Discover Army ROTC Opportunities with SDSU Professor of Military Science LTC Michelle Parlette

KP: 0:29

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LTC Michelle Parlette: 0:46

Great to have options. You know, if you want to service academy apply to every service academy. Don't limit yourself to just West Point because your dad went to West Point. Apply to Naval Academy. Apply to Air Force Academy. Apply for national scholarships. Apply for Navy and Air Force scholarships. So when the time comes, you have all this on the table to say, you know, then you really got to narrow down your research to say "What is it I really want?"

KP: 1:10

Warriors fall in, it's time for formation. So today we have a very special guest. This is a very special episode for parents, guardians and future leaders who wish to take the military into consideration and also complete college at the same time. I'm talking about the prestigious Army ROTC program, which is available in many colleges all across the United States. And I find it very, very, I guess upsetting and strange that I find out many times that many parents, many students don't know much about the ROTC program. So I have a good friend of mine who is a former coworker was also deployed with me in 2004-2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in Mosul, Iraq. At the time, I was just a lowly second lieutenant in a nearby transportation platoon and she was the executive officer of her respective maintenance company. So today I'm very proud to say that our guest has managed to climb the Army ranks and is now a lieutenant colonel and is serving as a professor of military science at San Diego State University, where she mentors guides and builds our future military leaders. I'd like to welcome Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Parlett to the Morning Formation Podcast. Thank you for joining us today, ma'am.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 2:21

Thank you, Keo. Great to be here. Great to see you again. It's been a while, so just happy to be here and talk about ROTC and all the great opportunities we have.

KP: 2:31

It's gonna be really hard not to talk about the good old days. That was, what, 18 years ago, right?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 2:37

That's right. Yes, it was the good old days.

KP: 2:40

I'll tell you what...

LTC Michelle Parlette: 2:41

Good times!

KP: 2:42

Yeah, no doubt. I'll tell you what I learned a lot. In that one year of deployment that we spent together, you know, you were in a different company than I was. At the time, I was just 24 years old, fresh out of college, fresh out of officer basic course. And I talk a lot about my perspectives, you know, during that time, and the lead up to that, but what was, what was the lead up for that deployment, like for you at an early age?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 3:08

Um, it was, it was a little bit stressful. So we were at Schofield Barracks at the time in the maintenance company. And unlike today, you look around in the formation, and, you know, everyone's wearing the deployment patch on their right shoulder. But at that time, there weren't a lot of NCOs or officers that had deployments behind their belts. And so we were all new to the experience, all new to all the train up leading up to the deployment and getting our vehicles ready. And we really, we didn't know what to expect. And we didn't have a lot of people that tell us what to expect in a deployment to Iraq. But that also made us a lot stronger. And a more cohesive unit, because we had to go through all of that together. And everybody again, was was brand new to it. So we still stay in contact with, you know, all the soldiers for 536 maintenance company. We have a Facebook page. And just yesterday, I saw a picture of three soldiers from that unit that got together in Florida. So it's really great. It was a tight-knit group. Out of my five deployments, that was definitely the most memorable and one of the best experiences I had in the Army because of how close we were as unit.

KP: 4:26

Yeah, I could certainly tell that the 536 had a huge cohesive family, because after the deployment, I actually went to that same company as well, and worked. And I could tell you guys had over time, prior to deploying had developed that closeness with each other through training and had that, like I said, had that cohesive, cohesive unit. You know, Michelle, I was looking at your...and by the way, I hope you don't mind if I call you Michelle, versus Lieutenant Colonel Parlette?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 4:55

Yes, please do.

KP: 4:58

I'm very proud of you, by the way. For you know, here we are 18 years later and you are where you are right now. And not only you are where you are, but you're changing lives. So I'm very proud of you and your position that you're doing right now. I noticed and I found it very, very fascinating....Would you mind telling our audience out there how you started out in the military? How this all began for you?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 5:20

Sure. Yep. I grew up in Southern Oregon in a small town and I'd really never traveled outside of Oregon. All of our family vacations were in Oregon, camping and fishing and whatnot, hiking. So I really wanted to get out there and see the world. It was one of my primary reasons for joining the military. I also wanted to go to college and I knew I didn't have, you know, money to do that, at least outside of the state. So those were kind of my two primary reasons. My dad was in the Army for three years. He retired out of the Navy Reserves. So he talked about West Point, even though he didn't go there. He knew it was, you know, in New York, so across the country and a premier education. So I applied for West Point out of high school, and I got disqualified medically for asthma and my eyes not being correctable to 2020. So I was advised to go ahead and, you know, go to college, somewhere for a year, take some general ed stuff, reapply and try to get a waiver for those medical conditions. So I went to Southern Oregon University for a year. I reapplied I got the waiver for asthma, but not for the eyes, not correctable to 2020. So I was, you know, pretty bummed out. Because I still didn't have you know, a way to pay for college and get out of the state and do some adventures, you know, activities. So went to the local recruiter, and my dad said, "Unless you want to be stuck on a ship, don't go to the Navy recruiter," which, you know, I had no interest in that. So I went to the Air Force first. Didn't know if I liked the military so, I only wanted to do a couple years. And the Air Force wanted six out of me. And I said, "No, thank you." So then I went next door to the Army. And they had just started two-year enlistments with college funds. And so I enlisted as a lightbulb vehicle mechanic. So that's kind of how I got into the military initially. From there, I went to Fort Hood. I loved the Army. But I when my time was, you know, two years was up or close to being up. I did not want to be a mechanic anymore. I wanted to do something a little more, what do you say, more adventurous, I guess. And more interesting. I was tired of being stuck, you know, on the pavement under a Humvee for hours at a time, in the motor pool, in the hot Texas sun. So I was getting out. And then my commander came to me and said, you know, we have these Green to Gold hit pocket scholarships that the commander can submit you for. So I said, "Well, let me look into that." I applied for a four year scholarship. I didn't think I would get it, because it was a 17% acceptance rate the year prior for those four year scholarships. So I was about two months out from ATSC. And they said, "You're approved, you're, you know, you're going to ROTC." So that it was a scramble to get to University of Portland, where I ultimately did four years of ROTC and commissioned into the Quartermaster Corps from.

