Quote: (09-07-2018 01:59 AM)choichoi Wrote:
If you have a Bachelor's degree - DO NOT FUCKING ENLIST. Get COMMISSIONED
This is simply not true for everyone whatsoever. A large portion of my peers had bachelor degrees when they enlisted. If you're doing a job that you are passionate about being an officer can actually prevent you from doing that job. For example, if you want to be a career warfighter, go around the world many, many times and fuck-stomp a lot of bad guys, being an officer is a
horrible plan. A typical officer career path may allow you to see combat for 3 tours. One as an Assistant Officer In Charge (AOIC) of a platoon, the next as an Officer In Charge (OIC) of a platoon, and your final--even now approaching a more administrative role--prolly not going on the mission--Task Unit Commander (2 or more platoons), then you are going to ride a desk the rest of your career. Your days of seeing combat are over unless headquarters gets overran.
A handful of my enlisted coworkers received commissions, but would have had to leave their field to work in another arena and they declined the commissions. In fact, all but one, declined the commission. The one that accepted was really interested in medicine and he went on to become a doctor, then came back to our community to work in our medical departments.
Several guys received commissions in our field and became officers and many of them regretted it as soon as they left the battlefield and moved into headquarters.
Apart from pay, there is no conceivable advantage to being an officer, if your desire is be a career ass-kicker. Officers have mandatory career tracks and blocks they must check in order to advance and if they don't check those blocks, they will not advance. The moment you've checked the combat AOIC, then the OIC blocks, you're usually done and you're off to work in staff positions, aide positions, training, acquisitions, logistics, and eventually post-grad education, then back to staff work.
As an enlisted guy, you could work your entire career (20 years) and never leave the battlefield. If you stick around longer than that and are promoted to the higher enlisted ranks, you're going to start down a path that looks a lot like the commissioned officer's path. But you're doing that as an old man who's probably starting to get broken and beat down after 20 years of combat and, frankly, in the interests of all involved, you're getting too old to be running and gunning and are probably on the brink of becoming a liability, so you go to staff to keep an eye on all the officers. And guess what... You show up to your staff job with quadruple the combat experience (remember all the officers only get a few years tops) of any of the officers. You are highly respected and you weigh in on damn near every decision the officer's make.
"If you join the military NEVER ENLIST! ALWAYS BE AN OFFICER" sounds like someone who has never spent a single day in the military and has no clue about how the military really works.
In this case:
Quote:Quote:
I made my decision and enlisted with a B.A. I did manage to get a deployment in during my 4 years of service (A-Stan) and a GI-Bill with which to pursue another degree here in China, but I sacrificed alot of time. I am now 32. Luckily, I never married and make much more money than I did back home, but I still can't get over that feeling of what might have been had I commissioned when I had the chance.
I'm not busting your balls, just disagreeing with you and offering a perspective from someone with more than 22 years experience in this regard. Much respect for your service. Most people will never have the desire to serve or, they want to serve, but decide not to for a myriad of reasons, or more likely, excuses. 4 years in the military go by in the blink of an eye. In fact, at 4 years (which is exactly in your case) you've likely done one deployment. So, to me, as an NCOIC of your platoon, you're just barely not quite still useless. You've lost that "deer in the headlights" look... You know just enough to get you into more trouble because now you're not the "new guy," and are starting to grow nuts. It won't be until your next combat tour that you'll start to become useful to me and very special. Because, the one-term wonders are all gone--they grabbed their GI Bills and fucked off to college. You're obviously devoted and considering this a career and now it's your turn to start leading men in combat instead of following. You'll notice that in this time-line, all the officers that started with you are now moving to staff, having survived their combat tours, so **poof** they're gone and the brand new officers are coming in to check their combat leadership blocks while they're still young and guess what: they're the guys with the "deer in the headlights" look and you're on your 3rd combat tour, so it's your responsibility to train them, too.
