Thinking of Army OCS

Znath · **Posted:** September 30th, 2011, 4:17 pm

Well some people know this already since I've mentioned it in chat but never extensively.

So the economy's crap and in spite of my efforts, nothing is panning out for me.
I've got my BS in Engineering even and a little bit of graduate coursework.

That's kind of what the problem is. Too educated for a small job, not enough experience for a big one. I told my self a year ago I'd look into the military if nothing worked for me... not that the Army is a 'last resort' but it was in my lineup of ideas from the start.

My ideal goal is to eventually work my way to RDECOM to do research and development for the military. But I'm not exactly sure what the path or work is to get there. Other areas I'm looking at are like Ordnance Maintenance (91A). Ok no big secret, but I'm not thrilled about the idea of combat. And yes I know "all soldiers are technically combatants" but I think my skills would be better served in a technical field.

I've been working out more to try and get ready for when I actually sign up and do the officer packet stuff. I've also been looking up the process and everything so I know what to expect as well as working with a friend in the army of mine who's been helping me figure out what I want to do.

Ninja Nub · **Posted:** September 30th, 2011, 7:48 pm

Have you thought about joining another branch if combat is an issue for you? Navy is pretty cool, sitting around on a boat can take some time to get use to though.

Not sure what kind of engineering you received your bs in.

Znath · **Posted:** September 30th, 2011, 8:21 pm

Well there's plenty if not tons of non-combat roles in all branches, even the Marines (just not as many there) Originally I looked at the Airforce or Navy because my family actually has some history with the old Air Corps but there's a lot of scaling back in the Airforce at the moment where they have too much brass in the ranks.. The Navy was another option, but I'm not sure how well I'd do on a ship for months on end.

RDECOM is on the research side of things. And where I know you can't just go straight into that from OCS, it's something I just need to look on a good path to get there. It's more like something 3+ years down the road. That's why I was looking into Ordnance officer jobs since it deals with the equipment's maintenance and testing which kind of goes hand in hand with research and acquisitions.

The Ordnance Officer jobs I'd like to get into are at the Aberdeen proving grounds. The base has a long history beyond ww2 of being the test site for all kinds of innovations and I'd like to get into that. So my goal is to kind of get familiar with the equipment and so on while working my way up so I can get into R/D. My degree is in Mechanical Engineering and that's where my main expertise is. That's about why I figure my skills would be best served in a branch like that since it matches with things I'm already familiar with.

Archbishop of Banana · **Posted:** October 1st, 2011, 2:33 am

If you want to be an army officer, do 4 years as an enlisted army soldier then go OCS you get paid alot more that way

Znath · **Posted:** October 1st, 2011, 11:48 am

Well.. I'm not sure about that.
After Basic, you get into the OCS which the pay rate jumps to the 'officer candidate' which is the same as a Sergent.
Enlisted service might have worked well for you, but from what I've found, this looks good for me.

Thinking of Army OCS

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