KP: 8:35

Wow, so you kind of ran into some some roadblocks and some obstacles, and you just kind of kept going right? And just learned, I guess. You know, it's really important sometimes to talk to people and just to learn new things. I can't tell you how many times I've just had casual conversations with people. And then they're like, "Well I didn't know that. I didn't know that was even an option for me." And so that sounds like that's kind of how you navigated your entire career. And you're very fortunate to have a company leadership commander, specifically, that even offered that to you. So that's, that's absolutely amazing. And I think I think over the years, I've heard so many stories about people running into roadblocks, people run into obstacles. And I think it's really important to highlight that there are other paths to get to where you want to go. There's OCS, there's ROTC, there's always the military academies out there. So it's important for you to look at all your options. And Michelle, you know, moving forward from that, over the years, can you talk about some of your career highlights? I know, you deployed to Afghanistan in 2008. Would you mind talking about how that compared to your Iraq deployment?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 9:46

Um, it was a lot different. Right. At that time, it was a little later in the wars we had over there in the Middle East. And not, I mean, almost everybody had deployed at that time. And so there wasn't as extensive of train up like we had in 2003-2004 to go to Iraq. And so there wasn't as much cohesion, I would say, within the units that I deployed to Afghanistan with. Obviously I was a higher rank then and so my responsibilities were a little bit different. You know, mostly office work in my later deployments to Afghanistan versus convoys in Iraq. And again, that those experiences like convoys, and you know, being exposed to a lot of danger every day. Not to say there wasn't on the other deployments, but being on the road in Iraq just brought the team together even more. And when you're stuck in an office doing, you know, office work essentially, at the higher ranks, you know, you don't have that interaction with soldiers as much. You don't have that cohesion that builds in the unit. So it was much different. Again, I love my Iraq deployment more than any other deployment I've been on. And that was one of the main, main reasons for that.

KP: 11:16

Yeah, that's...man, you really hit the nail on the head when you talked about being out on the road, and being around danger. I mean before we jump into talking about ROTC, I just gotta know your perspective on this. Did you,...at the time when you were deployed, because I want people to know. In 2004 - 2005, this is right after Fallujah, this is a very intense time in Iraq, and very, very dangerous time in Iraq. And Michelle's company did different routes than I did. So we have slightly different experiences when it comes to the whole convoy operations. But 536 certainly dealt with their fair share of, you know, I guess, danger and intense issues out on the road. I know you guys have gotten hit with IEDs several times. At the time, did you, did you even think about or realize, like what we were doing? And it being like, I mean, I look back at it now. I look back at it now and I think, "wow." Like that. It's crazy. Like some of the things that I did even was like, insane. That I was 24 years old. And, and literally, literally just 5050 things could go south at any time.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 12:29

Yeah, I think at the time, when you're in it, you aren't thinking of that, right? You're just you know, doing your job and staying strong and being that leader for your soldiers, so that they you know, also have confidence in the mission you're about to, to execute. I think it's always in the back of your mind that, you know, anything can happen at any second. But, you know, you're just out there doing your job, is how I felt about it. I don't know, if you felt that same way. When you're on the road, just like, this is our mission. We're gonna go do it. And hopefully nothing goes wrong, right?

KP: 13:11

Yeah, no, I look back, I was very fortunate, because I did do some videos, I did record myself. I did take pictures and things like that. And I don't know, not a big picture guy. But, you know, I think I did all those pictures on my little five megapixel Kodak camera that I had, right, five megapixel. And I look back at that. And I don't even recognize myself like that. I don't feel like that's even me. And when I got out like I had mentioned to you before the before the show, like I very much had imposter syndrome, where I did not want to talk about my military service. Wanted nothing to do with it. I didn't have as as great of an experience leadership wise, as what you had. I didn't have the same cohesion that you had with your platoon and with your company. But on the same grade, I did learn a lot. I did learn a lot about myself and about leadership and what to do what not to do, and so I do credit the military for that. I was just, you know, I was just wondering, after I've never really spoken...I haven't spoken to you about this. So it's just, it's amazing to hear, you know, you also acknowledge the danger part, too, of what we were doing there. And I gotta say this man, you know, ROTC, the San Diego University ROTC program is very, very fortunate to have you. You have been through so much throughout your career from literally being a first lieutenant downrange in combat, taking care of soldiers to going to Afghanistan, to where you are today. It's...they're very, very fortunate to have you as their leader, like in that entire program. And so I want to talk about that right now. Talk about the ROTC program.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 14:52

Okay, thank you so much for those kind words, too.

KP: 14:54

Oh, no, I really mean it man. That's straight from the heart. Michelle, you know, honestly, you've been through a lot. And you're, there's no doubt in my mind that you're an extremely strong leader. And I have you on the show today because I want you to share a lot of what you just talked about, and then talk about the San Diego ROTC program. So right now currently, what are the scholarships that are being offered?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 15:17

Yes, there's lots of opportunities for scholarships and Army ROTC more so than Navy ROTC or Air Force ROTC can offer. So the first, you know big one for high school students is the national scholarship. And I was fortunate in March to sit on, to fly back to Fort Knox and sit on the national scholarship board and review over 500 applications for national scholarships. But these are two, three or four year you know, full-ride scholarships for high school seniors going into their freshman year of college. And what the board is looking for is scholar, athlete, leader. So it's called the "SAL criteria." So it's, you know, students who have high GPAs, part of National Honor Society, that are you know, varsity sports athletes, team captains, all state all conference, multiple sports. Individual sports count as well for points on the board, such as jiu jitsu, running marathons or five K's, those things that are maybe not as necessarily, you know, team sports. And then the leader portion, you know, Boy Scouts, Eagle Scout, Girl Scouts, clubs, all student body presidents, part or full-time jobs, summer jobs, things like that is what will qualify you and make you competitive for national scholarships. So that's, that's the first place that anybody coming out of high school should definitely apply for even if they're service academy driven, they want to go to West Point, or the Naval Academy. Still apply for national scholarship, you know, as a backup plan, because not everyone is going to get into a service academy. And diverting a little bit. You know, even if service academy is your dream. If you don't get in that first year, do ROTC for a year, you know, apply for the national scholarship. And if you know you like ROTC, but you still want to go to a service academy, that Professor of military science at your university can actually nominate you to go to West Point. So in the last couple of years, I've sent two of my cadets to West Point. You know, it's hard to lose him from my program. But ultimately, the end, you know, end game is they're still going to commission into the Army as a second lieutenant, just like our ROTC grads are. And so we're still putting, you know, very quality high quality officers into the, into the Army that, you know, initially didn't get into West Point. So that's, that's a little known fact about the service academy piece and how ROTC professors and military science can nominate. The next one would be the campus based scholarships. So if you're already in ROTC, or you're just a student thinking about ROTC, that's you know, high quality again, we look at the scholar, athlete, leader criteria. So we're going to look at your, your GPA, your college GPA, if you're already in college. And we get money every year to offer scholarships to cadets, new cadets, you know, coming into the program, or ones that are already in that are not contracted and not on scholarship. So that's the campus space. We also have what's called GRFD, guaranteed reserve force duty scholarships, and dedicated Army National Guard and dedicated reserve scholarships. So for those, you pretty much lock yourself into not going active duty after graduation and commissioning, but going into the Guard or Reserve, whoever it is that's paying for your scholarships. That's another great opportunity. Especially if you know, you want to, you know, stay in a certain location. So like I'm in Southern California, if you know, you want to use your degree in a civilian job full time, and do Army kind of on the side, then you accept a National Guard or Reserve scholarship, a GRFD. And then you know, upon commissioning, you serve in one of those components versus going active duty and being an everyday officer in the army. A subset of that is what's called the Minuteman scholarship. So it's also a Guard or Reserve scholarship that is, requires a nomination from the civilian aid to the Secretary of the Army, which there's at least one in every state that can nominate you for that. And they have two, three, and four year scholarships as well. That window just opened up a couple months ago. Same criteria: scholar, athlete, leader. So do well obviously in high school, and get involved in lots of activities, and you can be nominated for that. And again, much like GRFD, that locks you into the Guard or Reserve. Army Reserve ambassadors can also nominate you for those scholarships. So there's several of those in each state as well. And then the last type of scholarship would be Green to Gold and that's for current soldiers and NCOs that are on active duty. They can essentially get an early-out of their contract to go complete their degree, whether undergrad or graduate degree, depending on how much college they already have. There's an active duty option to that, where you would stay active duty, your time would still accumulate, but you would have to pay for college. So it's not necessarily scholarships, so two types of Green to the Gold scholarships, either fully funded by the army or you continue to get your BA -Junior entitlements. But go to college full time, and still accumulate your time towards retirement. So yeah, that's a lot of scholarship opportunities. But again, for high school students and parents, who are looking at "How do I pay for my son or daughter's college?" National scholarships is definitely where to start.

