Officers Candidate School - General Question

[Parks 788]

Have a question for you Vets or those that know a fair amount about the military. Not specifically the Army but if you have specific intel about this branch then even better. Not sure I'll even ask the question properly, so bear with me/my question.

Can yall educate me about an individual going into Officers Candidate School. What happens after boot camp compared to a kid going into the military as an 18 year old right out of HS? What is your experience or what have you seen these individuals who go through Officers Candidate School do after 4 years in, 10 years in, etc? How do these careers generally differ than a kid joining the military at 18-19 years old.

I can elaborate on why Im asking this if needed. Thanks for any insight into this.

 

[Shadowrider]

I have a nephew that went to OCS.

He went a longer and different path though.

Graduated HS
Got Associates degree at OSU-OKC
Got Bachelors at OU
Plan was to teach and coach in HS (and may end up doing that someday)
Went to PD instead of teaching because better pay
Joined National Guard (for more $$$)
Went to OCS
Graduated and commissioned.
Promoted to Captain in around 2 years (maybe less)
Just assumed command of his unit.

This kid is an academic stud, he just excels in that system. It's funny because he aced the physical and testing on all the PDs he was wanting to get onto, but didn't get selected. He thinks he was failing the psych or polygraph which are really some sort of voodoo mojo like deal. He finally landed a job as a cop at a small town PD, worked that for a couple years, then applied to a much better department up your way and they snatched him up. He applied for SWAT there in under a year and made it. lol

He had to go to Arizona for a tech school of some sort and then to Finland just recently and assumed his NG command as soon as he got back. He's now going to get his Masters on uncle Sugar's dime and some day still wants to teach, but with the trajectory this kid is on, it may be a college professor. He just seems to excel at all of it.

He told my niece about his trip to Finland immediately after getting home from a month away in AZ and she asked him "can you suck, just once? One little time would be nice!" lol

 

[SoonerP226]

FWIW, someone who knows more about this than I do said if you're looking to go in as an officer, talk to the recruiters on a college campus, not the regular recruiters. The on-campus recruiters deal specifically with officer candidates on a regular basis.

 

[GunnyH]

Check with an OSO (officer select officer). A recruiter will try to fill a quota. They’ll tell you that you can go to OCS later, don’t buy it.

 

[John6185]

I was stationed at the Air Force Officers Training School (OTS) for five years. The classes are designed to allow most if not all to pass within 90 days. I've seen some of my friends go through as ex-enlisted and they graduated. I have seen a lot of medically disqualified individuals wash out of OTS. And I've seen an Officer Trainee wash out who was super intelligent and read advanced physics as we would read a newspaper. He just couldn't comprehend military training and he was paid travel back to his hometown and the last anyone saw him, he was hitchhiking out of San Antonio.
I've also seen the sons and daughter of General Officers go through OTS and they were treated the same as any other OT. (Officer Trainee). And that is how they were addressed OT Smith, Jones, etc. They are paid at the grade of an E-5. If an OT washes out, they are -if physically qualified, offered to continue as enlisted E-5 or process for separation. And I have seen these E-5 ex-OT candidates at other bases.
To be accepted for OTS one has to be the age of 21.

 

[Parks 788]

Thanks for all the replies. My son, who's a junior at OSU and an International Business major, is looking into what direction he wants to take his career after graduation. He's debating whether going into the private sector and trying to get in with one of the large govt/military contractors, stay in the private sector or go the military route. What he does know is that while he's an IB major, he's not too keen on sitting behind a desk in an office building 60 hours per week.

He was lucky enough to have a lunch meeting with one of my brothers friends over the Christmas holidays. Said individual is a (for lack of better terms) very high level person in the intelligence community, special forces and a host of other military credentials. Purpose of the meeting was for my son to pick his brain about various career paths he could take after graduation. My son gained a lot of really good advice and was quite surprised with some of what the gentleman said. At the end of the meeting he told my son to never text him on his phone again and sent a link to an "encrypted" app for him to install on his phone and that moving forward all contracts via text would go through this app. My son came away from the meeting super excited but also leaves many other/new questions unanswered for him to figure out about his future. Possibly a direction or path to head down but one that is not familier to him. I know they had contact today and waiting to see what was talked about.

BTW, some of the stories my brother has told me about hsi firend are quite incredible. Nothing top secret or anything but very interesting to say the least.

 

[dennishoddy]

In my day,OCS was for recruits that excelled in leadership skills or NCO’s that also exhibited leadership skills or performances above and beyond. Called 90 day wonders.
A lot were sent to Vietnam to be platoon leaders with short lifespans afterwards.
Entered Officer Corps as a 2nd Lieutenant. West Point graduates entered active duty as a 1st Lieutenant.
Assignments were to be determined by MOS.

 

[Poke78]

In my day,OCS was for recruits that excelled in leadership skills or NCO’s that also exhibited leadership skills or performances above and beyond. Called 90 day wonders.
A lot were sent to Vietnam to be platoon leaders with short lifespans afterwards.
Entered Officer Corps as a 2nd Lieutenant. West Point graduates entered active duty as a 1st Lieutenant.
Assignments were to be determined by MOS.

Very much incorrect on USMA entering as O-2. During VN, promotion to O-2 occurred at 18 months TIS/TIG. My class at Ft. Sill on Officer Basic was 50% USNA graduates on the USMC option. Every one of them were O-1, just like me coming from ROTC.

 

[Fyrtwuck]

Thanks for all the replies. My son, who's a junior at OSU and an International Business major, is looking into what direction he wants to take his career after graduation. He's debating whether going into the private sector and trying to get in with one of the large govt/military contractors, stay in the private sector or go the military route. What he does know is that while he's an IB major, he's not too keen on sitting behind a desk in an office building 60 hours per week.

He was lucky enough to have a lunch meeting with one of my brothers friends over the Christmas holidays. Said individual is a (for lack of better terms) very high level person in the intelligence community, special forces and a host of other military credentials. Purpose of the meeting was for my son to pick his brain about various career paths he could take after graduation. My son gained a lot of really good advice and was quite surprised with some of what the gentleman said. At the end of the meeting he told my son to never text him on his phone again and sent a link to an "encrypted" app for him to install on his phone and that moving forward all contracts via text would go through this app. My son came away from the meeting super excited but also leaves many other/new questions unanswered for him to figure out about his future. Possibly a direction or path to head down but one that is not familier to him. I know they had contact today and waiting to see what was talked about.

BTW, some of the stories my brother has told me about hsi firend are quite incredible. Nothing top secret or anything but very interesting to say the least.

Sounds like a “spook” trying to recruit a new “spook”.

 

[Dumpstick]

One of my brothers is retired Navy. Went in enlisted, graduated SEAL training and got his Trident. Active SEAL for several years, attained E-7. Then went OCS, was a SEAL officer, eventually retired O-3E.

His wife was Navy too, crypto/intelligence. Retired E-7.

They are both happy with their choices. It really depends on if you want leadership roles of not.