College Isn't Enough! Set Yourself Apart! SDSU Army ROTC Cadre Dr. Michael Brantley Tells Us How?

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I say hey before I decided to enlist, I'm going to get my degree first I want to get my associates. I might transfer to San Diego State. And then I'll say, well, here's here's the opportunity that you possibly can, you know, you can commission in two years.

Warriors fall in, it's time for formation. So if you're an avid listener of The Morning Formation, you recall that I sat down and had a conversation with one of my previous battle buddies while I was in the army, who is now a professor of military science, Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Parlette. She is now currently the professor of military science of the Army ROTC program down in San Diego State University. Well, talking to her actually led me to her recruiting officer. And I've been following this gentleman for a while. And I've been seeing like all the posts that he'd been putting out all the information about the SMP program, the Green to Gold program, the three year scholarship. You know, all these great, great pieces of information that are out there and are available to people graduating from high school, folks that are maybe first year in college, second year in college, folks that are in the military looking to transfer over to the officer side while you know obtaining their their bachelor's degrees. So today, we're going to learn who the, who the recruiting officer is for San Diego State University. And he's going to take us even deeper into the many opportunities that are out there for young adults seeking to challenge themselves beyond just a college education. So I want to welcome Dr. Michael Brantley. Thank you for joining us to The Morning Formation today, sir.

Thanks for having me. Taking the time to be with me.

The honor is all mine. I really appreciate it. And I really appreciate all the information you put out. Because I constantly tell people all the time about my own experience because I was an SMP, a simultaneous membership program cadet, where I was enlisted in the Army National Guard. And then my junior year I transitioned into becoming a cadet. So I went from being an E4 to a cadet. And then the day that I graduated with my bachelor's degree, that was the day that I went technically, active duty, as a second lieutenant in O1 in the United States Army. So it was a very proud day to get my diploma, but then also have my father who had served 20 years in the military enlisted pin on my bars. So thank you for what you do, I really appreciate you and not just holding the position, but actually owning that position. And putting so much information out there.

No problem. That's what we're here for. It's so much information out there. There's just it's untouched, I think I think. A lot of us, SMP, I still had to kind of learn about that when I started the role, but SMP, Ed-delay, there's just so many different options. And I didn't you know, my background is Navy. I knew nothing about ROTC at all. So, now that I kind of got into the regulations, and I've been able to, you know, award a number of different, you know, scholarships, it's you just learned more and more every day. So

Yeah, you know, I find that pretty fascinating about you. I had assumed that you were prior service in the army, but it turns out, you're in the Navy. So would you mind telling us about your own background? Where you're from originally and describe your own military career for those of us out here meeting you for the very first time?

Okay, yeah. I actually,... I enlisted in the Navy. I grew up in Compton. South Central, you know, from California. End up moving to South Central LA. I had no plans at all and joining the military. You know, it wasn't in the cards. You know, the plan was to get out and, you know, graduate high school, go to college. And I did that I went to Long Beach City College, and had a couple of jobs. I remember worked at a Porta Potti company, and I'm where I worked at AMC theater. Yeah, it was pretty tough, and they just weren't panning out. And I was just trying to figure out my next move. And I remember I had this real crap car and where the AMC theater was was right by the recruiting center. So you know, Air Force, Army, Navy, had a recruiting centers there and I was taking a bus because my car broke down and the bus had stopped right in front of recruiting center. And right when I got off the Army recruiter. He said, "Man, you look like you need to change some things around." And I ended up taking the ASVAB for the Army. Went into the Navy, and you know, did my 20 years. Initially was a what they call a ship servicemen. They've changed it in out to retail specialist. But when I coined it, it's kind of like you're the Walmart of the ship, barber shop, vending machines, ship store, laundry, all that stuff. But you have additional duties where you're in to where you can become like a divisional departmental career counselor. So once I got towards the latter years of my career, I was I'd retired as an E6. I was a command, career counselor. So I did that for like, the last four years. And, you know, I retired and then just kind of, you know, took advantage of the education, it's been a free ride for the most part, and, you know, wanted to get into higher ed, because, you know, I saw that it opened doors for me, and took an additional role at a university once I got out, and then I ended up here at SDSU.

Yeah, that's quite interesting. So, talk to us about how you became a recruiter. And also I find it quite fascinating that you are a you have your doctorate in education as well. So, talk to us about that. Because did you start your educational journey? Like while you were in active duty, or was that something that happened later on in life?