KP: 21:21

Yeah, and just want to be clear that, I'm sorry. I just want to be clear that everything that Lieutenant Colonel Parlette here is mentioning, is different per branch. So the Air Force is going to be offering something different than the Navy and the Coast Guard, everyone's going to be offering something different. So this is specifically for the Army is what she's talking about. And when you mentioned the GRFD scholarship, is that like the SMP or is that completely different?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 21:47

Yeah, so SMP is simultaneous membership program. And that's where cadets can essentially enlist into the Guard or Reserve under a commitment with them, but with the stipulation that they're a full-time college student, and they will complete their ROTC time. So they're non deployable, when they're on SMP status. But they do drill with their unit, one weekend, a month, two weeks out of the year, usually during the summer. So they get, it really does give them a leg up on other cadets, because they are getting that experience in a unit, shadowing a lieutenant doing lieutenant-type work. They're getting paid as an E-5 sergeant, you know for the drill weekends and their annual training. So there's a little more monetary incentive as well. So that's just an option. You don't have to be on a GRFD scholarship, or any type of scholarship to do the simultaneous membership program. Again, if you just want that extra, you know, experience and a unit to bring back to ROTC and prepare you better to commission and serve, then that is an awesome opportunity. And I think you did SMP as well, right?

KP: 23:02

Yes, I did. I did SMP. And when you talked about having a leg up, you know, because you have to go through basic training, you have to go through your AIT training, all that stuff. When you're talking about having a leg up. Just real quick, funny story. There was a four year scholarship cadet, that was coming to the university, going to be their first year. And I guess a supply sergeant, you know, back then, supply sergeant is like "Here, here's your stuff get out of here." You know. And so he handed out these uniforms to all these new cadets. And this one guy was specifically, he was just told to wear it on day one. And I guess he didn't get boots. So he showed up, he showed up with his, these are the old BTUs you know, the old battle dress uniform. And he shows up in his battle dress uniform and bless his heart, he decided to wear cowboy boots.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 23:50

Oh my gosh.

KP: 23:51

Tucked in his BTUs. And he showed up day one, learning how to stand in formation. And we just looked at his boots. Like, "What the heck is that?" Like. He's like "Well I didn't know, I was just told to wear my uniform. And I'm doing my best."

LTC Michelle Parlette: 24:06

He told me to wear boots. I wore boots.

KP: 24:08

I was like, bless your heart. You know, because I went through basic. I knew how to you know, wear the uniform. I knew, you know, so anyways, it's a funny story there.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 24:18

Oh, somebody's got some pictures of that.

KP: 24:20

Oh, you know what, I wish. That was just....you can imagine what that look'd like. It just like hey, join the cavalry already. But um, so a lot of times I'm talking to folks and they're interested in like getting into cyber tech. And I don't know if you know a whole lot about the opportunities that the cadets can actually transition into when it comes to the branches themselves. Versus like times past. Are there any new opportunities that you've seen come over the horizon for folks to take advantage of that might be something that they don't really know exist? As far as branching, career wise?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 25:04

Yeah, so you know, cyber is a fairly new branch and we actually have a lot of cadets who are interested in branching cyber. Most of them are computer science majors, though that's not a requirement. The way the new branching model works for active duty....I'll talk to active duty only right now. Is, cadets have a preference sheet and there are 17 branches they can choose from. There's, you know, military police, there's infantry,field artillery, quartermaster transportation, finance, adjutant general, you know, the list goes on and on. But cyber is one of those as well. And what they do is they fill out, essentially a resume, it's got all their college classes and you know, a personal statement about their interests and why they want to serve and whatever their top branch choice is. They take a talent assessment battery, called a tab, that will tell them kind of what branch they're best fit for. But that doesn't lock them into any branch or necessarily mean that they'll go into that branch. Because they are, the Army is going to look at the preference sheet, you know, what you have as your top branch choices. And then they'll do an interview with their actual branch, a zoom interview, you know, much like this. And if they impress the branch, then chances are, the branch will write them as 'most preferred.' And they have a better opportunity and a chance to get their branch of choice at that point. Whereas when you and I went through ROTC, it was yes, we still submitted a branch preference sheet. But everything was kind of determined on how well you did in ROTC and your national order of merit score. So you may not end up with active duty, you may not end up with the branch you want. Now, it's you know, cadets have a little more say in doing what they ultimately want to do.

KP: 27:04

Yeah, I think that's really important too. Like I, I ended up getting into a branch I really didn't care much for honestly, it was ordinance. And I didn't know what I was doing at the time. But I was in the Army, so I got that, I got past that big hurdle in itself. And I think it's important for folks out there to fully understand what their options really are, and to make sure you have those conversations, before you actually pick. Because it's something that you may be locked into for a while, and something that you're going to be fully doing, you know, for four years, or more.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 27:41

And I think the beauty of this new model, you know, there's a virtual branch orientation website, and every branch has videos about what their branch is about. They have slides that show, you know, what skills they're looking for in that branch. You obviously have your ROTC cadre. You might have family that's been in the military that can tell you about some of these branches. There's a branch orientation day at summer camp, advanced camp in the summer between your junior and senior year, which is the point where you have to make that decision on your preferences. You obviously interact with a lot of cadre from other universities while you're at camp. And so the opportunity to be exposed to other branches, ask them questions. I think it's the sophomore level curriculum...the cadets, one of their assignments is to do a branch overview for their peers. So everyone is assigned a different branch and they educate their peers on that branch. So there's a lot more education, educational opportunities out there for cadets to learn about all the branches and what they do. And talk to, to current officers in that branch so they can make that educated decision. You know, when it comes time between their junior and senior year to preference those.

