The correct assignment of ROTC Cadets in wartime emergency is actually as follows:
Seniors are directly commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants, into the Regular Army or the Reserve Forces with an open-ended contract. (It's essentially a pre-emptive stop-loss contract.) Juniors are sent directly to Officer Basic Course (not Officer Candidate School, after which you'd go to Officer Basic Course); what they branched (Junior ROTC Cadets are normally told which branch they will be serving in the Army in the middle of the year) is immaterial. Though TRADOC would look at their previous training, in the end the new 2LTs would go where they were needed. Sophomores (who are not under contract to the government yet) who are at the top third of the class would be offered OCS; the second third would be offered enlistments at the starting rank of sergeant (E-5); the bottom third of the class and the entirety of the Freshmen Class who had completed at least one semester of ROTC would be offered enlistments at Corporal or Specialist (E-4; whether they are Corporals or Specialists depends on the needs of the receiving units). The rest may enlist normally or are cut loose; if they enlist, they enter as Privates First Class (E-3).
Of course, it's the US Army, so everything has to be made unnecessarily complicated, even during a wartime emergency.
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War is the absence of reason. But then, life often demands unreasonable responses. - Lucian Soulban, Warhammer 40000 series, Necromunda Book 6, Fleshworks
Entirely too much T2K stuff here: www.pmulcahy.com
Last edited by pmulcahy11b; 01-15-2022 at 10:39 PM.
Reason: I added one final snide remark.
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