Oh, yeah, I started when I was in, um, the, the role came up, I used to work at National University. I was an Admissions Advisor, and then I transitioned to an enrollment advisor. And I loved it. It was like, probably five minutes from my house. You know, you got to meet with a different demographics. The student is more so adult students, veteran students, I enjoyed doing it. And I remember, one of the students came in with his daughter, and she went to San Diego State, he was starting school. And she was like, yeah, they have a job opening up at San Diego State for Human Resource assistance, the same thing you're doing here. I was like, alright, so USA Jobs is a little different. So I looked. And I think the announcement for the job popped, maybe two weeks later, so I applied. And I went in, and I had an interview with Lieutenant Colonel Parlete. And I thought it was exactly what I was doing at Nationals. So I said, I'm in San Diego State. So I ended up getting an offer than it wasn't, it was something totally different. It was a lot. It's a lot like, you know, because you went to the program, there's just so much that's involved with, you know, enrolling someone in the program, contract and commissioning, pay grades and things like that. And yeah, it's very rewarding, but it's just so much to it. Our recruiting operations officer had moved on to another position. And, you know, this spot opened up and, you know, kind of mutually agreed upon if I wanted to do it, you know, I had to take a physical, do some other stuff. And I've been doing the role for probably, it'll, it'll be almost two years.

But yeah, so I understand, you know, how, how much opportunities out there and all the ins and outs to some extent. And it kind of makes it easy to talk to you about these kinds of things, because I have that background right now. But from where you stand, you know, in layman's terms, like, how do you explain to parents out there who have never been in the military themselves, and don't understand what ROTC is? And how military service works after college? How do you how do you talk to them and get them to fully understand because it's like a complete different culture completely, completely different language? Right?

Yeah, it's from a place of passion. And just more so the opportunity to go back, I was able to get my education, 10 years into when I was in. I took full advantage, tuition assistance, BOG waiver, fafsa, all those things, different things. I found a loophole in order to get an additional year of post 911 and all that stuff, in order to get multiple degrees, because I didn't quite know what I wanted to do. So when I started this job, I didn't know that they were just paying for college. So, you know, my strategy is to let parents know, I kind of ease them into the process. Yes, you know, your son, daughter, whomever will ultimately enlist active duty, National Guard, or Reserves, but have the opportunity, you know, to go to college first. You're student first. And, you know, that's what I can't explain and, and I, I will never, you know, discredit my time served as an enlisted, you know, E6. It was kind of tough for me to advance, but I tried to go officer twice, and it was just so complex, you had to do so much. So I explained just the simplicity behind it. If you just do certain things and you meet certain requirements, and just give all the details. You know, it's all about just giving the details and I just make sure I'm available. Most of the time, like when I meet with parents or whomever, I respond to an email within five to 10 minutes. It's a blur, just to have all the information out there. I took the extra step of creating a website until SDSU. You know, they have a new webmaster. So until you know, we can actually get our school's edu account up to par. You know, I had one created and it's just kind of easier on the eyes and ears just explains everything in detail. It's just about having the information. If I can get the information out to a parent, and just know exactly what they're looking at, before I have time to sit with them, you really were just, you know, closing the gap on a lot of those questions that they might have. The military has changed. Since, you know, you and I were in. I joined in 98. So it was a different place. It's a different type of applicant for the military now. So we try to, you know, just focus in on what it has to offer. There's a lot of bad press when it comes to the military. Now, sometimes, you know. Veterans that are struggling to transition and stuff is scary. But you know, you always got to make sure you have the right information. Have the right resources provided. Give the right examples. Yes, I was enlisted. I did 20 years, I retired as an 6, but the military got me exactly to where I am and paid for 10 degrees once I finished my doctorate, so it just, there's just so much out there that I think a lot of us don't know about. And the focus tends to be on you know, the bad stuff. So we kind of stay away from that and just focus on the opportunities,

who you are and who you become in your trajectory in life. Sort of is all about who you surround yourself with. Right?

Yeah.

So can you talk a little bit about the environment and the culture of the our Army ROTC environment that a cadet might experience while they're like what's a typical week like?

