FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[seventiesraider]

Hey, I forgot that vitually every coach smoked back in the 60's and 70's. Classic man

[Knightstalker]

Hey, I forgot that vitually every coach smoked back in the 60's and 70's. Classic man

But threatened to toss you off the team if he caught you smoking.

[Blutarsky]

JK, you'll be pleased to know that the ROTC program at Mount has improved by a bunch.  Our son has been able to combine the demands of ROTC (with the trips to Kent) along with football commitments.....topped off by being a group leader for FCA.  He has really enjoyed Mount, and the ROTC scholarship covers 100% of tuition and books.  His room/board is paid through a college scholarship (that he had to maintain a GPA to annually renew).  So, he will graduate next year with a MUC degree, a few championship rings, a 2nd-lieutenant commission,  no college debt.......and lots of wonderful memories.  He will be the first ROTC graduate from Mount to have earned a 4-year scholarship--there are now several in the program and it continues to grow.  This program, along with the willingness of the coaching staff to understand his commitment to ROTC, simplified his decision to attend MUC. 

[seventiesraider]

BTW My best sprinter is on his way to Musky to play LB, and joining one of my other track kids there. At least I can tell you schools like Theil and Musky are hitting the small high schools hard

While on a visit to Muskingum saw a Mogadore lettermen’s jacket

Rocco Donatelli, D Back

[Knightstalker]

JK, you'll be pleased to know that the ROTC program at Mount has improved by a bunch.  Our son has been able to combine the demands of ROTC (with the trips to Kent) along with football commitments.....topped off by being a group leader for FCA.  He has really enjoyed Mount, and the ROTC scholarship covers 100% of tuition and books.  His room/board is paid through a college scholarship (that he had to maintain a GPA to annually renew).  So, he will graduate next year with a MUC degree, a few championship rings, a 2nd-lieutenant commission,  no college debt.......and lots of wonderful memories.  He will be the first ROTC graduate from Mount to have earned a 4-year scholarship--there are now several in the program and it continues to grow.  This program, along with the willingness of the coaching staff to understand his commitment to ROTC, simplified his decision to attend MUC. 

congrats ahead of time to your future 2nd looie.  Remember to let him know that when he graduates and accepts his commission to keep quiet and listen to his corporals and sargents and learn from their experience and they will take care of him. 

[JK]

JK, you'll be pleased to know that the ROTC program at Mount has improved by a bunch.  Our son has been able to combine the demands of ROTC (with the trips to Kent) along with football commitments.....topped off by being a group leader for FCA.  He has really enjoyed Mount, and the ROTC scholarship covers 100% of tuition and books.  His room/board is paid through a college scholarship (that he had to maintain a GPA to annually renew).  So, he will graduate next year with a MUC degree, a few championship rings, a 2nd-lieutenant commission,  no college debt.......and lots of wonderful memories.  He will be the first ROTC graduate from Mount to have earned a 4-year scholarship--there are now several in the program and it continues to grow.  This program, along with the willingness of the coaching staff to understand his commitment to ROTC, simplified his decision to attend MUC. 

Congrats to your son.  It really is a lifestyle choice as much as a career decision.  Plus he'll find that if he decides to get out eventually he'll have a world of opportunity open to him on the civilian side.  If he decides to avoid the real world (I did for 10 years), the Army's the perfect place to do it... good pay, great benefits (outside fo the frequent deployments to some of the crappiest places in the world).  I liked it so much that I couldn't quit cold turkey... had to stay in the guard so I could at least play army one weekend a month 

Maybe somewhat surprising, there are a lot of folks in here who have served.  Your son should join us when he graduates.  There will be several who will be able to relate to his experiences...

I know MUC's ROTC has gotten better.  It has across the board.  I was an ROTC instructor at University of Kentucky until last year when I got out.  Our Brigade was Ohio and Kentucky, so I got to know the instructors at Kent pretty well.  I know they made growing ROTC at MUC a priority.  A lot changed a few years ago when we were allowed to "hire" reseve instructors to teach at our partnership schools.  We at UK put a part time instructor at all 7 of our partnership schools.  I know Kent did the same with MUC so you could take the first 2 years on campus.  That made it a lot more attractive to kids there.  The other benefit was separating the scholarship money into two pots so high cost schools (like MUC, or in our case, Centre and Asbury) came out of a different pot than low cost schools like UK or Kent.  We could have brought 3 kids to UK for what we sent 1 to Centre for, so there wasn't alot of incentive for us to use our $$ at those schools.  Now, however, there is.  I think Cadet Command realized they were getting a higher quality kid from schools liek MUC and Cap and Centre and the like.  Even more so, the small schools seem to lean a little more right and are more accepting, in most cases, of having ROTC programs on campus.  The administration at Centre was far more friendly to us than our own at UK.

