How long do officers stay at a duty station?

Not sure where some are getting their information. Typically an officer serves at his first (CONUS/Germany/Hawaii/Alaska) duty station between 36 and 48 months. It is usually timed with their attendance at their captain's career course. Not unusual to be promoted to O3 at your career course. If your first duty station out of BOLC is Korea, unaccompanied, then you do 12 months in Korea, then PCS to the States. If you can get one, immediately following BOLC, possible Army School like POC, ABN, Air Assault, Ranger, Rigger, Bradley CDR CRS, mortar Platoon Leader Crs, Air Load Planners Crs, Long Range Surveillance Course, etc.


Following the career course, If you go CONUS to CONUS, you can expect 2-3 years at successive assignments. Long tour overseas are 3 years. Korea may be one unaccompanied or longer accompanied. Somewhere in here you will need to get selected for ILE/CGSC. Resident course is 1 year. Your next assignment after will be approximately 24 months, possibly 30-36. You will get to a KD assignment, spend 24 months in it or 12 in one and 12 in another, then you move on to a nominative assignment where you wait out the O5 and BN Command Boards. If selected for both, your PCS will be a rolling moving by way of multiple Army directed Pre Command Courses depending on Command type. Get SOLO if you can. If you have a nominative or statutory assignment you are locked into it for specified periods of time (ACRC is 3 years by law).

Battalion Command is on a stop watch. Exactly 24 months and 59 seconds, you change command and with some exception, you move. Sometimes you end up as a BDE XO/DCO. You usually move to a Army Staff job or similar while awaiting your fate for the O6, Senior Staff College, and BDE Command Boards that are all about the same time. So if your star rises, you get picked up, you go to War College for 1 year followed by BDE Command for 2 years and 59 seconds. After that is anyone's guess. Assignments may be as short as 1 year or as long as 3 really depends if someone is pulling you over to work for them or not.

For comparison, my rough career timing:
- OBC/BOLC 6 months,
- 44 months Fort Irwin. Platoon Leader, Shop Officer, S3 Air, SPO S&S Officer
- career course + CAS3 (look it up!) 7 months
- 13 months, ROK Company Command
- 36 months Ft Carson ACRC (24) and BN S3 (12). Driven off by branch...
- 30-32 months Redstone Arsenal, Company Command (Iraq), 90-120 days as a Plans Officer at USATA.
- 18 months Advanced Civil Schooling promoted to O4 the first week. CFD Board during this time.
- 13 months Naval War College (sister service ILE)
- 22 months KD time (SPO/XO) at Ft Campbell and Afghanistan.
- 35 months nominative job, NATO Staff Officer, Germany and Afghanistan (8 months as a DCHOPS, CJ33, ISAF HQ). O5 list selection about half way through. Notified of O5 level command while deployed. PCC from Germany to Leavenworth. IMCOM deferred their course until your first 90 days of command.
- 24 months and 59 seconds, Garrison Commander Picatinny Arsenal. Did second PCC, Garrison Leader Course, after I took command.
- 30 months-ish DCO 43d/4th SB Fort Carson. Retired from this assignment. I would have PCSed to a needs of the Army job at 24 months if I didn't have an approved retirement.

Too damn long. Most officers wear out their welcome long before they are gone.

I was locked in for 4yrs solid, no its, ands, buts, ways, or maybes...what happens now, or in other svcs, obvioisly may differ, however, that's what happened to me, honest...