It's What We Do Every Day
There are three main components of AFROTC: air science lecture courses, leadership laboratory and physical training. At any detachment across the nation, you will find variations of these three components.
Air Science
Each year, during the four-year program, students will take one level of air science lecture courses. Typically, the freshman and sophomore courses are one credit hour each while the junior and senior courses are three credit hours each.
Freshman-level courses provide new cadets with a general overview of the Air Force. The topics include pay, benefits, careers, bases, standards and even a few lessons on war.
Sophomore-level courses are about the history of air power. The courses take the cadet back in time to the inception of flight to explaining how air power was used in each conflict to the Global War on Terrorism.
Junior-level courses are about leadership.
Senior-level courses are about regional studies and equipping soon-to-be officers with the tools necessary to succeed once on active duty.
Leadership Laboratory
Cadets meet once a week for two hours to complete this requirement. The lab is broken into two different levels. During the lab environment, the General Military Course cadets (freshman and sophomores) are trained by the Professional Officer Course cadets (juniors and seniors) on various topics. Those topics include: drills and ceremonies, customs and courtesies, dormitory procedures, small-unit tactics and fellowership.
The Professional Officer Course cadets plan and execute the required training objectives each week, so their piece of the puzzle takes a vast amount of coordination and discipline.
Physical Training
Cadets meet for physical training twice a week at various locations. At those meetings, cadets will spend an hour fine-tuning their bodies for maximum performance. Workouts are typically dynamic and can include intense levels of both aerobic and anaerobic workouts.
Leadership Defined
Leadership is the art and science of motivating, influencing and directing people to accomplish objectives.
This highlights two fundamental elements of leadership: (1) The mission, objective, or task to be accomplished, and (2) The people who accomplish it. All facets of Air Force and Space Force leadership should support these two basic elements. Effective leadership transforms human potential into effective performance in the present and prepares capable leaders for the future. The Air Force and Space Force need these leaders to accomplish the national objectives set for national security to defend the safety of our people and nation when those objectives require the use of armed force.
The vast majority of Air Force and Space Force leaders are not commanders. Leadership does not equal command, but all commanders must be good leaders to be effective commanders. Any Air Force or Space Force member can be a leader and can positively influence others to accomplish the mission. This is the Air Force and Space Force concept of leadership, and all aspects of Air Force and Space Force leadership should support it.
Air Force and Space Force officers, who have stepped forward to lead others in accomplishing the mission, simultaneously serve as both leaders and followers at every level of the Air Force and Space Force, from young Airmen and Guardians working in the life support shop, to captains at wing staffs, to civilians in supply agencies, to generals at the Pentagon. Desirable behavioral patterns of these leaders and followers should be emulated in ways that improve the performance of individuals and units. Leaders, whether they are commanders or not, positively influence their entire organization.
Inspired by Air Force Doctrine Publication 1