Um, they are you know, I like to emphasize that they are students first but we have a great cadre I've been there enough to see a rotation from one regime to another and both have been you know, good. Being Navy and seeing army, that was a little different at first. The language and things like that, but just the... it's just a melting pot of just different experiences. People from all over the place, different MOS's, different branches. Just you know, you can see it. And it definitely helps in you know. Somebody that's just you know, SMP Cadet that's probably enlisted in the Guard or Reserve, will have more experience than somebody that's just a national scholarship Cadet that's coming in straight out of high school. And their only exposure to it is probably what they know, maybe a family member served the parent or something like that. And JROTC. So for somebody that's coming in, I say straight off the street, into the program, the exposure for it, it's just, it's just so much of it. It is there's, there's a lot of different examples. Even my you know, we have a boss was intern, and he went s&p, but he's actually you know, he's a first lieutenant he'll be putting on his captain here, I believe in February. And he's a ranger, he went to Ranger School. So there's an example we have, you know, our Sergeant First Class he, he's actually he's in, you know, San Marcos or whatnot. But he's a 42 alpha. So he understands the the HR side of it. We have another staff sergeant that's a 42 alpha, just so much. Yeah. And so if someone has a question, when it comes to what it is that they possibly want to do on the army, you know, long term, they will have an answer no matter what. We do have some that that go through the program, and they say, You know what, I think I want to go enlisted, and I'll say, Man, we'll do that as a joke. But then I was, you know, we can explain. And we, we actually, we have a great relationship with all the recruiters in the area. That was one of the first thing I did when I started the job is I went to the different recruiting offices, and I introduced myself. And it wasn't that I was trying to push numbers or anything like that. It's a one for one thing when it comes to the smp. And I explained that and I sent over some slides. So you know, if ROTC isn't something that's for you, we're still a family here to where we can still help somebody if they decide to move on from the program. So it's, they're well taken care of, when When I when we go to these events, you're supposed to go to they do come here. like the service academies event or a West Point event, you're supposed to say, "Hey, this is why ROTC is the best, you know, and this is why you should pick us." I never really said it, always just say, apply for them all. Give yourself enough options, to where if one doesn't work out, you'll have the you know, the opportunity for the next thing. And when it comes to scholarships, you're not committed to it. So if you apply for all those different things, all you have to do is just do no, like, all you have to do is just go in and you decline, whatever the scholarship is. So just make sure you apply for them all. And then soon as you you know, we know who's going to come in to the program early on, like the national scholarship and things like that. So we reach out, there's a few kids that I talked to that don't even plan on coming to San Diego State or were lower on their list, I'll still make sure I reach out to them and help them because I'm the type of person you know, when I have something that I'm working on, if it's a goal that is kind of keeping me up at night. I like to make sure that I get that information out there. So I can I can get that so I'll make sure I'll take care of them. I wake up kind of early to work out so sometimes I'm running the stairs sending emails or and things like that, but it's just about getting information out there and making sure that they have it.

yeah, you never know where that conversation.... I mean, even if a student is looking at going to a different university, you never know where that conversation will take you because that great experience will be shared to others. And someone else may be interested in coming to San Diego State, but it's all about just being good to people, right? You seem like you seem to be like a...., you seem to be a tremendous mentor when it comes to that. And that's probably why you got offered the job, you know, almost immediately, right, the next day after you interviewed for this job?

buddy, that's what I'll be telling...

Is that right? No, I can tell you have the personality that despite your Navy and not Army, I mean, you have the personality, the glowing personality to really be intriguing. And, and, and provide a lot of information for folks out there, easy to talk to as well. So, you know, for parents out there, or anyone out there who's thinking about, you know, what's going to be my next step in life, you know, approximately how much money is typically saved. And would you mind talking about the leadership that's earned by a cadet versus just a regular college student attending college?

Um, money wise, is ...of the whole tuition and fees, room and board. You get extra incentives, like a book stipend for $1,200. You get your monthly stipend, our nursing cadets, they get a $650 It's kind of like a supply stipend for like scrubs and things like that. You got to think of our five schools San Diego State, Cal State San Marcos, Point Loma Nazarene, UCSD and USD USD is a very expensive school. So a bachelor's degree there can be upwards of $150,000. And that's free. So, you know, there is that for SMP cadets, if they choose not to opt in for what's called a GRFD scholarship, you know, Guarantee Reserve Forces Duty meaning if they once they you know, assess and commission they will have to go National Guard or Reserve, they decided to go non scholarship because they ultimately, you know, decide to move on from the Guard or Reserve once they assess its active duty, then, you know, they're they're able to use their educational benefits or post 911. So there's that option. It's just so much money save, which is why there's such a press on, you know, contracting fast. There is the President, that the whole non deployable thing that's money saved. I mean, it's just yeah, that's I can say that's emotional. That's save, because I've worked with a number of our cadets that we have some right now as a matter of fact that we're trying to figure out how to get them, you know, contracted sooner because we're having some issues with the whole DOD merge situation, in order to get them contracted because you know, it's looming, the deployment is looming. So there's a lot of money saved, there's a lot of stress, you know, that's kind of relieved, you can focus in on finishing your degree and being a student and focusing on the program. On the leadership side, the military science classes for what I've seen, are awesome. Army leadership, customs, and traditions. They do have health and fitness to where they go out. And they PT with the cadets and things like that Applied Leadership, military history, and things like that. So, you know, I wish that gave me some experience. I can teach some of those classes, but it's all there. But aside from the courses that are taught, you actually have that mentor, you actually have that leader that's been in for those years that you can, you can ask those questions so they could share their experiences. So it's all just right there. And I tell him about applicants, the hardest part is just getting accepted into the school. And we take it from there. So

and so that's something to take into consideration for folks out there who are thinking about enlisting, there's nothing wrong with enlisting. But at the same time, if your immediate goal is to get your college out of the way, nice and early, this would be a great, a great direction for you to take into consideration. Because you're not losing out time. At the end of the day, you are accomplishing something. And the one thing that I loved about the ROTC program that I was a part of, and I'm 100% positive, the battalion that you're at does the same thing, but they kept me honest, as far as the classes that I was signed up for. I was on target to graduate by a certain date. Because we all know it's a four year degree, but some people take five to six years to get that four year degree. Right. And so for me, they laid it out for me, like for this semester, this is what you're taking this year, next year and the year after and this is your projected graduation date. So yeah, I mean, it's you've got you've kind of got someone sort of watching over your back making sure that you are staying on track with you know, your your goals overall, right.

