It Beats Graduate School

I was reading this article on the American military's struggle to retain its officers, and the opportunities it has created for those officers who remain. The line that struck me was, "If you breathe, you make lieutenant colonel these days." The other thing that struck me was that military officers are being heavily recruited for middle-management positions by private firms... salaries starting around $70,000 per year.

If I was college bound, or was advising a college-bound kid, I would advise going into ROTC right now. The military officer corps is wide open for promotion, and the private sector economy is heading for the skids. Assuming that the next White House administration is going to scale back operations in Iraq and Afghanistan quite a bit, and deployments are going to become "safer" in the future (which I think will happen), a career as a military officer will mean at least shelter from a sluggish or depressed economy as well as a ticket to a lucrative middle-management job in 5 years' time... or a 25-year career that puts you up in the O-6 (colonel) or O-7 (general) range, retirement before the age of 50, and a pension that would give you an incredibly nice 30-plus years of senior living... or a combination of the two.

(Hey: I'm 38 years old. If I had become an officer after college, I would be major now, 4 years away from a 20-year retirement paying me $3,000 per month for as long as I live.)