In any case, good for your son.  I am very glad that it worked out for him.  It takes someone special to balance School, Football, and ROTC (I know how hard it is from first hand experience).  I am very glad that the PMS at Kent and the coaches at MUC realized that ROTC and football didn't have to compete and could be mutually beneficial.

Hopefully he chooses Field Artillery.  It's the "jock branch" of the Army.  About 70% of the Athletes at West Point end up FA.  I was worried about "fitting in" when I graduated and got commissioned until I got to Fort Sill and realized a large portion of my OBC class had a similar college experience to mine with sports, etc.  It really enabled me to connect on a deeper level.  It continued throughout my career too.  In my first assignement my Battalion commander had played baseball at West Point, my battery commander had played football, my FDO had played baseball, three of my sister platoon leaders had been football players either at USMA or in college.  At my second unit, our XO was a football player, our brigade S3 was a wrestler and our Brigade commander was a gymnast.

He should seriously consider it...

[seventiesraider]

Or go Combat Engineer like me and swim wide rivers and blow up everything else

C4, the Army's Duct tape

[Blutarsky]

^^^I want you all to realize that copies will be made of your suggestions and forwarded to our son for branch consideration.  Actually, he has an older brother who is a West Point graduate (2008) telling him that all "true men" go Infantry.  He just left this past Sunday for LDAC training at Fort Lewis in Washington.  Then, on to Fort Riley in Kansas for some further training.  He will spend two days at home in August prior to reporting to "Camp Kehres" for his final year of football.  I'll be interested to hear from him which of these experiences was the toughest.  Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions.....with two in the army, our lives are about to become very stressful.

[Wideout]

The football practice not bad just long and not much standing around.
They don't beat on each other to bad like some high schools.
Run a lot of drills and plays.

[JK]

^^^I want you all to realize that copies will be made of your suggestions and forwarded to our son for branch consideration.  Actually, he has an older brother who is a West Point graduate (2008) telling him that all "true men" go Infantry.  He just left this past Sunday for LDAC training at Fort Lewis in Washington.  Then, on to Fort Riley in Kansas for some further training.  He will spend two days at home in August prior to reporting to "Camp Kehres" for his final year of football.  I'll be interested to hear from him which of these experiences was the toughest.  Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions.....with two in the army, our lives are about to become very stressful.

As a Field Artilleryman, I spent 18 Months in an Infantry company as a fire support officer and then a year in an armor (tank) battalion as a targeting officer.  I got to do everything those guys did and then some (shoot really big bullets).  I had every opportunity to go to Airborne, Ranger, Air Assault, etc. school as the Infantry guys did.

Oh, by the way..right now, everyone is an Infantryman.  My step brother enlisted last year as a 13B (cannoneer).  His mission in Iraq?  Convoy security and sector security patrols.  Your son will get PLENTY of Infantry time...

Not to mention, as an officer, everyone, regardless of branch, eventually becomes the same thing... a staff officer 

On a serious note, if you or he need some counsel, email me at the address in my profile.  I'd be glad to share my experiences.

[seventiesraider]

Easiest duty - Nuclear Demolitions  Practice, Practice, Practice. Just one time I would have liked to ........

Secondary military skill - Mobile Assault  Bridge Driver/Operator

Wasn't a lot of call for either in the reserves.

Sorry guys, I was in during Viet Nam and nobody wanted to be a 2nd looey. It may be why I'm still here

[Knightstalker]

Or go Combat Engineer like me and swim wide rivers and blow up everything else

C4, the Army's Duct tape

C4=fun, I went to emergency destruct school in the Navy.  It was taught by a SEAL Chief Torpedoman.  I was a 2nd Class torpedoman at the time.  How to shape a charge and attach to torpedo warhead to make torpedo room go boom.  Also how to shape and rig scuttling charges and blow crypto gear.

Being a submarine torpedoman was fun.  Sneak up on enemy, fire torpedo and blow to kingdom come.

[Knightstalker]

Easiest duty - Nuclear Demolitions  Practice, Practice, Practice. Just one time I would have liked to ........

Secondary military skill - Mobile Assault  Bridge Driver/Operator

Wasn't a lot of call for either in the reserves.