I mean, it's like we even get, we have a number of Air Force ROTC cadets that come to us. Their structure is a little different, you know, there's more, more of a manning thing sometimes. So sometimes they, you know, they kind of have to cut a few. And we'll go and we'll brief and we'll talk And the cool thing is that the classes, because they're their to them. military science classes, they align. So MS1, military science 1 freshman, 2 sophomore. Their are a little different, they're named different. But they will come over to us in the classes that align. So if someone comes in, like I have some right right now. She's a she's at, she's in her second year for the Air Force, but she wants to come to the Army ROTC, we happen to have the funds right now. So I'm working on a scholarship pack. And now when she starts her third year, she'll you know, she'll continue on calm. When we have somebody like that, because you mentioned you know, just how you ask somebody to kind of, you know, watch your back, when it comes to that, I like to send people to what's called Basic camp, you know, that way to get an exposure to it to kind of see what it is, you know, they were acclimated to the Air Force, and now they're coming over to the army are, you know, those are the ones that can attend FTX. Just kind of get that out there, just to see what they're, you know, get a feel for it and things like that. So, your academic academic alignment is you have to have, make sure you have a strategy for it. But you can't just come in and saying, Hey, I'm going to go to college for this many years, you have to make sure your military science requirements are met. And, you know, there's ways around it or to, you know, to So we have to, you know, maybe put them in MS 2 courses to expedite the process. SMP so somebody that's went to basic align them that way, when they become a junior, then they'll, training at, they can automatically come in and be an MS 3, which is ROTC Junior, or whatnot. prior service, somebody that maybe served in the Navy, or served in the Air Force, Air Force, and they went to bootcamp, they can come in as an MS 3, but if they come in as a sophomore, for the academic level, we have to make sure we align them. you know, they'll take the MS 3 courses. So there's a lot of different unique situations that we kind of run into. But it's, it's fun, sometimes, sometimes it's a headache. Head scratcher. But at the end of the day, we just got to make sure we put them in the right classes, and then let them know about those extra opportunities like nursing stem, believe it or not, they get you know, if you put it in early enough, sometimes those programs run over to five years. So it's what's called an extension of the benefits. So a lot of kids that might think they'll have four years of college paid for, they might ultimately have five. And that's something that you have to kind of catch in the you know, in the early stages, just knowing. Which is why you make sure academic academic alignment is on point. So you're asked one of those little nuggets that's in there, you know, a lot of our nursing and STEM students don't know about like, hey, well, our program might end up being five years, what am I going to do? Well, we just need to make sure we have all those classes listed on you know, the 104 the academic roadmap. That way, when that year comes up that you have to do that extra year and get it paid for? Well, you'll just hit the button. And if you don't do it in the beginning, then you have to do the paperwork and in the back end. You Army guys and your packets, there's so many packets that we got to do for everything.

Right? It's yeah, I've I've known quite a few people that tried to go into the air force or the Navy as an officer and it can be quite stringent as far as what it takes they can be very selective and that's why I mentioned earlier the army being the biggest branch out there and having the most MOS's out there. It's it's a little easier to go into the the Army as an officer and to get commissioned and whatnot. But let's talk really quickly about you mentioned basic camp. All right, so what we're not talking about here is, you've got somebody sort of watching over your shoulder making sure that you are on target to graduate by certain time they're checking your GPA as well making sure that you know you are staying within that level of you know being part of the program and keeping you're keeping your grades up. Then you have these other social clubs or these other... I don't know what to call them and really. But you have like Ranger challenge, the rifle team. Trying to think of what else

Color Guard

The color guard and then there's also still opportunities to go airborne right between your junior and yours... Airborne, Air Assault. I've known people that have gone I think sapper before sometimes will send you for Cadet troop leadership right? But what type of training is involved before you actually get your commissioning?

