Posted on Aug 21, 2022
SPC Infantryman
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Hello,

I have recently been thinking of trying to commission into the Navy. I am 29 years old , and served active duty in the Army (infantry), which I ETSd in 2017. I left AD to attend college. I earned an associates degree in Criminal Law, and I’m working towards my bachelors in the same.

In 2019 I began working full time in law enforcement. I am in pretty good shape, and work out regularly. I have no VA rating from active duty. I have no family, legal, or finical ties to where I am at now. I have a clean background and a 3.6 college GPA.

I am interested in the Navy Intelligence Officer branch. I reached out to a recruiter the other day but I am still waiting a reply. I have a close friend who is AD Navy (enlisted) in the Intel field and he loves it.

I want to return to active duty for a multitude of reasons, mostly for the military lifestyle. I want to be an officer because I want to lead and take on bigger responsibilities.

With all of this being said, is commissioning into the Navy (active duty) achievable? I would be in my early 30s if I could. Has anyone had any experience with officers commissioning in their 30s? Has anyone attended OCS with someone in their 30s?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
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Responses: 12
CAPT Kevin B.
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Doable? Maybe, but the fields are limited. Some cap input prior to 29 years (SWO). Others vary. You can look up possibilities on the Navy officer recruiting site and look at the eligibility requirements and read up on the varied application requirements. All that is skating the short program. The long program is a different story. Never, never, never get in a holding pattern with a generic enlisted recruiter. Your package needs to get in front of an officer accessions type aka a real officer. If you pass the initial filters (50+% won't), then your package goes in front of a reviewing officer who typically does a deep dive interview and makes a judgement if you're worth the investment (60-70% of the prior 50+% won't). You are competing against others. Your degree in criminal justice equals "generic" as you need a LLD etc. for JAG. Many designators have "preferred" degrees so you're already behind others there. Reserve programs have essentially the same process. I was a long term Reviewing Officer, hence was involved heavily involved but obviously dated at this point. And, like everything else, the number of slots in any particular designator varies every year, hence different pucker factors with the competition. BTW, your ENL record will be looked at early and often. Better not be any boogers there.
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SFC Retention Operations Nco
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In Navy OCS, just like Army OCS, you don't get to select your branch after you graduate. You could just as easily be selected to transportation or quartermaster branch as you could for MI.

You could join a Reserve or ARNG unit as an MI officer, the reserve component is manned by filling slots so you find a slot that needs MI and join. Don't expect to join the reserves and come active, it's much more complicated as an officer.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
CPT Lawrence Cable
2 y
Lt Col Jim Coe - But that grouping is not as formal as Army Branch Schools. A Surface Warfare Officer can command a Carrier (or any of the Amphib. Assault Ships). My son (enlisted) holds both a Surface Warfare Pin and an Air Warfare Pin as a result of being assigned to the Essex and Bonhomme Richard and his Master at Arms. The Army doesn't do anything close to being equivalent with Generalist Training that the Navy expects out of the Unrestricted Officers.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
CPT Lawrence Cable
2 y
Lt Col Jim Coe - BTW, I have often thought that it wouldn't be a terrible Idea to rotate young Army Officers through a short tour with the rest of Combat Arms and Combat Support to let them get a feel for what the other units actually do for a living. But fighting a ship is a lot different than fighting a Brigade, the biggest difference is that it's much easier to get replacements on the Ground. If you are on a Ship and Engineering takes a hit and you lose a third of the Department, the only replacements available are on that ship.
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MAJ Ronnie Reams
MAJ Ronnie Reams
2 y
CPT Lawrence Cable - Used to be that RA officers from USMA got detailed to a combat branch for a couple of years before going to their non combat branch. Not sure if they still do that. WACs excluded cause they could not be in combat arms at the time.
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LCDR Robert Luckie
LCDR Robert Luckie
2 y
Lt Col Jim Coe - Believe you are mostly correct. You can be specialized before OCS if you are going into one of the staff corps, designators [2-5]x0x, such as 2100 Medical Corps, or my 3100 Supply Corps or 3105 Supply Corps Reserves. But intelligence officer is 183x, a Restricted Line - Special Duty officer. To the best of my knowledge, these are board selected from one of the Unrestricted line 11xx communities. Not sure there are any shortcuts, and I think 29 is the current max age for a college graduate to get into OCS for Line Officer accession.
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SFC David Reid, M.S, PHR, SHRM-CP, DTM
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You should contact you local Nary Recruitment Division for guidance.
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