KP: 29:01

Yeah, you're 100% right on that. And, Michelle when students join the Army ROTC program, you know, I know what it was like back when I went through it for those two years. What can a student or a parent expect when they are part of the Army ROTC program on a daily, weekly basis, as far as their overall culture and and set of standards that they would have to follow? Sure.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 29:29

Yeah. Um, well, you're a student first in ROTC. So obviously, you can't commission and continue the program if you don't get your degree. So, you know, your student life is prioritized over ROTC. So, you know, we're really concerned about you know, making sure you pass all your classes and graduate on time and things like that. But as far as ROTC requirements, every cadet has to take military history course, they take at some point during their four years. They also take one military science class per semester or term. And that's classroom based instruction, leadership, values, ethics, administrative requirements that they'll see in the army, you know, counseling and officer evaluation reports and things like that, goal setting, career mapping, so that's the military science course. And then you take one, one credit military science leadership lab per semester. And that's our actual, like tactical training, field training. So that's weapons, that's first aid, that's tactics, so ambushes, defense, patrol base operations. Because that's how you'll get evaluated in your leadership development, when you go to camp, after your junior year. We do one field training exercise every semester, so that usually runs Thursday through Sunday. And that's when we actually go out to the field and we're applying all of those skills that we've learned throughout the semester, and practicing leadership at the squad and platoon level. We also go to the range, the M-4 range once per year, we go to Fort Irwin in February of every year. We take our juniors and seniors and they actually go out and qualify on table six, which is the new firing tables for qualification. Beyond that, there's a lot of other opportunities to participate in. There's Ranger challenge, which is a competitive sport within ROTC. There's color guard opportunities so you can be on the color guard team and present the colors and, and flags at different events in the community. Like we do Padres games, we do San Diego Loyal soccer games. We just did like a pistachio festival. I mean, we get calls and requests all the time. Also our own internal ceremonies, like the commissioning ceremony, award ceremonies, we use our color guard for. There's a lot of volunteer activities. It really depends on you know, every program is different. But we do a lot of volunteer activities, fundraising activities, ticket taking at SDSU Aztec football games, handing out water at 5k races. We did a blood drive when there's still an ongoing national shortage. So cadets go donate blood. So we do a lot of other activities that cadets can get involved in.

KP: 32:42

Yeah, it sounds like it sounds like a group and a club within itself. I mean, honestly, when I was part of the ROTC program, I joined the, the Ranger Challenge program, the color guard. I mean, these were just extra things that I I wanted to do to be more involved. I wasn't the smartest cat on the block when it came to my GPA. So I relied a lot on my volunteer work and in my extracurricular activities that I would do as well, because I wasn't naturally booksmart. I was more persistent when it came to my studies, you know, and I worked really hard. And sometimes people are just that way, where you may not be a great, you know, first time pick it up...you know, don't ever have to study but pass the test type of person. But maybe you're just the type of person who's persistent, enjoys working hard. And ROTC gives you that opportunity to demonstrate that part of you. And that's what I love the most about being part of the, the ROTC program. And, you know, it's funny, you're talking about some of the leadership labs and some of the different clubs like Ranger challenge and drill and ceremony and, and just it's funny how some things just don't change. Like that, it's always been like that, right?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 33:51

Right.

KP: 33:52

Can you break it down per year? So freshman year. And I want people to understand that when we're talking about leadership labs, what this is, is just a regular it's, it's looks, it's listed as a regular college course, that gives you credits towards graduation. Right. And so you would schedule this class as if you would the rest of your classes. So if you're taking four classes, for example, towards your studies, you would add leadership, the leadership laboratory to your I guess your your overall transcripts.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 34:26

Course load, yeah.

KP: 34:27

Yeah, your course load, right. And so I understand that the leadership labs are broken down: freshmen, sophomore, juniors and seniors. Right. And then you also have another leadership lab where everyone kind of comes together.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 34:40

So no, the leadership lab for San Diego State, it's MILS 96. So that's what's in the course catalog. That's what you register for whether you're a freshman or senior.

KP: 34:51

Okay.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 34:51

And for our program, and again, every program is a little bit different as far as when their leadership lab is. Some universities have like one Super Saturday a month and that is that leadership lab and it's an all day, Saturday train everything. Curriculum that day. For us, we do it on...well, this year we're changing it, but Thursday afternoons is when we've done it. And so all of our freshmen through seniors come out on Thursday afternoons, for about two and a half,three hours. And they are training on, again, those tactical non-classroom type skills. Usually we coordinate our military science classroom-based classes to work in conjunction with the lab. So if for example, we're doing land nav on Thursday, Tuesday's class you know, classroom based portion is going to be about map reading and compass use. And you know, terrain features and terrain association. It'll be all about, you know, land nav in preparation for Thursday's lab. And then Thursdays lab, freshmen through seniors, again, are out there in the field, doing land nav of course, getting their pace count, shooting azimuths with their compass, things like that. For freshmen, sophomores, we we pair them up together with a senior, because we know it's their first time, for example, but again, everybody is training together.

KP: 36:24

Yeah, that's really good. Because back when I went through it was, they would have like the the 102, the 102s, and oh, I'm sorry, the 100s, 200s, 300s, 400s. The 400s were the seniors, the 300s were the juniors, and so on and so forth. And I remember they would have us do like rappelling you know. And they would have us, you know, tying knots and things like that, like you said, land nav, they'd have us do that, just beating brush through the nearby woods next to the campus. And that was great for recruitment too, because other students would see us doing this. And then we would wear uniforms. Which do I still have the cadets wear the uniforms like when they're on campus that day?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 37:04

We do yeah. For their military science classes, the classroom base portion, they wear it. And then for leadership lab, we're really fortunate to be in a military community here in San Diego. So we almost extensively used Miramar for our training areas, because it's just a huge plot of land that not a lot of folks use. And so we're not on campus for leadership lab, which you know, doesn't help with recruiting. But it is, you know, prime opportunity for our cadets to not do an ambush and carry around sticks as weapons on music field on campus, which is what I had to do at University of Portland as well. So it's a lot more realistic, we can use the actual, you know, dummy rifles or the rubber ducks, we can actually have a lot of space to utilize at Miramar. But again, every campus and ROTC program is different. They may not have access to those resources, and they have to do their training on, you know, an athletic field on campus or a parade field of some sort. So it just helps to train our cadets better for what they're going to experience a summer camp between their junior and senior year.

KP: 38:16

You gotta make do with what you got. And it sounds like you guys are very fortunate to be right there.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 38:20

We are. And we have great relationships with you know, the Navy and the Marines here. To be able to use a lot of different areas. National Guard and Reserve armories. We use those quite a bit as well, especially for our weapons training, radios, field craft, things like that. We use the pool at Miramar or on the Navy base for our combat water survival training. So we're really really lucky here.

