Posted on Apr 13, 2021
WO1 AH-64E Pilot
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Hello, I was hard slotted for ALC this April 2021 but was also selected for WOCS (Flight Warrant Officer). Although I do not have a hard slot for WOCS, I do not want to potentially contradict WOCS due to ALC. Hence, I am requesting to be rescheduled through my chain of command or branch for ALC.
Do you see this imposing consequence on my career?
Does this seem justifiable in consideration of prioritization and maximizing family time?
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Responses: 5
SFC Retention Operations Nco
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You need to wait till you have a WOCS course date prior to asking for a deferment. Having a WOCS course date isn't necessarily a valid reason to delete your ALC date. Depending on how hard it is to get ALC seats for your MOS your branch may leave you on or take you off to make room for others. I have seen plenty of times a Soldier had to attend ALC or SLC right before attending WOCS.

HRC will schedule you for the earliest WOCS they have available for you. It's possible they will conflict and you can get your ALC deleted.
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CW2 Pilot
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Honestly I would go to ALC unless you get a school date for WOCS and it conflicts. True once you become a W1 they fall off your ORB and it just shows as a “2” next to your ribbons but there are still advantages to going as long as the dates don’t conflict. I say this mainly because I had people in my WOCS class and a buddy right now who had to wait for almost a year before getting a course date.

Here are the cons I see:

-you have to attend the course and graduate.

Here are the pros:

-you may learn something there that you can carry with you for your career (I’ve learned things in every course I’ve been to that I can still use at times)
-If you are promotables and need ALC to get promoted then you can get more BAS and BAH until you attend and graduate WOCS since the pay don’t change to W1 until graduation. You will also be grandfathered into E6 BAH until you complete WOCS and then it will go up a bit as a W1.
-If something happens due to injury or I have seen people fail WOCS you will still be an E6 if you attend ALC and get promoted.
-The best part in my opinion is if you are ALC complete and become a Warrant Officer you can still use TA for a Masters should you already have your Bachelor’s degree BUT if you don’t have ALC you have to wait until you are complete with WOAC to use TA for a masters degree. You can still use it as a W1 for a bachelors degree but have to wait for your masters unless you are ALC complete. Plus you may get more credits for completing the course no matter which degree you go for.
-Lastly you can collect that TDY pay for ALC then PCS and get paid again for your move, might as well double dip.

So in my opinion I would go and at least use it as a backup in case of injury or WOCS issues/failure to keep your career backed up for those unforeseen issues we encounter in life. I added an attachment about the college degrees and we were told by someone at the Ed center were grandfathered in for ALC complete as prior enlisted.
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WO1 Technical Instructor
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Simplest way I can put it.
You are selected for WOCS.

Don’t even bother trying to go to ALC, no point; it will have any bearing on your career from this point on.
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WO1 Technical Instructor
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*will have no bearing
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SFC Retention Operations Nco
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He doesn't have any choice whether or not to go to ALC. The Army view is that there is no guarantee the Soldier will graduate WOCS and so must continue with enlisted PME until they are separated
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