Basic camp isn't really a requirement. It it's more so it helps with alignment. And it's a it's a developmental tool. I like to use it as that somebody that you know might be on the fence about the program summertime comes up there or transferring in from one of our community college or maybe they're a sophomore about to start their, their their junior year. I use basic camp for that. I want you to get early exposure because your junior to senior year you'll go to what's called advanced camp. And that's when you're kind of assessed. You'll be going through all those different tactical elements that are required, you know, for you to actually go on and commission later on, after your senior year. Also, in that you have to take a physical and things like that. So all those things that they're practicing, when they go to labs, land nav and things like that, they'll they'll be really honing in on those things when they go to Advanced camp. Basic Camp though is is very important. When I, when I first started, I think historically, we were spending maybe two to three, I think this last summer passed, we spent nine, I used it as a as a recruiting tool. The numbers will always rise, I think it's just personal opinion when it comes to transfer students because we, you know, all of our surrounding San Diego community colleges, they're still in a program and they work with them so we can get the information out there. You know, that right there is a goldmine, when it comes to just those opportunities. there are plenty of people that are in a lot of these community colleges that want to enlist, and they might not want to go, you know, enlisted like I did. Or they might say, Hey, I'm before I decided to enlist, I'm going to get my degree first I'm gonna get my associates I might transfer to San Diego State. And then I'll say, well, here's here's the opportunity that you possibly can, you know, you can commissioned in two years, but the only way you can do it is if you don't have prior service, you're not, you know, enlisted in the Guard or Reserves, then you can go to basic camp. And basic camp is just like a lower level version of advanced camp gives you a little spoonful of what to expect in advanced camp. But it also gives you an idea of what the program, you know, has to offer. you go out there, you're supposed to that you'll meet some other great cadets from all over the country. And I always, you know, I think is good. We had, you know, out of those nine, I think two decided to move on. I think one was just like, I can't do this every day. And I was explaining that's not exactly what it is. And another way, he just decided to do something else. But it still was a great, you know, developmental tool. And a lot of them. We had one that we had sent, she was on the fence about the program. She was like, I don't know if this is something I really want to do. We'll see when she went to basic, she came back and she loved it. She's like, how do I go to air assult? And you know, how do I do I go to Airborne School, and just like, okay, hold tight, we have to progress to the program. So

that's exciting. So where does basic camp take place? And how long is it?

Fort Knox, Kentucky, it's about a month, 4 weeks.

Four weeks, okay. All expenses are paid, the university will send the the prospect to basic camp right?

Only only fee is the stress of our HRA, Mr. Jones, because he has to go in and book all those flights. But yeah, everything's taken care of, we'll get the pay information once we put them in the system. And they'll they'll even make money for being out there. They'll get training pay, sometimes it's upwards of $1200. It just depends.

Yeah. And that's, and that's a good way for them to determine whether or not this is for me or not, right.

Yeah, I've had Yeah, the ones that I had sent out there. It was academic alignment thing, but it was just like, you know, just go out there and be exposed to it and see if this is something that you really want to do. And yeah, it definitely it helps.

Yeah, that's that that's really, I mean, I guess that's a great eye opener for folks out there who don't know anything about the military, to sign up for something like that, you know, go to Fort Knox figure out in four weeks, if this is something you'd like to do for part of your career, or for a majority of your career. And so I think that's great. I didn't go to basic camp, I actually went to Fort Leonard Wood, to basic training, when I was 18, straight out of high school. And that was an eye opener for me, I would imagine basic training is completely different than basic camp.

It's way more intense, like for if I have somebody that's coming in, and they're requiring about the s&p program, when I when I explain FTX and certain things, they're like, yeah, so yeah, it's for those guys. It's, you know, it's, they're already coming in, in a more senior role anyway, because ending, you know, just being enlisted, going to basic training, ait and things like that. So when we're mentioning ftX's and advanced camp and things like that, they're already ahead of the game. So

I had a great time, when I went to advanced camp, we got a chance to Well, I got a chance to work with a lot of cadets from all over the country and being prior service that I was, I mean, it was kind of a, it was kind of a cakewalk in itself and a good time, because there was other prior service folks there as well. And we all just had a really, really great time. And, and Dr. Brantley, you know, just want to ask you really quick, you know, can you help assess and knock down some of the stereotypes that are out there? Or any of the myths that are out there about the Army ROTC program that maybe you've heard over the years?

