Obama planning for a much smaller US military.
Nail, meet hammer. Lest we forget, Barry and his minions at the Pentagon are planning to reduce the active duty Army by at least 80,000 personnel, from 570,000 to 490,000, by 2017. That not only means you need fewer enlistees entering basic training, you’ll need fewer lieutenants to lead them.
I spent a tour as an ROTC instructor during my military career. Generally speaking, both the Air Force and the Army had too many detachments across the country and some have been shuttered in recent years. I’m guessing the programs scheduled to close have been producing fewer new officers than detachments are larger universities. Couple the lack of production with fewer accessions, and you’ve got grounds to get rid of Army programs at selected schools.
And that’s a shame. During my ROTC stint, I spent two summers at field training (the program’s equivalent of basic). In my experience, the best cadets came from the small schools; many were prior service members or the first in their family to attend college. All wanted to serve their country, and many are still on active duty, laboring through the challenges of an Obama military.
On the other hand, the worst cadet I ever ran across was from Yale (he took ROTC academics at the University of Connecticut). Not only did he have a complete lack of military bearing, he had absolutely no personal integrity. The camp commander and I spent long hours developing a package to boot him from field training and ROTC. Our request was denied. The reason? The Air Force had already invested so much in his “education,” and they wanted the cachet that came with having another Ivy League grad in the officer corps.
Not necessarily.
Although these ROTCs close, in all of his other army, recruitment and funding remain in place. Indeed, it is expanding in inner and not-so-inner cities near you!