Going in to the Service: Questions
 

Hey all,

I'm going to down to Military Entrance and Processing ("MEPs") on Friday, March 19th. I tried to go in back in December, but my bad eye-sight required a waiver from the unit commander, hence the long delay.

I'm most likely going to try and become a officer with the Army National Guard, they have the summer basic training and 1 weekend/month for 16 month Officer Candidate School ("OCS") program, which will allow me to finish up my law degree while working through OCS.

The question I have is this: I originally went in wanting to be in a more combat-intensive MOS, but if I did that I ran the very real risk of not finishing up my law degree, and none of my family members supported that move. On the other hand, my parents and siblings support me becoming an officer.

Now that I'm going to try to become an officer, is there a way to pin down a MOS which is more combat oriented? Or are officers told basically where to go? The reason I ask is because I would rather not sign up and repair vehicles all day.

More importantly, have other people on TFP gone through OCS? What is there to expect? Most important of all, what are some things you have learned that have helped you become a better officer?

Thanks all.

Not me, but my brother went through OCS and ended up in Germany working in supplies. He got out about 10 years ago. Good luck and take care.

No, thank you! :thumbsup:

From what I understand, the higher you finish in your class (academically and militarily), the more choice you have in assignment. The more combat oriented your choice, the faster you move up. The caveat is that you are in the guard, which means you go to the unit that is A) closest to you, and B) has the greatest need for officers to fill billets. Also, in the guard, promotion is somewhat limited at times because you need to wait for an open slot, and the higher you go, the fewer there are. You may be able to jump units, but be prepared to wait for the old fucks to retire. On the other hand, being an officer doesn't require special skills other than leading (you don't have to know how to fire the Howitzer, you just need to manage the guys that do), so it's relatively easy to transfer to a unit that has need. Good luck, and thanks for your service!

this post is highly misinformed. Speaking from my experience with the Marine Corps: The more combat oriented your position, the slower your rate of promotion. Recruiters move up the fastest, while infantryman and others like it move up quite slowly. High ranking officers and enlisted men were often mocked for being lazy enough to be spotted for a promotion. My SDI fought 4tours in Iraq, aced the physical fitness, swimming, and marksmanship tests, is HIGHLY decorated, and is still only a Staff Seargent after 10 years of service. Meanwhile, my recruiter was only ever deployed to the gulf of Mexico and was in administration. He is currently a 7-year Gunny.

Also, being an officer requires that you are able to demonstrate ideal physical fitness. Officers are known for lacking this, but in the Corps, our commanding officers were just as beastly as drill instructors, and made Combat Instructors look nasty.

in the army, combat guys move up a lot faster. some combat guys need only 300+ pts to get promoted to sgt. i'm in the army band and i need 550 pts to hit sgt. a friend of mine is in intelligence and she needs 680 pts to get promoted to sgt. pretty much if you're a recruiter, you get promotion consideration. Army guys rank up a hell of a lot faster than marine guys. i just joined the army and i'll be damned if i'm not a sgt by my third year. high speed guys get it in 2 years


if you want a combat mos, you'll have to be top of the class to get your pick. other than that, you'll get assigned to something. but thats for regular army, i'm not sure about the guard. you'll have to talk to someone from the NG.

Thanks for the tips guys, I've been working out every morning at 5 a.m. to get in to shape. My intelligence is there (hopefully =P), but I need to work on my running. I ship out on June 16th for basic at Ft. Jackson. Hopefully I get a good MOS.

Thanks again for the tips, your input is very much appreciated. Hopefully I can be an officer worthy of respect.

basic is easy man. don't even worry about it.

its easy, but it sucks a ton at the same time. just be where you need to be and in the right uniform and you're set.

i went to ft. jackson for basic also. ft. jackson has a nickname, relaxin' jackson.
it lives up to its name.

Hey, Kir... when you're down at Jackson... can you pick up some stuff from the PX for me?

You need to give me your BCT address, too. No BCT experience is complete without one of my care packages.