Yeah, on social media, I try to do like a question and answer thing. And I like to focus in on a lot of myths. For one, like when we go when we go to the high schools. ROTC Army ROTC at a university is not the same as JROTC at high school, there's certain elements or certain similarities, but it's totally different. So that's, that's just one thing. As soon as you enlist into the program does not mean that you're enlisted into the army, and you won't just go off to fight a war or some things like that, that I, you know, I heard once the whole thing when Ukraine, I don't want to get into all that. But once that happened, I was meeting with, you know, applicants and they were like, you know, if I sign up for this class, do I have to go to Ukraine, I was, I thought it was playing like a couple of them, but no, they, they thought they were going to Ukraine. It's not, you know, that's not what it is actually, you can enroll into the program, you can participate in the program. And, you know, you don't have to commit and contract until later down the line. And I like to do that. Also, the upside is still you get elective credits, you can be exposed to the program. And it helps you make a you know, your decision, it might be something that you're still into, to go back another myth, you are your student first. So if you still want to play or you are selected to play, or you have a scholarship, you still want to do sports, you still want to be a fraternity sorority, be in clubs around campus, still go out and party, you still can you, you have that, you know that opportunity to still do that and have the experience like exposed to the the you have the college experience, as I call it. Like as a young sailor in San Diego, I didn't have the college experience of sitting in classes. But I used to hang out on a lot of these campus. Like I went here at these like that. So if you come into the program, you you actually have the college experience. More so as far as like, what's available, there is no unlimited pot of money. Sometimes we do have applicants come in and they say I want a scholarship and I want to commission ,or contract right now. And no, there are requirements that you need to make be there are alotted of funds that we have. But the program does his best to make sure you know that we try to take care of every you know Cadet that is eligible and is rewarding of it. So I think from June to now, we've given out maybe 2526 I was if we hadn't if we had to make sure you know, we had the applicants that made the requirements. You know, that was one thing that we made sure that we took care of. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but there's a bunch of them. And as people go through, you know the program or as they're exposed to it, they tend to come up and they tend to ask it a lot of in the Navy, we call them see lawyers, but there's a lot of word of mouth sometimes when it comes to just information just bad gouge. So it's always ideal to ask questions. And like I say I keep odd hours. So sometimes I will get an odd question in the middle of it like right when I'm waking up to workout. And I'll look I'll have to look at it twice. Does this mean that I have to, you know, go fight? No, you just means you have to go to Ms 2 class and you know, pass the class.

Right? Yeah, we call them barracks, barracks, lawyers in the army. There was a lot of those. And so you know, if anyone out there is listening, it's definitely worth, you know, following Dr. Michael Brantley on his social media platforms, or contacting him and asking him and getting the actual, real information about what it is what it's about. You know, don't talk to someone who knows someone who knows someone. Because that's that's the worst type of information that you could possibly get out there. And with that being said, you know, I want to finish this up and talk about the scholarships that are becoming available within the next coming year. So, you know, and would you suggest a site visit for anyone out there who might be interested in the San Diego State University Army ROTC program, to meet the CADRE and to observe the overall structure of the battalion itself?

I would. Right now we're in the middle. We're closing on the middle of the second board of the national scholarship process. That is one thing that always say if you're a high school senior, apply for the national scholarship. Apply now it can't hurt you going through that process. It's only a little it's a little tedious, because you have to go through you have to you know, type your essay, you have to upload your document, you have to do a PMS or if she can't do it, then I can do the interview. You have to take care of your fitness test. But apply. And those kids that reach out to for us to do their, their their interview, if we're on their list of schools stop by get you some swag, and we can tell you exactly what it is that you want to know about the program. If you're considering a school that's on the east coast, but you're on the West Coast still reach out to that school. On the page that I had made a social media page, I have an "ask a cadet" option . So you go in there and you drop your questions and I'll send it off to our APMs or I'll reach out to somebody if this is a specific type of Cadet And it'll have you know, male, female nursing, what year you're in your major, any questions that you might have? It's always just, you know, poke around and and get those questions. But yea right now, the national scholarship, you know, even if you're coming into the process, late, apply for the national scholarship, we go to a lot of these high schools, and people have no idea what it is. Or sometimes people will tell you that they know what it is. And they don't you get into the conversation and be like, Yeah, I'm doing it. I'm like, Oh, how far are you? How's your profile look? And give me your name? And I can look it up? See if you need any help? Well, no, I must not be I must be talking about something else. Well, no, it's only one, but I'm gonna help you. So one thing I did was I went in and I had made a fake account, it's like this, this SDSU buffer. So the guy he calls me like it was this person, I say, That's me, I had made it in order to, you know, have the profile. So I can see, step by step was needed. Instead of me just telling somebody to go in there and apply. I know exactly what's required in there. So you know, for the second board, it comes up in January, I'm on social media, I'm really pressing it out there every other day, make sure you're going there, especially since the holidays are here, we're you know, things are going to slow down a little bit. Go in, make sure your your application is good to go. We had a couple of people, we were still able to, you know, award scholarships to, and they only went to one board, the board March. But you know, just go through it. Just just have the opportunity, or Yeah, give yourself the option is to have that opportunity, and it'll work out. But national scholarship is always top tier when I when I talk to the high school seniors, those that aren't, you know, they're a little further on past that maybe they're considering, you know, they got past the whole March the last board, and they're just coming in as a college student. Take some of the classes first take Ms. One to see if it's something that you're in to see if it's something that you you can see yourself doing for that duration of your college, your time at college. And if it is, then we can sit and we can talk about opportunities for scholarships. I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't play when it comes to scholarships, if they're deserving, and if APMs is there deserving, we're going to get that paperwork again. And we'll be working back and forth. When it comes to that scholarship requirements in order to be met. Here are some you know, the 104, which is academic roadmap, there is a you know, you have to make sure you're doing your job or physical and things like that. But when it comes to once we identify somebody that's up for scholarship, we do. I do also, I stressed the whole smp, simultaneous membership program option. Because some people, they're coming to San Diego State or one of these other schools, and they're already National Guard, or they're already reserves, or they're considering it. I don't shy away from it. I don't ever say hey, you know, we'll you know, Do this, do this. Now I'll say okay, well, it's this is what you're doing. Have you heard about this program? And then these right here are the potential opportunities for that. I'm real big on the whole ed delay thing. Because you know, the more you pursue education, there is this, you know, the conversation right now is your student loan debt forgiveness, and I haven't had any of that. So ed delay, where you can become a Jag lawyer and go to med school. I remember a year ago, maybe a couple of years ago, we sent somebody for their doctorate in physical therapy, all this stuff is paid for. And nobody really knows. And, you know, we say what we want to be when we grow up, you got the opportunity to do this within a short amount of years, if you just follow the right path. So it's just, it's a lot like I don't, you know, I'm passionate about it, because I didn't know about it. Like, if I knew, I probably still would have worked at that portapotty place because I was I was, I was a knucklehead. But as I got serious about, you know, my career in the Navy, if I knew about a lot of new stuff, then yeah, I don't regret anything that I did. But I think, for my own personal reasons, and probably just money too after I retired. going officer would have been very beneficial. So I'll always, you know, make sure I share that information. So I know a lot of people that I serve with and their kids, they're thinking about just enlisting. I'm not I'm not trying to stop you from doing that. But just know that this opportunity is out there. So Right.

