This Tuesday, at around 0830 EST, I failed in one of the more significant ways of my life to date. Specifically, I failed my third attempt at the Physical Fitness Test, and was subsequently ejected from Air Force ROTC Field Training with prejudice.
One of three things can happen to me now, following the Disenrollment Investigation that is now pending. The best, the one that I’m going to do all I can to make happen, is that I keep my scholarship, stay in AFROTC, and go back next year. That’s really the only good possibility. The medium possibility is that I lose my scholarship and am required to pay back all scholarship money I have received to date, and am ejected from ROTC. That wouldn’t be fun, as this is a $15K/year scholarship. The bad possibility is that the government activates me and I go straight to basic training and serve for a minimum of four years as enlisted personnel, immediately. Which means I’d be forced to drop out of college.
I mentioned that there’s a formal Disenrollment Investigation going on. This is my chance to redeem myself. But there’ll be no real word until maybe halfway through the school year, even though all the information will be sent in within three weeks.
Things could be worse. With the exception of the PFT, I was doing very well at Field Training. At my Det, I’m a pretty good cadet. I pass the PFT at my Det without too much trouble; they’re just more strict about bending your arms past 90 degrees at Field Training. Overall, I’m optimistic about my chances of being allowed to stay in the program.
I feel like I have to be optimistic because the only alternative is black depression. For years I’ve planned the route my life would take, and it all depended on my making it through AFROTC. Without that, suddenly my finances go down the drain, my future is uncertain, and I’m hanging by threads. That’s not a very comfortable feeling for me. So I’m going to stay upbeat until forced into a different position.
At least I didn’t SIE. 18 people so far from my Field Training Unit went through Self Initiated Elimination. For them, the only options are the last two, unless they had accepted no scholarship money to date, in which case they could just walk away and be a civilian–and never be commissioned into any branch of the military in the future, no matter what. They were the ones who truly couldn’t hack it. I just had an unexpected setback brought about by moving from one set of expectations (about what constitutes a pushup, specifically) to another, more difficult, set.
No comments yet.