Military guys, am I crazy for wanting to go Enlisted as an E4 over Officer??

burgeon*

 

Couple of things:

1. Have an Army Officer explain the branch selection process. When I did it you select one Combat Arm, one Combat Support and one Combat Service Support as your top three, then you list all the rest in any order. The Army then puts your profile in a giant pile. Then it's much like the NFL draft. The top canidates will probably (but not always) get their first choice. If they don't select you, back to the pile you go. The most desireable branches will be filled by the time you get to round two, so if you don't get your first choice you might get your 7th, 11th, or last.

2. The recruiter is not looking out for you. That's your responsibility. They won't lie to you, but they'll cloak the truth. He / she needs to put a warm body in soldier boots, not officer shoes.

3. You can fast track citizenship with military service. Your recruiter should have explained this to you.

Good luck.

 

burden, or burgeoning burden could work.

 

i am an army officer.

let me put this in perspective for you, given that you asked this question on a motorcycling forum.

on an E-4's salary, you can probably kiss goodbye to most track-related motorcycling events. you "might" be able to get in one trackday per season if you save up.

as an officer, i can afford to attend AT LEAST one weekend of riding (whether it be racing or trackday) every month.

so, while i may be a pencil-pushing desk jockey, i'm doing what i enjoy. during the week i'm in the fight doing military intelligence work, and on the weekends i'm riding.

that help? good luck!

 

If you want to blow shit up just realize that as an officer you get better pay and you get to pick what to blow up and how high you are going to blow it. Plus you don't have to light the match and put it to the fuse. You get to stand behind the Hummer.

 

now that's the way to win the hearts and minds of your men.
pick the coolest shit to blow up,
use the most munitions deemed necessary,
let them light the fuse.
hell, yeah!
:up:

 

I know you mentioned Army, but the only branch that I would halfway recommend your train of thought is in the Marines. They seem to be better about acknowledging moving enlisted to officers and helping them in their ranks in the future. Couple friends graduated college with me, got bored, enlisted a year later. About a year and a half in, Marines send them to OCS and they did great. The friend still in is at Major and has made up his time and is back on track agewise with our other friends that went officer straight out of college. He just got back from Afghanistan and is starting the process for Lt Col.

To give you a time structure, we graduated 1994. He went in about 1995, actually reported around January 1996, IIRC.

 

On one of my SSBN patrols we launched 4 missiles. On the way to the range we auctioned off opportunities to "pull the trigger" during the launch. IIRC each shot drew well over $1000 in the auction. BTW, it actually is a trigger on a pistol grip.

That was an awesome Christmas party with all the cash raised during that patrol. :up:

 

Yea I really haven't given much thought to the Marines. I figured in the Army you have more choices, and I have a couple friends that are Marines and they absolutely hate it and wish they would have gone with the Army.

As of now I don't think I really have a good chance off getting accepted into OCS. I do have a 3.8 GPA but not being a citizen is goin to hold me back and also back in HS I got one of those stupid underage drinking tickets.

Also, I hope you guy won't judge me for this, but back in High School I smoked pot a couple times with friends. I'm not a pot head or anything but I have smoked around 10-15 times or so back in HS. My recruiter is telling me to lie about this and tell them I've never Smoked. I personally feel that if I have to lie to become part of the military, I don't deserve to be there in the first place.

Thoughts??

 

What's strange is my friends were the exact opposite. Most of the ones in Army, specifically Infantry, hated it and got out after one tour. All of my Marine friends that went in absolutely love it. Especially the ones in combat groups.

I wouldn't judge on pot. I honestly don't care about that at all. There are many more things in the world much worse. I'd have to think about the way to answer.

If you are even halfway interested in the Marines possibly, talk to a recruiter on that side and see what they say.

 

Your recruiter is a complete moron.

I remember telling them I never even experimented with drugs. My recruiter knew me fairly well so he assumed that anyway so he just said make sure if I did let them know if I didn't then that's the story to stick with. In basic the guy that asked me(nukes had to go through more silly shit phych stuff) and I told him the same thing. He thought I was bullshitting him. He kept on with the, "sure you didn't experiement blah blah...". I told him no. He rolls his eyes and says to make sure I don't change my story. I just said in a smartassed tone, "the truth should be fairly easy to stick with."

Experimenting wasn't ever a big issue for nukes and should be the same for OCS. If you used on a regular or semi-regular basis then you will likely be screwed.

 

Just so you know, the Navy blows shit up too.

 

I think the consensus has been go in as an officer, there's no question about this -- go in as an officer and make your lifetime career as an officer. I suspect your urgency to "blow" shit up will change in a few years. I was a munitions specialist and my job was to build bombs to blow shit up...it got old real fast!

I spent 4 years enlisted in the Air Force only to see the clear difference between officers and enlisted, the two worlds are vastly different -- it's a true caste system. Imagine walking around base having to stop and salute every officer you see, how would you feel knowing that you have the same qualifications as those officers but yet you don't command that same level of respect.

I have a ton of respect for enlisted men and women because I was one, but given the opportunity to do it again (I was giving that option when I returned to college and asked to join ROTC and return as Air Force officer), I wouldn't pass on being an officer for being enlisted. The two worlds are so damn different. The day to day bullshit enlisted folks put up with versus officers is crazy. I remember being deployed during the first Gulf War and seeing enlisted men stuffed in tent cities, but officers enjoying dorm-styled accomodations.

You have a ton of options, why not go to pilot's training, fly, and blow shit up?

 

For the record, I would not want to be a submarine nuclear officer. Those guys made great money but they definitely earned it. They worked their butts off just like the enlisted guys. They may not have been as dirty and greasy at the end of the day but they were there with us.

Any other job I would want to be in the officer ranks. :up:

One of my biggest regrets after the Navy nuke thing was not taking the Army's offer to become a Warrant Officer in the figther chopper program. I could have blown shit up.

 

+1

I spent 4 1/2 years active duty elisted Air Force, and another 4 years in the enlisted Air National Guard and I can attest to the caste system feel. Maybe it's because the Air Force generally attracts brighter, more ambitious enlisted guys? Maybe it's because AF enlisted guys see the young AF officers as more of their intellectual peers, and so there is a bit of brustling when protocol puts you at the bottom when the only thing differentiating the enlisted guy from the officer is the degree? I don't know...

But, we also had Army barracks on our Base in Germany where I spent most of my time. And I can definitely say that at least those of us enlisted in the AF had better living conditions and were generally treated with more respect than the elisted Army dudes. Most of us AF guys felt bad for the Army guys. They had it rough in comparison.

I know I personally got out and headed straight to college with the notion that I was going back in as an officer when I graduated. That was the big plan, and that's why I joined the guard: to keep my time in service points going so I would start out as an O-1 with X years time in servce.

Marriage and law school changed that notion.

 

You and I have very similar paths. I separated from the Air Force and went directly to college. I was offered a full ride at OU if I went ROTC. Frankly, had the Air Force guaranteed me a plane, I probably would have done it, but the age old phrase "Air Force needs come first" came out of the ROTC's recruiter's mouth and I was done. Graduated from OU and went off to law school, been practicing for about 10 years in Atlanta.

I used to blow shit up...now I'm a lawyer, married, and with a 3 year old -- times truly change.

 

Damn good thing the stuff I worked on didn't blow up.

 

You think my shaved head would worry the racers if I went to Montegi?