Right. And I always, you know, just like how you got enlisted in the Navy. It was just circumstantial. The busstop was there. The recruiting office was there. You know, I hear these stories all the time. Well, I joined the Marines because I saw a full metal jacket. I want to hear stories about people who are actually taking the paperwork, laying it out on the table. all the information and making an informed decision, not signing up for things just because the off the recruiters could do more pull ups than me and so I went and signed up to be an Army infantry or I decided to become a Marine, you know, and I want to get to a point where these young adults are making informed decisions based off of you know, where their careers gonna go, but too many times Like, for me, for example, the only reason I became an officer was because my platoon sergeant, and my company commander had mentioned to me hey, why don't you take it to the next level? Why don't you consider like ROTC? And I'm like, I don't know, I literally was for two years, I was on campus, walking past the Army ROTC battalion, almost every, almost every week, and I never bothered to stop, because I just didn't think it was for me, the day that I walked into the recruiting office, and I said, Hey, look, I'm interested, I realized that, you know, hey, this opportunity is available to me. So for folks out there who are listening, and you think maybe I don't know if this is for me or not, there are many, many opportunities for you to just check out one of the MS one or MS two classes, there's opportunities for you to just visit the campus, visit the actual battalion area, meet the professor, military science, meet the recruiting officer, talk to him, get information, don't listen to someone who's someone who's someone who might know, get the information upfront, find out. So that's why I'm so glad that you gave me the time, the time today to talk to you because I'm very passionate about this, too. I want people to make the transition into the military being informed. But was there anything during this podcast that I didn't cover that you would probably like to mention any pieces of advice for folks out there who are listening who are thinking about having their son or daughter join the Army ROTC program,

No, we've covered everything I would say just depending on whatever school you want to go to, because there's a there's an ROTC program in most of these schools, that things like almost 300, you know, reach out. And if you don't hear back at an ample time, reach out to me, or any, there's a lot of recruiting Operations Officer, like I have a lot of stuff on standby. So most of the information is the same, your programs run things a little differently. When it comes to like, you know, the structure of the courses, and some might have battalion, some don't. But when it comes to the grand overall plan of the ROTC program, a lot of it is the same. So if you get that information from one school, and you're you're kind of spun up, by the time you talk to your other school, you know, you'll have the information. I cannot reiterate enough, but the national scholarship is something that is very important. Like we went to one school and this guy, you know, I have nothing like I say, I'll never regret my time serving. But when I do a post, I want to try to be as inform... I want to have the information out there right now. It's you know, I'm a little older, I'm 43. So we're seeing Tik Tok voiceovers and all that stuff. And it's just like, you know, it's hysteria, hey, gas prices are high, Join the military! I don't want that I want you to know, the opportunity of education, like I has not steered me wrong, since I, you know, pursuing my education. And when I talk to people about that, I am very passionate about that, when I talk to people about the whole fitness thing is because you have to make sure you meet the fitness requirement. I'm very passionate about that. But, you know, as I say, we you know, we're leaving a lot of money on the table, just because we're not informed on you know, what's going on. And when you go to a lot of these high schools, the first questions I asked, I say, Okay, well, who plans on going to college? And a lot of hands go up? And I say, Okay, so who knows how they're going to pay for college? One or two hands up. And that's what I'm I got I got what I you know, you can, that's when you can kind of get into it and you know, make the information available. Like to me right now, I'm always asked what the recruiting strategy is, everyone's doing this, everyone's looking at their phone, unfortunately, so no one's looking at newspapers and billboards or anything like that anymore. Have the information right there available for them. Quick, accessible, easy on the eyes. It'd be colorful, like my stuff that I posted. And I have weird music playing in the background. I'll put a crazy photo of me as a little kid to kind of get some laughs but I want the information to be out there for you to know, this stuff is here. And it's right there. And it's waiting. And all these programs have its offer. So