If you're joining the national guard, you very much have a lot of say in your branching choice. Reason being is you can find your unit before you commission. They can't branch you something if there are no units of that branch. If you want to be Infantry or Artillery or something like that, find a unit you want to be with and start talking to them now. They have ways to influence your branching if they want you.

I went through active duty OCS and that is way different. When you go through that you're at the mercy of the big army, but national guard you actually have more say.

Choosing a combat branch would not be any different from choosing a support branch in terms of time frame. OCS is OCS and is branch immaterial. Your follow on schooling (now known as BOLC) is what gets you branch qualified.

Best advice I can give you is - listen to your non-commissioned officers. Often times they will set you up for success.

Best of luck. Send me a PM if you have more specific questions. I was 4 years active and now in my second year in the Guard. All as an officer, so hopefully my info helps.

Sure thing bud. Gotta remember to take down your address so I can reach you in basic.

If you want all my old GI Joe shit, you can have it. I don't need ACUs where I'm going. I've got like a dozen uniforms, half used and half brand new.

I'm sure my roomie will be glad to see the mountain of duffelbags go, too. Stop by my place sometime after you get outta basic.

...and sometimes we set you up to get totally punk'd by a E8. :D

/Sergeant

I am a big fan of care packages.

One of my friends (on this board) would send me letters with 'interesting' comments written on the outside of the envelope.

Such as:

"P.S. do you really think your senior drill sergeant is one of the last surviving members of the Village People"

"Your impression of drill sergeant x sounds hilarious, I can't wait to see it"

etc.

It's ok though, I still think I got him far, far worse when he went through.

Hah! Never thought to write on the outside of the care packages.

I usually just include oddball items like XXL granny panties, rubber chickens, etc.

Ah, Fort Jackson in June--heat, humidity, and all the fire ants a person could ever want.

Aaah, Fort Jackson... Army band chicks, Cinnabon, and the easiest BCT allowed by law.

...

Lemme know when you're done, Kir... we can go to that one bar outside Columbia that has "Bare Ass Bologna."

That's right, tossing slices of lunch meat at girls dressed only in thongs and T-shirts for prizes.

whoa whoa whoa..

how have I 1. not heard of this place and 2. never experienced this?

Hey, GI Joe needs a place to play with his own kind.

awww

I deserve something for being a military brat all those years.

You did. Thanks for that, dick.

The story: Slims had a friend that worked in some photography/printing studio. He would dredge the internets for questionable images and have her print them out in the form of a post card. He would then get her to write something on the back that was "provocative" in big girlie handwriting. The kicker was that she would include just enough mundane B.S. in the post card to make it sound legit. Example: He had this exact image printed out in to a post card. (Very NSFW) http://tubgirl.ca/ On the back was written "Stopped by your moms house today. She's doing alright, though is having a problem with aphids in her garden. Hey, remember that time we both ate three extra value meals from Taco Bell, split a bottle of Ex-Lax and had a bathtub party? Thinking of that still turns me on". I still have that post card around here somewhere.

Nah, dude. You know how the Drills roll. If you write "hey, I hear your impression of the Senior Drill is hilarious" on the outside of the envelope...you can be damn sure the Drills are going to call your ass out in front of the company and expect to see it. Of course there was no impression, but anticipating the Drills reaction, I was hoping that Slims would be called out and be forced to make one up on the spot (one of those no-win situations). Slims being Slims flat out refused to play along, despite his Drills insistence. To this day, I'm convinced he took the smoke for refusing his Drills just to deny me a "victory".

Aah. Relaxin jackson. have fun, and don't forget your stress card.

Anyway, officers are usually in pretty good shape, but they're generally clueless and care more for their careers than the men they "lead".

Officers are straight motherfucking garbage.

Good luck, all the same.

Okay, Private.

Point taken, but it's just my experience. I've had three good officers, and the other admittedly small amount (10-20) were pretty poor. Granted, they were mostly second lieutenants, but from what most of my NCOs say, that's pretty much how most of them stay, unless they start out as enlisted.