KP: 38:46

So how many how big is the battalion down in San Diego State University.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 38:50

So we have about 90 cadets right now. Obviously, COVID put a damper on our recruiting efforts. We had very strict rules here in 2020. This was actually the first year even though I've been here, going on three years now, that I was on campus for an entire year. So we couldn't do the normal recruiting events. We could do like tabling events, the Miramar Air Show, all that in person stuff. And we were without a recruiting operations officer for quite some time as well. So I think that being on campus this year, and getting involved in our high schools, that we're you know in person again this year. And having great, great recruiting operations officer and Lieutenant who's focused on recruiting work...the programs gonna grow. So we're already looking at about 30 new cadets for this coming year. So it's gonna get a lot bigger, but about 90 right now.

KP: 39:52

Yeah, I really think that Army ROTC program is a great, great opportunity for folks. And it's a lesser, I don't know why it's not known. All I hear about is the academies, the academies, the academies, and when I mentioned to someone, "What about Army ROTC?" And they're like "Well, what's that?" And it just breaks my heart to not, to the fact that people don't know. And honestly, I didn't know either. I was enlisted in the National Guard. And one day my platoon sergeant had mentioned it to me and I, you know, it all got kicked off and started when I simply walked up to the Army ROTC office. I just walked up there. I didn't know what to expect and just talked to the Secretary and said "Hey, I'm here to get some information about the ROTC program." And then from there, they sent me to the recruiting officers, you know, office and, and that started the whole thing. And I think that's the first step that you got to take is go to the campus, talk to the professor of military science, talk to the recruiting officer, and get the information. Because Lieutenant Colonel Partlette literally just went through a whole list of scholarships that you could be eligible for, to put in for and you may not even know anything about it. And I think that's the key is to do your research and to get information on on the program. And in your opinion, Michelle, what are the top three things that both parents and students need to know about joining? And being part of the Army ROTC programs? What are things that you typically see? Or hear about? That parents or students later on go "Well, you know, I didn't really know that," or "I really didn't understand that very well." What are the things that they should know? Before joining and being part of the ROTC program?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 41:39

Yeah, I'd say the first thing is definitely looking into that national scholarship, even if you are, you know, hell bent on going to a service academy. Not everyone's gonna get in to to a service academy. So actually applying for the national scholarships. The window just opened up June 12, for that national scholarships, so seniors can be looking at that now. If you get accepted, and then, for a scholarship, and then you get into a service academy, you can always just decline the scholarship. So there's really no harm or foul to applying for national scholarship. With that, too, I would say apply early. So because there are three board windows, October, January, and March. So if you don't get picked up for a scholarship in October, your application is still going to carry over to the January board, so you get another look. And if you don't get picked up in that board, then it carries over to the March board. So that's, you know, just a great opportunity for two, three and four year scholarships. So you have that, you know, in your back pocket, if you don't get another type of say, financially need, financial need-based scholarship. Or if you don't get into a service academy, if that's what you're trying to pursue. I would say definitely apply to the schools that you list on your national scholarship application. I don't know how many times I've seen a high school student get selected for a four year scholarship, but didn't apply to the university that they have listed, that they got a scholarship for. And there's not a whole lot that we can do about that. So they either have to go to a different university and transfer their scholarship. A lot of them miss the deadline. So pay attention to the deadlines for the university you're applying to so that if you do get offered a scholarship and get accepted to the University, you can actually you know, take that scholarship. Just to dispel like a rumor, maybe concerns that parents have, your son or daughter is not you know, enlisting into the army and going to basic training. Now obviously, there's a piece like you did, with simultaneous membership program where you did go to basic training. But joining ROTC, yes, you do sign a contract. But you're still just a college student doing you know, ROTC classes on the side, essentially, and any other activities you want to get involved in. But you can still join fraternities and sororities and play sports, intermurals or collegiate level sports. You could still go to parties, you can still have fun, which is you know, maybe not what you'll see at the service academy level for sure. So you're still, you know, just a student. And there's no, you know, hazing or rite of passage or anything crazy like that. You are a student, you're going to ROTC classes, you're going to sit in a classroom, you're gonna go out to the fields, you know, and train and just develop your leadership skills. So I think a lot of parents don't understand. They're like, "Oh, my God, you're, you know, enlisting, you're gonna go to basic training and and go off to war." Well, no, you're, you're locked into college. Right. So that's, that's one thing to I guess dispel. And then kind of like you said, if you think you're interested at all, in ROTC, you know, go to the the university you're looking at and see if they have an ROTC program. There's 273 programs nationwide, including American Samoa and Puerto Rico and Guam. But go to their website, find their ROTC information, there'll be contact info there for the recruiting operations officer. You can jump on a Zoom call with them. You can do a telephonic if you're in the local area, go pay them a visit. And they can tell you all of the ins and outs about what you need to join the program. With that you don't have to contract immediately. You don't have to commit to it, you can just be a college student and enroll in ROTC classes. It's open enrollment, until it gets to the junior and senior level classes. But you can take leadership lab you can take, you know, military science 101, you can take military history. Get involved, you know, as much as you want. And if you then decide, "Yeah, this is definitely something I want to do and I want to stay in the program," then you can look at contracting and meeting all the requirements to contract. But you can be just you know, again, a regular college student, it's called a "participating cadet" or an "enrolled cadet" without being contracted and having any, any level of commitment to the service afterwards. So that's a really good thing, but reach out to the recruiting Operations Officer. Do your research online. Let's go army. I wrote it down somewhere here. I don't know what section I wrote it down in. I have some notes here. But it's Go Army Ed.