The functions of an NCO:
1. Execute the policy and strategies of your commanding officer
2. Enforce rules and standards
3. Train junior officers
It's actually quite enjoyable and extraordinarily fulfilling. You can easily do this until you reach retirement eligibility, assuming your body holds up and you don't get injured.
Being a commissioned officer is not for everyone and you'll know who those people are when you have to work with them. Even the good ones barely get their feet wet in combat and by the time they're really good at what they do, they're gone of to admin land.
I had this "you have to be an officer to be successful" nonsense drilled into my head. I already had a bachelors degree, but I knew I was healthy and wanted to fight for many years, then figured I'd drop a package for a commission later on, so I enlisted. After my first tour, I knew I
never wanted to be an officer.
Quote: (09-07-2018 09:28 AM)C-Note Wrote:
I was a commissioned desk officer in the US military for 10 years. If I could start over I would have become a warrant officer helicopter pilot in the Army. The pay is almost as good as a commissioned officer, but you don't have to deal with the bullshit competitive politics and brownnosing, at least not as much.
This is very exemplary of what I was saying above: not all commissioned officers are automatically happier than their noncommissioned counterparts. People who've never served think that being a commissioned officer, "you're in charge," so that automatically makes you better. It couldn't be further from the truth. Junior officers can barely wipe their asses when they first arrive at the command. No one respects them just because they are officers--no one. They have to earn it just like everyone else. And the smart junior officers know to keep their mouths shut and pay attention to the more experienced coworkers. That's why they are called
Assistant Officer In Charge, they're not really in charge of jack-shit. The term should be modified to:
Assistant (to the) Officer In Charge because that's what they are. They do the OIC's bitch work while they are being trained by the NCO's. This allows the OIC to focus on Commander's intent, plans and strategies and how to get there from where we are. The amount of bullshit admin work that accompanies that is
insane. That's not even to mention your overall service responsibilities or every day responsibilities, just for being an officer: writing evaluations, writing awards, writing training proposals, writing equipment acquisitions, establishing a budget and staying within it, disciplinary actions, command investigations, endless power point presentations, casualty assistance duties, and the list goes on to infinity.
Enlisted guys just have to focus on being tactically and technically proficient, enforcing the rules and standards, and teaching the junior officers how to be combatants and not just office bitches.
So, no, just "being an officer" is not better. The pay is slightly better, but that's it, and in my opinion, not worth it at all!
The civilian equivalent to what this type of advice implies would be: So, you are a bad-ass auto mechanic. You are the best mechanic you can possibly be. It's all you ever wanted to be and all you think about. Your passion is building hot rods. Every one you build just makes you want to do the next one bigger, better, and badder. You love what you do, so it's like you never have to "go to work." Every day is a blessing and you want to build hot rods until you are physically incapable of doing so.
Then the advice being offered is you should go to business school, get your B.A., and start working at ground zero in a management office of a major car dealership, where every now and then, you get a glimpse of the mechanics in the garage. It's total nonsense.
***The program that C-Note mentions is pretty cool. And again, guess what? It doesn't even require a degree. Nope. Zero college required. You can apply right out of high school and go off and fly helicopters for the Army as a Warrant Officer. You could fly helicopters your entire career, if that's what you desire. The thing is, right out of high school, you are not very competitive with the other military applicants or applicants with higher education, so you'll likely not be selected unless you bring something very special to the table (like you're
already a helicopter pilot and crush the requirements) or there are simply more slots than applicants--still not a guarantee by any stretch and they will let slots go unfilled before lowering the standards. It's called Warrant Officer Flight Training.
I dated an Air Force girl who was not the sharpest tool in the shed at all, but she was an
outstanding and remarkable airman. She applied for this program, barely passed the test minimal requirements by the skin of her teeth, but her record was beyond reproach and she was selected to this program. Never went to college. Never got a degree. Living her lifelong dream. But, now she has to be in the stinking Army, so blech...
