What is the Air Force ROTC at USU?

When students hear about the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps many may think of the gold and black Army symbol, but at Utah State University the ROTC includes more than just the Army branch of the United States’ military. It also includes an Air Force branch.

This mistake is easily made, however, since the Air Force wasn’t created until 1947. Despite this late start, USU’s Air Force ROTC in no way allows itself to be inferior to the Army’s branch.

USU is known as the number one university for Air Force selection and currently has a total of 93 cadets in their program, with only 40 percent of those cadets receiving financial support from the Air Force. Any cadet, scholarship-ed or not, will say the ROTC life isn’t an easy one.

“We have to get up at 5:30 in the morning every Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” said Jacob Olsen, a Major Cadet in the AFROTC and an aerospace engineering major.

But being in the AFROTC includes more than just being an early bird.

“We also have to put in a lot of work. The ROTC is student-run, so we have to plan all our leadership labs and other training exercises,” said Geovani Tara, an aviation technology major.

This sort of training allows cadets to learn leadership skills and teamwork so once they graduate from the program, they can be effective in their careers in the Air Force. But there are perks to being in the AFROTC that come during training as well as after it.

“I like being in the ROTC because it gives me a network of people that I know I can trust and I like working with. I also have superiors that are experienced in the Air Force and can tell me what it is actually like to serve,” Olsen said.

Leaders in the department have also seen a lot of their students benefit from joining the AFROTC.

“Some people come here and they don’t even know why they are here but after being around the other cadets and seeing the camaraderie and teamwork our cadets have, they want to join,” said Lieutenant Col Alex Dubovik, director of the AFROTC at USU.

If a person enrolls in AFROTC, they don’t have to commit right away. In fact, most cadets in the ROTC aren’t actually committed to anything for the first two years of the program.

“If you don’t like it then you don’t have to join, but you can at least try it,” Olsen said.

Once a person decides to join the Air Force they must sign a contract that commits them to the Air Force for several years. Once they are committed to cadet work, their way up to become a commissioned officer. In order to become a commissioned officer in the Air Force, a cadet must do one of three things:

1. Attend and graduate at the Air Force academy

2. Attended and graduate from an officer training school

3. Complete the ROTC program

“The ROTC is the largest commissioning force we have… If I could go back and do it all over again I would have liked to join the ROTC,” said Dubovik, who joined the Air Force right after high school and chose to attend an officer training school.

As the program thrives, though, some of the cadets have concerns about the program.

“There is a misconception about females in military, but they are just as good as us. I wish we could see more of them join the program. All people should feel welcome in the military whether they are male of female,” Olsen said.

— shaniehoward214@gmail.com