KP: 46:51

Yeah, I'll make sure I put it down in the show notes. Yeah, everything that you mentioned today, it's, you know, for people to reference I always do that. Yeah, actually, what you mentioned the civilians that show up for the leadership labs, like, that was me like, so before I went SMP, that's what I did. I, before I committed, I showed up to leadership labs and "Is this thing for me or not?" And it was very welcoming. And I enjoyed being around the other cadets. And the next year, I went ahead and jumped, did the SMP, the simultaneous membership program, and the rest is history. And something that you mentioned, which kind of made me well kind of made me grin and smile about was you talked about the service academies. And I want to share a story. I had, a really good buddy of mine, he is a service academy graduate. To keep it very, very general not going to say which, so he doesn't know who I'm talking about. But one day we were standing there. It was our first job. After we both separated from the military, we're standing there in our current employment in the civilian side. And I asked him, I said, "So are you glad you went to the service academy?" He's like, "not really." And I was like "Why? He goes, "Because we're both standing right here next to each other. And we have the same job." He's like "You had the experiences of going to college, going to basketball games, football games, and, and really just enjoying yourself and had the whole college experience. And I went to an academy, where everything was regimented, very strict." And not to poopoo on the academies, but that's, there is a difference there. You know, and when you go into San Diego State University versus a West Point, or an Air Force Academy, it may not be for everyone. And so really, really consider Army ROTC when you're looking at your options for the future, and like Michelle said, even if you are a civilian, and you're currently taking classes, whether it be San Diego State or wherever you're at, you can sign up for leadership laboratory classes, go to class, you get credits for that class, and just see if if you if this gels with you, if this is your thing, if this is something you might want to get more involved in. Because you never know, even when I was a gold bar recruiter, for my University for about three months, I had a lot of civilians that would literally just walk up and say "Hey, I want to sign up for your, your leadership labs." And then we would go repel or do land nav, and we teach them stuff. And they'd be like, "This is really cool. How do I get a scholarship? How do I become part of the family?" And next thing you know, they're in boots, and then they go and do their time in the military. You know, and it's, to me, like the reason I got commissioned was because my old man was 20-year Army, and got out his E-8, old, crusty E-8 and was drafted in 71. And it wasn't, it wasn't enough for me to just be enlisted. I wanted to take it to the next level. And I thought that it would be an honor to serve as an officer in the United States military, and it absolutely was. And I had great opportunities to work with people like you, Michelle. And it's, it's awesome to see you after 18 years almost, right? And I appreciate you being on the podcast and talking about ROTC.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 50:05

There's a couple more things I want to mention. You know, you talked about the service academy and being very rigid and structured. They're going to tell you when to eat, they're going to tell you when to study, they're going to tell you when to turn lights out, things like that. And that's why you know, applying for a national scholarship simultaneously with applying to service academy is important. Because you might end up going there and then you don't like it. Right, and then you, you come back to regular college and join ROTC and you can still meet your ultimate goal of commissioning if that's what you want to do. But also, you know if you're a sophomore getting ready to go into your junior year in college, so you already have classes and you think it's too late, it's not, you can still join ROTC. And we'll send you to basic camp that summer between your sophomore and junior year. It's not basic training. It's basic camp at Fort Knox. And that camp essentially makes up for that first two years of ROTC that you missed. So your freshman and sophomore year when you weren't taking ROTC classes. It's not too late. So that's good to know, for college students. Another thing is, you know, with Air Force and Navy ROTC, you have to get a degree in certain things. With Army ROTC, you can get your degree in anything you want. Right. I got a degree in elementary education when I was going through ROTC, which has been very helpful now. But, you know, journalism, nursing, engineering, computer science, I mean, it's completely wide open, theatre production. I have a cadet right now that studying, television production. So you can literally study anything you want. And again, on the scholarship, it's fully paid for, either "full tuition and fees" or "room and board," and you get to choose which one "room and board" or "tuition and fees." And a lot of colleges, for ROTC students, will kick in "room and board." And so now you're going to college completely for free, you're not paying "room and board" or "tuition and fees." So it's a great deal. But you do need to do your research to see what colleges offer that, you know, otherwise, you know, it is going to be, you're going to pick whatever is most expensive, whether it's "room and board" or "tuition and fees", includes the out of state as well, which can be, you know, significantly higher. So yeah, I just wanted to touch on those few things.

KP: 52:38

I'm really glad that you mentioned that, because I always tell people, in the same sense that the best time to look for a job is when you have a job. And it's also a great time, when you're talking about the scholarships. Even if you're accepted into an academy, and you have a job, I guess you're gonna be going to the academy. It's a great time for you to also have that lateral mobility to move to a regular college, but still stay on that same path. So don't put just one iron in the fire, put several irons in the fire, because the best place to be in life is to have lateral movement to say, "You know what, this isn't for me, I think I'm gonna go over here." And that's because there's a lot of people that are stuck. There's a lot of people in life that are stuck, they're stuck in their job, they're stuck in their situations. And you definitely gotta leave your options open because things change, you know. So that's, that's really, really, really great advice.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 53:29

Great to have options. You know, if you want to go to service academy, apply to every service academy. Don't limit yourself to just West Point, because your dad went to West Point. Apply to Naval Academy. Apply to Air Force Academy. Apply for national scholarships. Apply for Navy and Air Force scholarships. So when the time comes, you have all this on the table to say, you know, then you really got to narrow down your research to say "What is it I really want?" But at least you have those options.

KP: 53:56

Yeah, totally. That's, that's really, really great advice, actually. Is there anything else that you feel like we didn't cover as far as ROTC. We covered the branches, we covered the scholarships, we covered the alternative routes. I know there's a lot of things that have come up recently, you know, as of recent times, that weren't around when I was, you know, in. Is there anything else that we didn't quite cover?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 54:18

There's a lot we didn't cover...there's so much because it is such a great opportunity.

KP: 54:24

Well, you know, I didn't know about the whole, the Navy requiring you to get certain degrees. I didn't know that about the, I didn't know that. Like, I thought that you could, just like Army, because what you mentioned was there was other cadets that graduated with me that, like one was in theater. And she, she became an army officer, like, it just, I thought all the branches were the same way. But I didn't know that...

LTC Michelle Parlette: 54:49

I did too. And then I found out you know, you have to study like aerospace engineering, you know,...

KP: 54:55

to get a certain branch...?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 54:57

Right, right.

KP: 54:58

Wow.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 54:59

Just talking about some of the other benefits. So once you're contracted, whether you're on a scholarship or not, you get a stipend every month of $420 a month for 10 months, so during the academic year. And then you also get a book stipend so you get $1,200 a year, $600 every semester to pay for books. So you know being contracted not even on a scholarship, you're still gonna get paid a certain amount. Just some of the other opportunities I just want to mention to, like over the summers, Project Global Officer is,...I think they probably had CULP when you were a cadet. The Cultural Understanding and Language Proficiency program. Well, that's...now there's Project GO. So 10 weeks over the summer, you can study a strategic language for free. You get the college credit for that. You get additional sessions points for your National Order of Merit Score. And it's offered at several universities across the US. And again, it's fully funded, they're going to pay to house you in the dorms. They're going to pay for that cultural training, or sorry, cultural and language training. They're going to pay for the testing and so it's just another opportunity for ROTC cadets. And that's open to Army, Navy and Air Force, Marine cadets and midshipmen. You also have the opportunity over the summers to go to airborne school, to air assault school, to master fitness trainer, to mountain warfare, to sapper leader course. I mean, there's so many, there's tons of internships that you can apply for. And to be competitive for those obviously, you have to be a good cadet. So getting good grades, being involved in the program, like you said, you were you know, in color guard and Ranger challenge and you participate in those volunteer opportunities and, and different things. And you did well on your physical fitness test. So those I mean, as a cadet myself, I went to airborne one year and I went to air assault another year. So once you get into the military, depending on what unit you go into, you may not get that opportunity ever again. You know it's pretty competitive. So to go as a cadet because you've been a, you know, a great Cadet and they are competitive for that. That's just one more opportunity. And then there's Cadet Troop Leadership Training, CTLT. During the summer of your junior year, after camp, you can go in bed with an active duty Army unit. You can go to Hawaii, you can go to Germany. I had a cadet last year that went to Italy. You know, for 30 to 40 days and you're just shadowing you know a unit and a lieutenant and learning about the different branches before you actually have to make that branch choice. Go around and talk to the military intelligence officer in the S2 shop, talk to the adjutant general officer in the S1 shop and the quartermaster logistics captain in the S4 shop and see if that's really what you want to do. Because you get to see him do it on a day to day basis for you know, 30 to 45 days. So another just great opportunity.

