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Things to understand when choosing to go to the "Dark Side".
You may not get the branch of choice upon graduation, regardless of background or experience, accept it.
There are options for branch transfer once selected for CPT, this will depend on whether positions open up in the desired branch (unlikely), or you select to try for a career field that requires you to be CPT select to qualify for and then meet selection criteria (Special Forces, PsyOps, Civil Affairs).
When choosing to go Officer, you need to understand the OML and how it works in order to maximize your opportunity to get a career field of choice.
Now, admittedly it has been a while since I've discussed this and I may be missing a few parts. Those of you more experienced with the process, please chime in.
OML:
Based on scores, grades, APFT and a myriad of other minutiae, every applicant is assigned a score.
Every applicant is placed in a pile based on 1st choice and then sorted by score. If you make the cutoff for 1st round draft, congratulations. If you didn't, apparently you didn't want it bad enough, but you still have a chance to serve in the military of the greatest country on earth.
2nd round, 2nd choice, available candidates to available billets...
3rd round, 3rd choice, and so on.
While there are flaws with the system and it can be gamed, it represents a best solution because it puts the best of those who want to be in a career field where they want to be or at least find acceptable. The others represent the multitude of underachievers that just fill the warm body requirements for junior officers until their service commitment is complete and they move on the the civilian side upon achieving CPT and sometimes MAJ.
True, most of my generalizations are just that. There are those that can go on to excel despite initially poor showings. There are those that find their 10th, 11th or even 12th choice to be a good fit for them, and those that find out after getting their first choice, that it wasn't everything they were expecting.
Please consider when rolling the dice, you are taking a chance and it is important for you to play the cards you are dealt.
You may not get the branch of choice upon graduation, regardless of background or experience, accept it.
There are options for branch transfer once selected for CPT, this will depend on whether positions open up in the desired branch (unlikely), or you select to try for a career field that requires you to be CPT select to qualify for and then meet selection criteria (Special Forces, PsyOps, Civil Affairs).
When choosing to go Officer, you need to understand the OML and how it works in order to maximize your opportunity to get a career field of choice.
Now, admittedly it has been a while since I've discussed this and I may be missing a few parts. Those of you more experienced with the process, please chime in.
OML:
Based on scores, grades, APFT and a myriad of other minutiae, every applicant is assigned a score.
Every applicant is placed in a pile based on 1st choice and then sorted by score. If you make the cutoff for 1st round draft, congratulations. If you didn't, apparently you didn't want it bad enough, but you still have a chance to serve in the military of the greatest country on earth.
2nd round, 2nd choice, available candidates to available billets...
3rd round, 3rd choice, and so on.
While there are flaws with the system and it can be gamed, it represents a best solution because it puts the best of those who want to be in a career field where they want to be or at least find acceptable. The others represent the multitude of underachievers that just fill the warm body requirements for junior officers until their service commitment is complete and they move on the the civilian side upon achieving CPT and sometimes MAJ.
True, most of my generalizations are just that. There are those that can go on to excel despite initially poor showings. There are those that find their 10th, 11th or even 12th choice to be a good fit for them, and those that find out after getting their first choice, that it wasn't everything they were expecting.
Please consider when rolling the dice, you are taking a chance and it is important for you to play the cards you are dealt.
Officers
Branch
Green to Gold
Posted 11 y ago
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Agree with most of what you've said…with one exception. Don't agree with "this will depend on whether positions open up in the desired branch (unlikely), or you select to try for a career field that requires you to be CPT select to qualify for and then meet selection criteria (Special Forces, PsyOps, Civil Affairs)." I know of (and did it myself) many officers that participated in VTIP and switched branches to their branch of choice. It is based on in/out calls for that branch and YG, but I would not say it is 'unlikely'.
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The OCS model for Active Duty has been shifting sands for a while. I was in the very first class to have an OML for candidates coming in off the street. Prior Service candidates got their branches from HRC before the school started. They had no say at all in what they ended up with (and before my year, no one got any say, it all came from HRC).
My understanding is that this year it changed and Prior Service compete in the OML vs candidates who are new to the Army (please correct me if I'm wrong). For SPC PK, the way the OML worked was the #1 guy picks first and down from there. When the seats run out for a branch, it's closed. IN, MI, AR, EN, and SC were the hot picks my year and all of those seats were gone in the top third or so. AG and FI would probably have been popular too, but we got allotted almost no seats in those (and no seats in AV). The last guy got CM, but that's what he wanted.
In my year, the OML was 75% physical traits (APFT, ruck marches, obstacle course, water survival, 5 mile run, etc) and 25% mental (exams from classes in everything from military history to supply discipline). Personally, I felt this to be ridiculous as being an officer is largely a mental task. I get that physical tenacity is important, but not as important on the officer side as the ability to drink from a fire hose and not drown.
This feeling was reinforced when I got to MI school and had classmates that could not write a grammatically coherent sentence or figure out how PowerPoint works (our main weapon system). The GT 110 bar is probably to low of a mark for MI...not saying any officer job, but MI, which is all about statistics and presentation skills. I would like to see different cut scores that actually relate to the branch in question.
That said, of my "disappointed" friends, most left OCS feeling unhappy with their branch, but almost all fell in, and fit in, and would now say they are thankful they didn't get the branch they thought they wanted so badly. Most people have no real clue what the officer job is like in any given branch. There was a guy I competed with who wanted MI with all of his heart because he thought he would be James Bond - really, he imagined tuxes and cocktail parties. He got FA and I saw him again when I went to BOLC II at Ft. Sill...he was happy as a clam.
A 2LT here expressed that Officers that don't get their pick end up disgruntled for their whole careers. I disagree. Most snap out of it, and those that don't probably would have been just as unhappy in their chosen branch. I have MI officer friends who are CPTs and have never held a single true MI job, so getting your branch of choice is not the magical path to happiness anyway.
P.S. - not a fan of the Officer Corps being referred to as the "Dark Side." Besides, the real Dark Side is the WO mafia. Want your career to start to feel like you are wearing cinder block shoes? Piss off Chief.
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CW2 Joseph Evans
;)
Can't let it go without some good natured rivalry.
And starting a career as an MI LT with a bunch of crotchety MI Warrants probably felt like wearing cinder blocks. Glad to see you survived Maam.
Can't let it go without some good natured rivalry.
And starting a career as an MI LT with a bunch of crotchety MI Warrants probably felt like wearing cinder blocks. Glad to see you survived Maam.
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CPT (Join to see)
No Chief, I caught on quick. I was a hold under for a year at Ft. Huachuca and a SIGINT CW4 took me under his wing. I learned like a sponge and figured out (what it seems like a lot of Soldiers have a hard time figuring out) what a critical role Warrants play, at least in the MI branch. But I have seen others shoot themselves in the foot by missing the mark with their Warrant Officers.
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