Njrotc

I need some background on what it's like to be a female in the NJROTC, approximately five years ago, for a story I'm writing. Story doesn't take place in the Navy or on a Navy vessell or involve sailors-- it's a just character background to give my protagonists some color.

Anybody have a friend that could relate the good and the bad, and some of the training requirements?

My son is in NROTC and he has casually mentioned there are some girls in NROTC also. My impression is that he considers them as fellow sailors and friends.

If you can give me some specific questions I will ask him about them when he visits home for Christmas.

Lets get straight on which we are dealing with.

Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps or NJROTC (first reference) is a high school level program. It is run at participating high schools by non-comissioned officers of the United States Navy (Naval Petty Officers, think like the Navy Equivalent of Sarge). Most of the program operate at urban high schools. NJROTC incurs no obligations upon the students who participate and there is no tuition remittance or stipend provided. The US Navy provides the uniforms. Over the years this program has been co-incident with the Sea Cadets, a program sponsored by the US Navy League. Neither NJROTC nor Sea Cadets are associated with Sea Scouting the 90 year old, high school level, coed program of the Boy Scouts of America. The program involves drill, learning the history of the US Navy, introduction to naval traditions and practices, and in some cases the basis of seamanship. Many of the high school students who participate, after graduation from high school, go on to careers as enlisted men and women in the US Navy. It is not primarily designed for students who will go on to four year colleges although a significant number of NJROTC participants do go to four year schools. I do not have acess to numbers but from my experience I would estimate that almost half of NJROTC participants are young women.

Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps or NROTC is a program that is operated at four year colleges by the United States Navy (and incidentally by the US Marine Corps) designed to produce individuals prepared to accept commissions as serving or reserve officers after a four year program. Two groups of individuals participate in the program. One consists predominantly of individuals with majors in the area of science and technology who are interested in careers as naval officers. The other consists of individuals majoring in a wide variety of subjects who desire to be officers in the US Marines. Nationally, far fewer Universities offer NROTC programs than offer the more common US Army ROTC program. NROTC programs are almost invariably found at universities with strong science and technology programs. Some NROTC programs such as those offered at VMI, The Citadel and Texas A & M University's Corps of Cadets offer a program very similar to that offered at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis with a highly regimented life style and an emphasis on uniforming and developing leadership skills. NROTC programs at some other universities offer a more relaxed social atmosphere although the academic standards are generally very high.

The more service-academy-like NROTC programs (VMI, Citadel, TAMU) have a larger proportion of students seeking a Marine Corps officer career option and have a relatively small number of young women. The more general progams have a larger proportion of young women. However, the proportion of young women seldom exceeds more than about 20%. This simply reflects the fact that we are looking at programs that heavily enroll physical science and engineering students and these major do not have large numbers of young women (my estimates rather than DOD numbers).

Depending on the program NROTC students receive uniforms and uniform allowances. A significant proportion of underclassmen receive NROTC scholarships as do most upperclassmen. Underclassmen on scholarships have SAT's that range from 1250 to 1350 (my estimates).

I hope that this helps.

Dear Norton

If you son is in NROTC, my congratulations. I hope that he enjoys the program and persists in his decision to serve his country as an officer in the US Navy or US Marine Corps.