U.S. Air Force Academy
Paid travel opportunities to learn how to parachute and receive survival training, or hand-to-hand combat training at the U.S. Air Force Academy

For the Air Force ROTC program, cadets may attend classes for two years without committing.

Several ROTC programs provide leadership training and ways for students to get connected. In the Naval ROTC program, students begin their four-year leadership program their first day on campus, noted Naval ROTC Captain Paul Young.

“I’m in my 31st year as a naval officer and this is my fourth time as a commanding officer,” Young said. “With that, what I’d like the OU community to know is that the staff and students who make up OU’s three ROTC programs are absolutely outstanding people. They are intelligent, disciplined and energetic – and ready to take on the nation’s future challenges. I’m proud to be associated with each one of them.”

Mike Aguilar, the director of the Esports and Co-Curricular Innovation Department at OU and a veteran and a son of an officer who went through ROTC at Texas A&M University, said these opportunities help develop students’ decision-making skills at times of high stress.

“ROTC is critical to help grow and mature the leaders of our military to ensure the protection of our country,” he said. “ROTC develops officers of high caliber to ensure the protection of lives in the field, strategic functions of the needs of the country, and execute actions that are often not easy for most to comprehend when time is not a commodity.”

To learn more about OU ROTC, visit ou.edu/rotc.

By Jonathan Kyncl

Article Published: Wednesday, July 12, 2023

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