Officers Training School

[spiderweb]

Please help me advise a friend:

If you already have a college degree, what would be involved with becoming a comissioned officer in any of the military branches?

 

[ScottM]

Please help me advise a friend:

If you already have a college degree, what would be involved with becoming a comissioned officer in any of the military branches?

You need to visit an officer recruiter, my nephew is one and I could ask him the details that are curretnly being applied. But basically if there is an opening for your field of expertise and you qualify off to OTS you go and end up with a reserve commision at the end. The Air Force does look more for technical people than for liberal arts majors. It will always help if the person applying had some ROTC or prior enlisted service.

Depending on what your degree and speciality is will also determine your rank, some are graduated as 1LT or Capt. We had an MD with a speciality in neurology in my class that pinned on Capt at graduation when the rest of us pinned on 2Lt.

OTS covers basically the same things as enlisted basic training plus extra classes in leadership. Compared to basic it was a snap. I did mine after several years of enlisted service and found the classes to be about the same as NCO Academy. The marching and inspection stuff was the same as I had encountered before so it was nothing new to me but there were people there doing it for the first time and they would strugle with it. Us prior service people were expected to mentor those that needed it.

 

[poadeleted1]

Please help me advise a friend:

If you already have a college degree, what would be involved with becoming a comissioned officer in any of the military branches?

What Scott said, plus - recognize what each branch does and if it what you want to do as a primary job, and if you can get the "job" you want (like pilot or lawyer, or whatever).

Army/Marines - in your face killing and war is highly probable.
Navy - war at sea, provided you have an enemy capable of fighting you there. Its you and the crew against the sea as well as the enemy.
Air Force - Not so in your face, but air warfare requires a lot of ground support.
Coast Guard - sort of the navy, but also charged with port security, lifesaving, etc.

If I had it all to do again...I might think Coast Guard.

 

[TMetzinger]

I did Coast Guard as an enlisted type, recommend it highly. If you want "action", you can get involved in law enforcement/homeland security missions, which is the primary focus and a change from the traditional search and rescue missions. There's also aids to navigation, ice breaking, marine science, and other stuff. The coast guard does NOT have specialist officer corps - we get our docs from the public health service, our chaplains from the navy, and the full time lawyers are usually navy or civilian types.

There is a lot of opportunity for cross training. I went through AF Pararescue Jumper training, did a tour with the DEA down south (which led to my becoming a DEAer later in life), ang got to go through a basic EOD course with some Navy and Marine types - the marines were going to embassies and the sailors were going to minesweepers.

If I had a child wanting to go into the service today I'd point him towards the CG or the Air Force. If he wanted to be a shooter I'd point him towards the marines or the army, with a well planned path to go into special ops.

 

[Witmo]

You need to visit an officer recruiter, my nephew is one and I could ask him the details that are curretnly being applied. But basically if there is an opening for your field of expertise and you qualify off to OTS you go and end up with a reserve commision at the end...

...Depending on what your degree and speciality is will also determine your rank, some are graduated as 1LT or Capt. We had an MD with a speciality in neurology in my class that pinned on Capt at graduation when the rest of us pinned on 2Lt.

I went to OTS and got a reserve commission back in 1980. Augmented to the Regular Air Force after I made Captain. Do they still have Reserve vs. Regular commissions today? Used to be, you were immune to a RIF (reduction in force) as a Regular officer but that went away after Desert Storm. They also had "double dipping" penalties for Regular retired officers that have since been rescinded.

Non-line officers (e.g. lawyers and medical) had their own charm school back in 1980 and didn't go to the same OTS line officers went to. Everybody pinned on 2Lt at my OTS graduation.

 

[spiderweb]

Thank you for the information. I also went to wikipedia to research this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officer_Training_School Any inaccuracies there?

 

[Dave Siciliano]

Hey Ben. Glad to hear your fiend is on this track.

I went to something called OCS (Officer's Candidate School) back in the army. This is were someone went on active duty as an enlisted person, took the course, and graduated an officer and gentlemen according to Congress!

If one went in commissioned, they attended the Officer's Basic Course. Was just a little different in the Army!

May have changed since then, but those were the facts back in the early 70s and I'm sticking to 'em.

Dave

 

[Deuce]

I am currently in the air national guard as an enlisted member. I love it.
I am graduating from college in august of this year and i am hoping to go on to OTS and earn a comission as well, good luck to you!

there are study books you can buy that will help you to prepare for the officers exams for the branch of service you are interested in, it might be worth checking into it

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

It depends on how relatively smart the candidate is, it would appear to me.

I saw one buddy as a newly matriculated freshman in college tell the Navy he wanted in, working on their computers for the Eigis system, so he enlisted. They gave him a set of dress whites and the other uniforms and made him a Luitenant. No training, period.

Six months later, he decided it wasn't such a good idea and it would be better if he wasn't in the Navy, so he told them that and so they honorably discharged him and he's worked for private computer companies doing defense contracts for the USA ever since.

If you remember the Libyan affair when the missiles' courses were being retracked in the air after being launched against our pilots, one missile's track was particularly erratic. They had enough time on their hands that the team was not only deflecting the course but trying to fly it in a circular orbit... but that was a little too much for even those boys and they let it go.