Best route to commission: UAS/UOTC/URNU or Academy?

[chopper2004]

When I was in uni and with the UOTC, 'twas interesting to see a few go onto do their TCB commissions through the then TCB at Chilwell. Those who passed went onto the 2.5/3 week commissioning course at Sandhurst. As one graduate of the course said it was a sadists nightmare or pleasure..however you looked at it.

However those who wanted to get a regular commission say to fly in the AAC, would have to go through the same hurdles again with the then RCB board and of course meds and aptitude test at Cranwell. BUT the key thing was that they would have to give up their 2nd Lt and start all over again.

The only time when the above changed and the former OCdt who got his commission via the TA/TCB route went regular without going through the whole system again was if their TA unit ended up (as I was told) going to NI for a tour for a few years.

I understand it was the same with the URNU ocdts....who could be commissioned in naval reserve as Midshipmen after a few week course post AIB. But if they wanted to do regular, then it be go through the whole system again.

In the US, from what I gather and those I have met a majority of US Naval aviators, USAF pilots, and US Army Aviators went the ROTC route which as I read it once you passed through their equiv of selection, its like here..do your drill nights, do the weekends, pass courses, must attend summer camps. As each year goes, by, you attend everything, pass everything with distinction and get more responsibility over other officer cadets. You get your degree from the uni you are at, and receive commission then its transferable to regular and off to Pensacola, Fort Rucker, Sheppard/Laughlin/ etc etc to learn to fly and have X amount of years to serve to pay back for all the education

The chosen few who get a letter of recommendation from senator then prob do some aptitude and medical then its 4 years at Colorado Springs, Annapolis or West Point after high school.

And then there's the other side of the coin which are Officer Candidate School which reminds me of Fighter Pilot series and the now closed OCTU at Henlow.

Here's my question, could in this day and age of tightening budgets and economics, use the UAS/UOTC/URNU system to produce regular officer commissions for those that want to and fly rather than in the army's case take it away then have them do the whole selection process plus 1 year of RMA or 1 year at BRNC or 9 months at Cranwell.

Or should we go through the 4 year route like the US do or combine the RAF and Army commissioning course (close Cranwell) like the Belgians do (got a friend who got her commission and degree through there in the Land Component now) and do a 4 year or marching, running around, section attacks, rolling around the mud writing papers, nighttime drills, leading, and grab a degree while you are there. In fact one of her classmates ended up being the F-16 solo display pilot around 10 years back who was bashing the circuit at RIAT.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

[Traffic_Is_Er_Was]

Sorry, what was the bit after "When I was in uni..." again?

[Tourist]

UAS URNU and UOTC are not about being Officers, or even military. They are just Seacadets, Army cadets etc for kids that have left home.

They are about drinking and having fun whilst wearing a snazzy uniform in the hope that in later years the people who joined them remember the military fondly when maybe a few of them just might have some actual clout.

The idea that they could replace IOT is frankly hilarious.

Even Dartmouth has some ability to install a little bit of military bearing and elementary personal admin skills.

[chopper2004]

Fair enough Tourist , our UOTC / UAS / URNU cannot be compared to the ROTC system across the pond with the exceptions of those in that have bursaries and cadetships sponsored by any of the three armed forces. We had a couple of officer cadets who were sponsored by various corps including one from the AAC who passed his RCB in his final year at uni and got sponsored in his final year and he wore the blue beret. There was a guy from another uni from up north who was attached to us who was sponsored by the Redcaps and he wore the red beret.

So if any folks here from across the pond have earned their commissions via the ROTC route , it be interesting to hear what they had to do during drill nights, weekends, summer camps etc etc and the increased tempo and responsibility during their three or four years at uni.

Will admit the social life of the UOTC was a laugh especially the annual dinner and various wing dinners not to mention taking advantage of the cheap beer.

Cheers

[Tourist]

I had a cadetship. It changed nothing. I was just there for drinking. It had no effect on my military training.



......certainly not a positive one, anyway:bored:

[Haraka]

In 1968 I was one of the Cranwell Flight Cadets who got offered the opportunity to go to University in 1969 as an APO, post a year at the Towers.
At the time we were told to write 68/69 off as "being down to experience".
In retrospect I wonder if this transitional exercise had some merit.
A year of O.T. ,Exercises, Drill, Cranwell gamesmanship and general Royal Air Force exposure ,combined with weeding out the "also rans", meant that only those who had jumped the hurdles and then were properly commissioned got off to University.
The post academic drop out rate from those of us on return, compared to other "post grads", was minimal ,for it was just a second time around (and a lot softer). Indeed for us it was mostly nugatory and could have been largely abbreviated.
Thus in our case the RAF basically did its Officer selection for a year pre-commissioning before committing three years ( or more) of the Service's time and money on otherwise de facto untested and overpaid students.