[rudruff]

I think the article leaves out a couple of things about the officer pipelines that would weaken the geographic isolation argument. Between the academies, ROTC and OCS you have a very different way of selecting officers. The academies usually require a nomination from a Congressman, Senator, or the Vice President. That spreads out the field pretty quickly.

ROTC programs award scholarships dependent on the acceptance to the school as well. ROTC members aren't required to be on scholarship, but the time requirement is enough that there weren't a lot of people I knew who did it for fun.

Kind of ambivalent about having a program on campus, though. I did all of my training through the unit at Berkeley (yes, I drove to C.al 1-2 times per week my entire time at Stanford). While the commute was a lot, it also limited the amount of pointless events we had to endure. Open a unit on campus and it becomes a lot easier for students to be required to be standing in formation at 6am for no good reason.

OCS and enlisted pipelines are more likely places for geographic concentrations to occur. A lot of the enlisted men I served with came from small towns and had few options if they stayed where they grew up. Places with greater opportunities for social mobility are going to allow people to choose other options.

[rudruff]

I think the article leaves out a couple of things about the officer pipelines that would weaken the geographic isolation argument. Between the academies, ROTC and OCS you have a very different way of selecting officers. The academies usually require a nomination from a Congressman, Senator, or the Vice President. That spreads out the field pretty quickly.

ROTC programs award scholarships dependent on the acceptance to the school as well. ROTC members aren't required to be on scholarship, but the time requirement is enough that there weren't a lot of people I knew who did it for fun.

Kind of ambivalent about having a program on campus, though. I did all of my training through the unit at Berkeley (yes, I drove to C.al 1-2 times per week my entire time at Stanford). While the commute was a lot, it also limited the amount of pointless events we had to endure. Open a unit on campus and it becomes a lot easier for students to be required to be standing in formation at 6am for no good reason.

OCS and enlisted pipelines are more likely places for geographic concentrations to occur. A lot of the enlisted men I served with came from small towns and had few options if they stayed where they grew up. Places with greater opportunities for social mobility are going to allow people to choose other options.