KP: 58:15

Yeah, that's, I was gonna get to that about the airborne, air assault, CTLT thing. I had completely forgotten about that as well. I actually took advantage of CTLT that Cadet Troop Leadership Training, and they sent me to Germany. Unfortunately, the unit, unfortunately or fortunately, however you look at it, the unit they sent me to was deployed. The entire base was deployed. I sat with the rear detachment for 30 days, which wasn't bad because there was a group of us, we all went and explored Germany and had a great time there. But like you mentioned, though, I passed up airborne to go to CTLT. And I never got that chance to do that. Again. I thought airborne, "I'll do that later. I'll do that. That'll be another time." Right. But and you came out as a second lieutenant, double stacked. So airborne-air assult, which was you know, that's, that's really great that you did that. I wish I had done that instead. And now for my situation. I was a simultaneous membership cadet. I also scored an on campus scholarship while I was in ROTC where they paid for my room and board. So I was literally, at the time my National Guard unit was paying 100% of my tuition. I was getting paid to go to my drills. And then I also got this room and board scholarship because I was so involved with Ranger challenge, Color Guard. I was, you know, motivated, you know, showing them that I was really interested in doing this. Is something like that still available as well?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 59:47

You know, I'd have to ask my recruiting Operations Officer. Because you were on a scholarship with the guard ?

KP: 59:56

Yeah. Well, I mean, it was SMP. It was non scholarship. Yeah, non scholarship, but I was getting my tuition paid through the state.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:00:04

Okay. Yeah. So with certain Guard Reserves scholarships, you can use like your GI Bill, if you're eligible for that. You can use your like tuition assistance. There's other benefits that each state offers and still be eligible for a campus based scholarship. But I don't know all the ins and outs, details of that. My recruiting operations officer definitely would because he goes to school for that.

KP: 1:00:35

Yeah, listen...

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:00:37

You got a sweet deal!

KP: 1:00:38

Anything you send me, anything you send me as far as references, I'll put all that stuff down in the show notes. So that anyone listening to this, if you're watching this on YouTube, just go into the description portion, you'll see every single link down there. If you're listening to this on a podcast, whether it's Spotify or Apple podcasts, whatever it is, scroll down to the bottom, you'll see all that information down there, as well as how to contact Lieutenant Colonel Parlette as well. So, before we finish up the episode here, Michelle, I know that that your your doggie is a big, big part of your life, right. By the way, by the way, like back in the day when Michelle and I were stationed in Hawaii, we with a couple other lieutenants, we'd go surfing. We spent a lot of time out surfing, right?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:01:29

Yes, yes. Best times

KP: 1:01:31

Do you still surf in San Diego?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:01:33

I went once. The water is too cold for me. I got way too spoiled in Hawaii. I hate wearing a wetsuit. So...

KP: 1:01:40

It's just not the same, right! Because I did it New Jersey...I didn't...so my uncle who passed away, I still have his board. And when I was in New Jersey, I actually paddled out. And it was so rough. And it was so cold. And I was like "This isn't Hawaii."

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:01:54

Dirty. Yeah. Even the bottom is dark.

KP: 1:01:57

Right. Right. So I feel you on that one right there. But yeah, so tell us, tell us about, about your dog before we end the show. Because I know she's a big part of your life, right?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:02:08

Yes, this is her. This is Peanut. And I adopted her from a shelter at Fort Hood a few years ago, 2015 I believe it was, maybe 16. But she was the Dogs on Deployment Military Pet of the Year and mascot in 2018. So you know, huge prize package and photo shoots for their marketing materials and paintings of her. And I have Cuddle Clone. It's a stuffed replica of her. I mean, this is all part of the the prize package. A year supply of food, which I donated back to a chihuahua rescue shelter in Texas. But Dogs on Deployment, not a lot of folks know about. But it's a 501 C 3 national nonprofit started by two service members, a Marine and Navy officer. And they had a dog named JD, back in 2011. She was going to Quantico for school, he was deploying and they had nowhere to take JD you know. No family members were available, friends didn't want to you know, deal with the hassle of having a dog. So they were kind of on the verge of like, "What do we do? Do we give JD up to a shelter?" Youu know, obviously, they didn't want to abandon him, you know, on the street or anything. But, you know, he's part of the family. And so they thought "Well, this probably isn't isolated to just us, there's a lot of military members out there." And even veterans that you know, have to go away for training or deployment and they don't have somewhere to take their pet. So they started Dogs on Deployment. And it's essentially a network of volunteer boarders, for all pets, even though it's called dogs on deployments, it's birds, it's reptiles, it's cats, it's, you know, rodents, anything. But these boarders, go on and registe and say what they're willing to accept, you know, just cats, or just dogs or just small dogs. And then service members, if they get called to basic training or deployment or sea duty, they can then apply to, to link up with a border. There's a contract, a registration requirement. But they can go on and browse boarders in their area, or if they're willing to travel or fly their pet, you know, to another state for when they're away. It's completely free. You link up with, you find a boarder online that you're, you know, meets the requirements. So you go do the meet and greet to make sure it's gonna work out, okay. You sign a contract, you know, with all the stipulations of you know, "If my dog requires that care, you know, notify me if it's over $500 before you authorize it." Things like that, you know, the feeding schedule, the type of food, who's gonna buy the food, reimbursement, all of that. But it saves them on, you know, dumping the dog or pet somewhere or leaving it with a family member who has you know, enough stress in their life to take on an additional responsibility. So it's really great when I deployed to Kuwait. My parents had just moved to Hawaii and they were really the only ones that could watch her, but as you know, there's a lot of strict requirements, getting pets to Hawaii and avoiding the quarantine process. And it's pretty lengthy. So that wasn't an option. And so I discovered Dogs on Deployment. I found an awesome boarder in Georgetown, Texas just outside of Fort Hood who, who took Peanut in for about five months. Again, completely free obviously you can offer to pay them. But they take took awesome care of her. It was just peace of mind for me knowing she was taken care of. I got photos, I got videos all the time of her, talk to her on like FaceTime. So it's just a great organization. They also have a financial assistance arm if service members are having problems with paying for emergency vet care or say their PCS-ing overseas. And there's a lot of, you know, high travel costs, especially to put bigger dogs on planes. A lot of expenses associated with that. And if they can't afford that, then you can apply for a Pet Chit is what they call it. It's a financial assistance for those types of expenses. There's free spay and neuter programs, you know, partnerships in different areas across the US. There's like I said, emergency vet care, microchipping, all this free to service members, veterans. So it's just a great, great program and we're happy to be part of it. We're happy to have been the military pet of the year and mascot in 2018. So Peanut is pretty special. I think one day upon retirement, I'll write a book or series of children's books about her. And her travels because she's traveled all over Europe. She's traveled all over the States. She's going to Hawaii with me in December, just for vacation.

