Department of Aerospace Studies

Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Core (AFROTC) is the largest and oldest source of commissioned officers for the Air Force. AFROTC is designed to recruit, educate, and commission officer candidates through academic education, field training, and professional development training programs based on Air Force requirements. LCU Students can attend classes through a cross-town agreement with Texas Tech University AFROTC.

The first two years of AFROTC’s four-year program, the General Military Course (GMC), consist of one hour of classroom work, two hours of leadership laboratory, and three hours of physical conditioning each week. Upon completion of GMC requirements, cadets who wish to compete for entry into the last two years of the program, the Professional Officer Course (POC), must do so under the requirements of the POC selection system. This system uses qualitative factors, such as grade-point average, detachment commander’s evaluation, aptitude test scores and physical fitness test scores to determine a student’s officer potential. After selection, students must successfully complete summer field training at Maxwell AFB.

Field training is a required integral component of the AFROTC curriculum that typically occurs after the cadet has satisfied the GMC program requirements and before entry into the POC program. It consists of a series of strategically planned events with the purpose to train, evaluate, and grow cadets through a transformational experience. Field training culminates in a graduation event that includes an interactive leadership development course focused on preparing cadets for leadership challenges at their detachments.

In the POC, cadets attend class three hours a week, participate in a weekly leadership laboratory lasting two hours and perform three hours of physical conditioning per week. Cadets apply what they have learned in the GMC and at field training. Under the guidance of detachment cadre, POC cadets conduct leadership laboratories and manage the unit’s cadet corps. Each unit has a cadet corps based on the Air Force organizational pattern of flight, squadron, group, and wing. POC classes are small, with emphasis on group discussions and cadet presentations. Classroom topics include leadership, communication skills, and national defense policy. Once enrolled in the POC, all cadets are enlisted in the Air Force Reserve and assigned to the Obligated Reserve Section.