For many first-year students, being in ROTC, as Scepanski found, is akin to joining a competitive sport. Weekends are filled with rope climbing and intense games of paintball in the woods. But the fun fades. To stay in ROTC through four years of courses and training, a prospective officer must spend several weeks in what amounts to boot camp the summer after his or her sophomore year. You get up at 5 a.m., run all day, get yelled at a lot, and go to bed at 10 p.m.'' Twelve-mile march .
Many students opt for advanced-training programs.
In two weeks at the Army's Air Assault School in Fort Campbell, Ky., cadets learn how to establish helicopter landing zones, execute a night air assault mission, and rappel from a Blackhawk helicopter hovering 100 feet above the ground. For a finale, the cadets march 12 miles in 3 hours. Freshmen on ROTC scholarships can quit after one year and owe the government nothing. Most agreements call for ROTC graduates to serve 3 or 4 years of active duty, plus additional time in the military reserve. Ohio State's Ryan Smith hopes to become an Air Force pilot a job that requires a commitment of 10 years of active duty.