KP: 1:07:18

How long have you had Peanut?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:07:20

Um, I think it's 2016. It was after one of my deployments. So, six years and she's estimated eight right now. You know, I'm not quite sure how old she is exactly, or what her first two years of life were like, but she's pretty amazing. I hated chihuahuas my entire life, like yappy, irritating ankle-biting dogs. And I met one in Italy when I was stationed there that was complete opposite of that. Fell in love with with her, it was another servicemember's dog named Maya. And it's like, well, I'll never find a chihuahua like that. But I lucked out. She's, she's calm, she's chill. She's lovable. She's very smart. Knows a lot of tricks. She loves everybody. Kids will be petting her and pulling on her and she just sits there.

KP: 1:08:08

You know, I know so many people, I know so many people that develop such a special connection with an animal throughout their life. I mean, there's always that one or two that you just never forget. And yeah, you know, I've had, I've had a couple in my life. I've had two dogs, both named "Ranger." I don't know if you remember, I had a dog when I was in Ranger, and he was a black Laboratory, or black laboratory, he was a black lab/pit bull. And, you know, he passed away but you know, smart dog, really intelligent dog. And then I had another "Ranger" when I was just a little kid. And there's just so weird how they both have the same name, but they have the same temperament. And you don't find connections like that. And animals like that. So I can certainly understand you know how you know, she's a part of your family.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:09:01

She's pretty amazing. She goes everywhere with me, everywhere.

KP: 1:09:06

So anyone out there that's interested in contacting you, Lieutenant Colonel Parlette. What's the best way for them to contact you?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:09:14

My email is probably best. And that's mparlette@sdsu.edu. Going...you can just Google "San Diego State Army ROTC" that will take you to our, kind of homepage. And there's a cadre tab and it's got all my cadre with their pictures with their emails with their phone numbers listed on that page. You know, even if you're thinking about going to Notre Dame and haven't, you know, been able to contact someone in the ROTC department, for example, you can contact any ROTC department and they can tell you, you know what ROTC is all about what's required to join the program, to actually contract and get your benefits started. They can tell you about national scholarships, but, you know, my recruiting operations officer and anybody on my team is, you know, open to talking to you regardless of where you want to, to attend college.

KP: 1:10:11

Awesome. Awesome. And just to round out the episode, Lieutenant Colonel Parlette. Is there anything else that you'd like to tell the audience out there or finish out with just summarizing this, this entire, this entire conversation that we had?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:10:27

I think the biggest thing is like we talked about opportunities like, you know. Certainly get out there, get involved, do the job, ask questions, and apply for any and everything you possibly can. There's no fee to apply for Westpoint. There's no fee to apply for a national scholarship. So just get out there and do it and, you know, see what your opportunities are, you know, months from now, as far as universities, as far as you know, service academies, ROTC, check them all out, right. Just educate yourself. So that, you know, you know what, what every program is about, and what's going to be the best fit for you?

KP: 1:11:12

Yes, have those conversations.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:11:13

Start early.

KP: 1:11:14

Yes, have those conversations. Start early. So much. Great advice today, Michelle, and I really appreciate you being on the podcast today. But highlighting a lot of what ROTC has to offer, I think it's a great opportunity for folks out there. It's very unfortunate that not a lot of people know much about it. But it's something that I've been looking to, to cover. And it's perfect that you are in the position that you're at as a professor of military science, and I have the connection with you, having worked with you in the past. You literally were there at the beginning of my short military career, that was very adventurous, having deployed right off the bat. And I gotta tell you this before we in the show, I am extremely proud of you and where you are today. Like I said before, I think San Diego State University is extremely, extremely lucky to have someone of your caliber working for them. And I appreciate over the years, you staying in contact with me. It means the world to me. I really don't talk to a whole lot of people that I worked with in the military. It's just over the years, moving around. And you know, and somehow we managed to connect on LinkedIn, connect on Facebook, and still keep in touch. So I think that's absolutely awesome. And thank you for being a part of the episode today.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:12:29

Thank you very much. You know, I'm very proud of you too, even though it was a short stint. You said in the military, it was a very important stint. And, you know, it was just really a pleasure to serve with you for the time that we did. And I'm thankful that we were able to stay in contact as well. You've always been a really good friend. And we always joke around and have fun and surf. And hopefully we'll get to do that again someday. If you ever get back to Hawaii, please. You're welcome to come on over. And I'll be retired there. Maybe in a year, maybe in three years. We'll see.

KP: 1:13:05

We'll try to paddle out and or listen to some Hawaiian reggae, right.

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:13:09

That's right. But so proud of you with you know, what you've done in your career as well. And this podcast and getting, you know, the word out on a variety of different topics. I look forward to listening to more of your podcasts in the future. Now that I know what a podcast is. But great job with The Morning Formation and all that you've done in your life and all the successes you've had and for your service as well.

KP: 1:13:33

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Yeah, I love podcasting, mainly because when I started listening to it, I started developing sort of an intense relationship with the speakers, you know, when it came to listening to what they're actually saying, and it took my visual away and just made me focus on the words specifically. So you know, that's why I did that. And no, it's it's an honor to have you on the show. And for everyone else out there. Please take the advice that Lieutenant Colonel Parlette talked about. You know, if you have kids in your family, whether they're nieces, nephews, or they're your own kids, or maybe they're just the neighborhood kids, you know. And they're going to be graduating high school soon, you know, you want to put them on the right path, give them the right azimuth, the right direction to head in, ROTC is a great way to go. You're literally talking to two people that utilized that program to get get forward in their own careers. Michelle's done 18 years or 20 years so far?

LTC Michelle Parlette: 1:14:28

21.

KP: 1:14:30

Wow. 21 years, 21 years. And if I was still in I would have 18 years in the military now which is hard to believe. Life goes by so fast! Please have them take a look. Have them, have the conversations with recruiting officers at their local universities that have ROTC. Contact Lieutenant Colonel Parlette, contact San Diego State University ROTC program if that's what you're interested in, get them out there and get them headed in the right direction, folks. And as far as The Morning Formation, and Lieutenant Colonel Parlette, we want you to stay tuned, stay focused and stay motivated. Warriors, Fall out.