yeah, I'll say that your social media is certainly appealing. And I think that a lot of Army ROTC battalions out there could use a social media savvy person like yourself, because I actually I tried to contact my old university last year, went to the website, sent emails turned out that those those cadre members had moved on. And those were dead links, basically. So I had to email about five different people before I got a response back. So with that being said, if you're, if anyone out there listening might be interested in getting up early in the morning and working out with Dr. Michael Brantley here down in San Diego. How can they get a hold of you? What platforms are you on?

I have, you know, a Facebook and I have a Twitter but I think the most user friendly one for me right now is Instagram And I'll I'll post the most relevant stuff. What I do is if I have a conversation with an applicant, and you know, he's just, he has something that's on his mind that he does, he's unclear, he wasn't able to find it. Like you mentioned, there's a lot of dead links, like I hate. I joined one Facebook group for the Green to Gold program. That's another thing for current active duty soldiers that want to go officer outside of the OCS route, there's a Green to Gold option to where you can go ATO, non scholarship scholarship. I'm sorry, we didn't mention that. So maybe in another podcast, but green to go right now they're doing the boards and more closes on Friday. But when it what, people try to get information, there's just dead links, and they just go down this rabbit hole trying to find all this information. So for me, Instagram, and you know, I don't have one of those automated messages in the DM, it's right there. I try to I try to answer it, you know, pretty quick. I'll switch the link around to the website that I made. But the website that I made, not only has all the most relevant information, but it also has, you know, all the forms that's needed. So if I'm talking to somebody, and they're already spun up, and they say, Okay, I'm ready to enroll, can you send me the forms, I don't even send you anything, because you can go to the website, and you can download them there. Usually, when I talk to somebody, I have all of my, you know, my zoom, my social media account, the website, everything in my link. So a lot of times, I'll get people clicking in and just do a zoom. And if I'm up and you know, I'll hop on the call or whatever. Yeah, it's all there. I don't do business cards, I have a, you know, I used to have like a dot cards link on my Instagram. And that would have like, you know, I made additional email, it's called sdsuroo@gmail.com. I have to work phone, you know, send a text, you don't have to call a lot of people are texting right now. If I have a PowerPoint, I have an orientation. I upload people with so much information up front, that you don't, yeah, it'd be, it'd be crazy not to at least try it out. It's all right there for you, you know, so and if that doesn't work, we'll send you right over to a current cadet. You can talk to them and see what their experiences are. And it's been working. Like I said, I really don't have a strategy. You know, I thought my social media is about to get shut down. But it's just they wanted me to add, say a certain disclaimer in order to make sure that you know, so I'm doing my own thing.

Yeah, I saw that. I saw the disclaimer that you added to that. And no, I think you're doing great, I think you're doing great things. I did check out your the doc card that you have. And there's a lot of information on there as well. And for folks out there listening, if you're looking to contact the recruiting officer for San Diego State University, even if you're interested in the Army ROTC program period, you don't have to be interested in San Diego State, if you just want to get information. All right, scroll down to the bottom. If you're listening to this on audio podcast, you can scroll to the bottom in the show notes, you'll see the different links where you can get a hold of you can get a hold of Dr. Brantley. And then also too, if you're watching this on YouTube, look down in description, you'll see all the links down there as well to get all the information you need. And it's all about timing. It's all about timing when it comes to these scholarships and getting those opportunities. Dr. Brantley is a great contact for that. And I really appreciate you giving me your time today. You know, I know you're very busy doing recruiting and then also, you know, doing your full time job as well. And so I really appreciate you for giving us your your knowledge and your time today.

Thanks for having me. I enjoyed I didn't do better than Lieutenant Colonel Parlette and hers is very articulate.

that's why she makes the big bucks right?

Yeah. Yeah.

So for everyone else out there. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I hope it provided some knowledge and some some some coordination as far as what direction you might want to go or maybe some maybe you know someone, refer them to this podcast and have them listen to it. But as always, I want you to stay tuned, stay focused, and stay motivated. Warriors fall out