Every branch
Your programme’s words, not somebody else’s
Five ROTC programmes, five sets of echelons, five ways of numbering a course and writing a Cadet’s rank. Software that quietly assumes one of them makes the other four translate every screen in their heads. Below is what we hold for each, and where the official sources are thinner than we would like.
At a glance
The same product, five vocabularies
Structure and naming follow the programme you select when you build the unit. Nothing below is a setting you have to configure from scratch.
| Programme | Echelons | Course levels | Staff scheme |
|---|---|---|---|
| ArmyAJROTC | Battalion, company, platoon, squad. | Leadership Education and Training, written LET 1 through LET 4. | Numbered staff sections. S-1 personnel, S-3 operations and training, S-4 supply. |
| Air ForceAFJROTC | Wing, group, squadron, flight, element. A unit of 250 Cadets or fewer is organised as a group; 251 or more as a wing. | Aerospace Science, written AS 100 through AS 400. Leadership Education and Wellness run alongside it every year rather than after it. | Named functional areas with two-letter symbols - logistics (LG), personnel (IM), public affairs (PA), operations (OPS). There are no S-codes. |
| NavyNJROTC | Company, platoon, squad by default. A battalion is authorised between 150 and 300 Cadets, and a regimental staff above 300. | Naval Science, written NS-1 through NS-4. | Named billets rather than numbers: executive officer, operations officer, supply officer, public affairs officer. |
| Marine CorpsMCJROTC | Battalion or company at the top, at the senior instructor’s discretion. A battalion is not recommended below 150 Cadets. | Leadership Education. The fourth year is authorised rather than guaranteed. | No doctrinal numbered scheme. Units that run S-shops are following local practice. |
| Coast GuardCGJROTC | Squad, platoon, company, battalion, regiment. | Maritime Science, written MS1 through MS4. Not Naval Science. | Billets are assigned narratively. There is no programme-wide numbered scheme. |
AJROTC
Army
- Echelons
- Battalion, company, platoon, squad.
- Course levels
- Leadership Education and Training, written LET 1 through LET 4.
- Cadet ranks
- Cadet Private up to Cadet Colonel, which is the ceiling. Cadet Command’s rank charts print the full title rather than an abbreviation.
- Staff
- Numbered staff sections. S-1 personnel, S-3 operations and training, S-4 supply.
- Where we are less certain
- The short C/ rank form is in general use but does not appear in the Cadet Command charts we could obtain, so we do not treat it as the official style. S-2, S-5 and S-6 vary between units.
AFJROTC
Air Force
- Echelons
- Wing, group, squadron, flight, element. A unit of 250 Cadets or fewer is organised as a group; 251 or more as a wing.
- Course levels
- Aerospace Science, written AS 100 through AS 400. Leadership Education and Wellness run alongside it every year rather than after it.
- Cadet ranks
- C/ prefix, mixed case: C/Amn, C/SSgt, C/MSgt, and C/2d Lt, C/Capt, C/Lt Col, C/Col. Note the space in “Lt Col” and that it is “2d Lt”, not “2nd”.
- Staff
- Named functional areas with two-letter symbols - logistics (LG), personnel (IM), public affairs (PA), operations (OPS). There are no S-codes.
- Where we are less certain
- Most school units are groups, not wings. A rank chart in circulation showing C/SRA and C/2LT in all caps contradicts the HQ supplement and is wrong.
MCJROTC
Marine Corps
- Echelons
- Battalion or company at the top, at the senior instructor’s discretion. A battalion is not recommended below 150 Cadets.
- Course levels
- Leadership Education. The fourth year is authorised rather than guaranteed.
- Cadet ranks
- Full titles with mixed-case stems - Cadet Gunnery Sergeant (GySgt), Cadet Sergeant Major (SgtMaj), Cadet Lieutenant Colonel (LtCol). Tops out at Cadet Colonel.
- Staff
- No doctrinal numbered scheme. Units that run S-shops are following local practice.
- Where we are less certain
- The governing order and the programme of instruction disagree on whether the course years are numbered LE I-IV or LE 1-4. The order dates from 1999. No Marine Corps source supports a C/ rank prefix.
CGJROTC
Coast Guard
- Echelons
- Squad, platoon, company, battalion, regiment.
- Course levels
- Maritime Science, written MS1 through MS4. Not Naval Science.
- Cadet ranks
- C/ for enlisted rates as in the Navy - C/SN, C/PO1. Officer ranks are written out, ending at Cadet Captain.
- Staff
- Billets are assigned narratively. There is no programme-wide numbered scheme.
- Where we are less certain
- Small but growing: around fourteen units under a congressional requirement for at least one per Coast Guard district. Its instructors are SMSI and MSI, not the Navy’s SNSI and NSI.
How this was checked
Where these details come from
Each programme was checked against its own governing publication rather than against what other software does: the AFJROTC Operational Supplement, the NJROTC Regulations for Citizenship Development, Marine Corps Order P1533.6D, the CGJROTC Cadet Field Manual, and the Army JROTC Curriculum Guide.
Those documents are not uniformly good. Two of the five print Cadet ranks with no abbreviation at all, one governing order is from 1999, and one programme moved its rank chapter out of the manual most units actually read. Where that happened we have said so on the branch rather than smoothing it over, because an instructor who knows their own programme will catch a confident error instantly and rightly stop trusting the rest of the page.
If something here is wrong for your unit, tell us and we will correct it. Write to support@allcadets.com. We would rather be corrected by an instructor than keep an error that makes your programme look like an afterthought.
Build your unit the way it is actually organised
Pick your programme when you set up, and the echelons, course levels and staff billets come out in your own vocabulary.