for one, most officers jobs suck. All paperwork. I have only ever had to write annexes to op orders and I would hate having to write the whole thing all the time.
Secondly, since Ive been in the army I get along better with enlisted folk anyhow. They are more fun, and enlisted folk tend to have their heads up their arses a little less. Plus, with ROTC you have a big commitment after college ends, 4 to six years of ACTIVE duty. Thats every day. Im too insubordinate to take every day army.
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well...it IS the army, so I can understand where you'd think the boring officer jobs come in, as well as dealing with assholish officers. however, it's day its kinda a limited perspective.
the average enlistment in the armed services (all brances avreraged) in 1999 (last stats i have from when my mom was CO of Naval Recruiting District SanFran) was 7 years. so the 4 years after graduation from college isnt that bad. plus, you DONT even have to go active duty. you can do 4 years as a RESERVIST! as for the jobs, yeah, being an officer has its share of paperwork. however, only as an officer can you do things like being a tank commander, or pilot, or field artillery commander. you cant be an enlisted doctor or a nurse (well, maybe a CNA or LPN, but there are no enlisted RN's). Only as an officer can you have a command, drive a ship or submarine. Even from a strictly civilian standpoint, these jobs dont look too bad to me, plus you have the gurantee of never having the responsibility of scrubbing the head/latrine/bathroom.
back to the subject though, i think if you looked outside the army, you'd find that the level of character posessed by officers is far higher than what you're used to (especially the marine corps and the navy). as for being more fun than enlisted guys...pray tell, have you ever been carousing with a group of pilots? you're lucky to make it back without a new tattoo, the clap and a need for an immediate liver transplant. for my almost 25 years of experience in and around the military, the army and the airforce are two giant rotating mongolian charlie foxtrots. organizationally haphazard, questionable officer training, super arrogant academy graduates and the idea that they have some moral requirement to thumb their noses at people because theyre in the army or air force. i could go on that subject for hours, but ill just leave it there.
For me, it wasnt even a question. The prospect of finishing college (for free, plus getting paid for it), walking out into an automatic $49k a year job and spending the next 4 years flying multimillion dollar supersonic aircraft seemed like a winner to me over the prospect of going to basic, then A school, then C school, then cleaning heads and doing scutwork over the next couple years to "earn" my GI Bill (which officers get too).
AMF to that idea.