Sorry guys, I was in during Viet Nam and nobody wanted to be a 2nd looey. It may be why I'm still here

That made me think about some of our Corpsmans stories on the boat.  He was a corpsman with the Marines in Vietnam.  He told us the CC used to tell his new 2nd looies to listen to their senior non-coms and take those damned bars off everything.  He would then tell them if they weren't nice to their men one of the men would salute the new looie in the middle of a firefight and then he would go home quickly.

[HSCTiger74]

^^^I want you all to realize that copies will be made of your suggestions and forwarded to our son for branch consideration.  Actually, he has an older brother who is a West Point graduate (2008) telling him that all "true men" go Infantry.  He just left this past Sunday for LDAC training at Fort Lewis in Washington.  Then, on to Fort Riley in Kansas for some further training.  He will spend two days at home in August prior to reporting to "Camp Kehres" for his final year of football.  I'll be interested to hear from him which of these experiences was the toughest.  Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions.....with two in the army, our lives are about to become very stressful.

As a Field Artilleryman, I spent 18 Months in an Infantry company as a fire support officer and then a year in an armor (tank) battalion as a targeting officer.  I got to do everything those guys did and then some (shoot really big bullets).  I had every opportunity to go to Airborne, Ranger, Air Assault, etc. school as the Infantry guys did.

Oh, by the way..right now, everyone is an Infantryman.  My step brother enlisted last year as a 13B (cannoneer).  His mission in Iraq?  Convoy security and sector security patrols.  Your son will get PLENTY of Infantry time...

Not to mention, as an officer, everyone, regardless of branch, eventually becomes the same thing... a staff officer 
On a serious note, if you or he need some counsel, email me at the address in my profile.  I'd be glad to share my experiences.

I can second what JK said in his post. My godson, a 2004 West Point grad, opted for Field Artillery too, but his time in Iraq was spent (in his own words) "patrolling the streets and knocking down doors." After he returned to the States he was posted to CentCom at Ft. McPherson, and even when he was sent back for a 4+ month deployment in 2007 it was all staff work in Kuwait, UAE and other non-hotspots in the Gulf area. His five should be up this month, but I haven't heard if he intends to stay in or "fly".

[Knightstalker]

^^^I want you all to realize that copies will be made of your suggestions and forwarded to our son for branch consideration.  Actually, he has an older brother who is a West Point graduate (2008) telling him that all "true men" go Infantry.  He just left this past Sunday for LDAC training at Fort Lewis in Washington.  Then, on to Fort Riley in Kansas for some further training.  He will spend two days at home in August prior to reporting to "Camp Kehres" for his final year of football.  I'll be interested to hear from him which of these experiences was the toughest.  Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions.....with two in the army, our lives are about to become very stressful.

As a Field Artilleryman, I spent 18 Months in an Infantry company as a fire support officer and then a year in an armor (tank) battalion as a targeting officer.  I got to do everything those guys did and then some (shoot really big bullets).  I had every opportunity to go to Airborne, Ranger, Air Assault, etc. school as the Infantry guys did.

Oh, by the way..right now, everyone is an Infantryman.  My step brother enlisted last year as a 13B (cannoneer).  His mission in Iraq?  Convoy security and sector security patrols.  Your son will get PLENTY of Infantry time...

Not to mention, as an officer, everyone, regardless of branch, eventually becomes the same thing... a staff officer 
On a serious note, if you or he need some counsel, email me at the address in my profile.  I'd be glad to share my experiences.

I can second what JK said in his post. My godson, a 2004 West Point grad, opted for Field Artillery too, but his time in Iraq was spent (in his own words) "patrolling the streets and knocking down doors." After he returned to the States he was posted to CentCom at Ft. McClellan, and even when he was sent back for a 4+ month deployment in 2007 it was all staff work in Kuwait, UAE and other non-hotspots in the Gulf area. His five should be up this month, but I haven't heard if he intends to stay in or "fly".

That is why the Marines tell everyone that no matter what else they do in the Corp they must always remember they are first and foremost a rifleman.

My uncle was drafted by the Marines in WWII and sent to OCS.  After he graduated OCS he was sent to school for light armor.  Trained on tanks for almost a year.  Finished his schooling and was promptly assigned to the 3rd Marines as an infantry squad leader, and then promptly sent off for amphib training on the way to Iwo Jima.

I would recommend that the young Blutarsky lad read Col Jack Jacobs book "If Not Now When?".  He covers this topic several times in the book chronicling his adventures with his assignment officers.  He did a good job of avoiding staff work for the most part for a long time.  But in the Army once you reach the rank of a senior Captain or Major to Lt. Cdr you are pretty much destined for a Staff Position, it is similar in the Navy and the other services I would imagine.