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The best butterbars are the ones who shut up, listen, and let the E4s work stuff out. Because they know they don't know anything.

What would I have learned at basic/AIT that would have been of more value than 10+ hours a week of ROTC commitments during my four years of college? Add to that one week of Spring Camp at Fort Lewis while my classmates are partying during spring break, and six weeks of Advanced Camp at Fort Lewis?

A third of my class earned Ranger Tabs, and over half of us got our jump wings. I was about in the middle of a class of 20 that produced a two-star general, several full bird colonels, and a couple of LTC's. I was one of many that left the service after fulfilling our commitments.

My NCOs speeded my development, and I got along with them better than most officers. My most enjoyable time was as a platoon leader with three E-4 squad leaders, and an E-5. I had been a platoon leader with two other platoons in the year prior to that, so I was ready to mold a platoon with younger, more eager soldiers. It was one of the highlights of my short military career when we outperformed the other platoons in a tac eval, to the surprise of everyone but me.

Months of basic and AIT would never have provided me with my most important lesson, when my platoon failed a tac eval, and the main message from the Platoon Leaders handbook was delivered: everything my unit did or failed to do is my responsibility. I took a lot of crap over the next few months, and that would be the last time I failed.

I took the message to heart, but became a real PITA to my chain of command. My attitude was, "ok, you're going to put it all on me? Fine. Stay the hell out of my way and let me do my job." I've pretty much been a PITA for over 40 years, thanks to that experience.

What would I have learned at basic/AIT that would have been of more value than 10+ hours a week of ROTC commitments during my four years of college?

For one thing, all your basic soldier skills. IMTs, weapons qual, what all the buttons on the M4 do. How to move as a fireteam/squad, conduct maneuvers, operate radios, CLS, etc. etc. How do you expect to lead soldiers when you have hardly any idea of what they're doing and how life looks through their eyes? Our latest LT (MI dude who finally got promoted to 1st a couple months ago) had no clue how to use any of our weapons systems. While we reviewed all the privates on dissasembly/re- on the MK19, M2, 240s prior to gunnery, we had to completely teach the LT from the beginning. He'd never seen half of the stuff in person before. And ALC doesn't do much for basic soldiering skills, it grades the cadets on their leadership and officer abilities.

And yes, I spent a couple years in ROTC right before funding dried up. My first year was spent having no clue what was going on. STX's involved us and the IIs laying in our 360 security for 20-30min, trying not to sleep. We had a very basic understanding on soldiering from the few labs on movement/camo/this/that. It wasn't until III-IV that you actually start participating in the officer-level discussion and planning. It would be much better for everyone to already know how a squad/platoon moves, and have your younger guys come in and learn by watching and listening instead of laying on the ground doing nothing half the labs. For classes, we didn't learn how anything worked, we studied either military history or leadership or the soldier's Creed or TLPs. 8-Step training model. But if 2-3 years of enlisted time was a requirement to become an officer, you would have cadets who already know how to be a soldier, and can therefore actually concentrate on learning how to be an officer. They'll know a lot of the tricks for how to live in the field and what to bring or not when you're going camping at Ft. Hood. Your limited lab time could be more effectively used for officer training instead of doing basic stuff most of the first semester.

My NCOs speeded my development, and I got along with them better than most officers.

That's good, I commend you for that. I know several officers who try to apply stuff they learnt that may work in theory, but is useless in practical application. Especially when you have an infantry officer placed in a Cav unit. And good officers can listen and learn from their NCO/E4s. But many don't, because they outrank them and the cadre already taught them how it should be done. Also, how units work varies. I'm in a BFSB and our LT doesn't talk to the CO. His job is to maneuver and control his platoon. The PSG is the one passing up info and reports to the ToC, and sending stuff through.

Yes, there are plenty of officers that do fine, especially after a couple years. But all of the best officers that I've met are guys who (I learnt later) were green-to-gold and made it to E5, E6 before they took that commission. Having been enlisted is a valuable experience for an officer that West Point or A&M or the Citadel just can't match.