I’ve been thinking a lot about the decision to go the officer route, and the more I talk to people, the more it seems like I made the right choice. Oh, there’s still a small part of me that wants the chevrons (and the ACUs), but most of me is thrilled about the butter bars (and the khakis).
[As an unrelated sidenote, I heard they are phasing out the working khakis at OCS, and I'll be wearing the new NWU while I'm there. I don't know how I feel about that uniform yet. I like the idea of camo, but why is it blue? If I fall off a carrier, do I want to blend into the water?]
Yesterday, Chris got his DLPT scores and some people from his class went out to celebrate afterward at some of the fine establishments on Alvarado. At some point in that night, the conversation turned to officers and how enlisted people get screwed over by them a lot of the time. Then, the conversation went to exactly where it always goes: The best officers are the ones who are enlisted first. You could almost see the light bulb over the Marine’s head when he remembered who he was sitting next to: someone who is not and will not ever be enlisted before she becomes an officer. Someone else butted in and said, “No, there are good officers who never enlisted and crappy officers who are prior enlisted,” but the Marine qualified his statement as follows, “Not you. You’ll be fine, because you hang out with enlisted people and you know us and you have him [i.e. the boyfriend] to remind you what it’s like. The problem is the people who come straight out of college and have no experience with the military at all.”
I appreciated that qualification a lot. And I agree with it: the problem isn’t just that some people were never enlisted, it’s that they have never been exposed to the military and aren’t willing to learn how the military functions on both the enlisted and officer side. Don’t get me wrong — I don’t think in any way that my vicarious enlisted military experience is equivalent to actually being enlisted. BUT I do think that it has given me an appreciation for some of the common complaints about officers. Anyone who knows me should know that I would never let the authority go to my head, or assume that I’m better than anyone because I have a commission or that I know more about the military than someone who’s been in for six years.
And that whole “you get more respect if you’ve been enlisted first” business? I think that while it is possible that enlisted people might be more inclined to respect or like a prior-enlisted officer right off the bat, they would (or should) forget about whatever background the officer has and evaluate him on his character and abilities as they become apparent.
A friend who’s a sergeant in the Army told me that she’s sure I will be a great officer and that the military needs officers like me. I shall try my very best to live up to her expectations…
Filed under: Joining the Military Tagged: | Joining the Military
First off, you’re not missing anything by avoiding the ACUs. I still hope we’ll get rid of them within another few years.
We have quite a few officers who are prior enlisted, and it does give them a leg up in some respects. They understand the specific jobs that are being done and all of the places where things can go wrong–and thus where they can help or hinder the process.
(Of course, some prior enlisted officers are pretentious ass clowns who often always felt superior to those around them, and now have the rank to “prove” it.)
As a class of officers, my least favorite are West Pointers. With one notable exception in my admittedly limited experience, they tend to be classic know-it-all snobs with a superiority complex completely unsupported by reality as we know it. That one exception was a fantastic officer who listened to the people who did the job, and then did his damnedest to get them what they needed and keep the other stuff away. He was the best commander I’ve ever worked with. We lost him to the Air Force a few months ago.
ROTC cadets are pretty far down on my list as a class, but again, I knew a very green, just graduated 2LT who joined our unit as we were deploying and was confident, competent, and not afraid to get in a shouting match with senior NCOs to take care of her soldiers–right out of the gate.
Our current battalion commander asked me once why I thought he went officer (he was an E-6 when he was commissioned). I told him that I just assumed he drew the short straw of all of his friends (many of whom are senior NCOs in the battalion still). He said (paraphrasing here) that he was finally fed up with the stupid decisions that came from above, and concluded that the only way to fix things was to be the guy making those decisions. People don’t seek commissions to become lieutenants–they get commissioned to become battalion commanders (or naval captains).
(Conversely, soldiers rarely enlist to become command sergeants major–I personally hoped to maybe make SGT, but here I am at SSG with another 15 to go. As far as I can tell, it’s all downhill after 1SG, though.)
The main advantage that all prior enlisted have is that they are only learning one thing: how to be an officer. They already know how to be a soldier, how the Army works, and how the Army thinks. Non prior service officers (and I include those who enlist, get an MOS, and then immediately go OCS) are learning how to be an officer at the same time they’re learning how to function within the Army’s structure.
Some learn one, but never fully grasp the other. And many learn how, but do it for the wrong reasons.
I think you have little to worry about. The fact that you still agonize a little over the choice suggests that you could excel in either capacity. You have an additional–crucial, in my opinion–advantage in that you’ve actually gone to school, studied things, worked, and lived OUTSIDE of the military. Breadth of experience outside of the military is sorely underrated.
In my immediate chain, my commander and XO are both ROTC children (and both younger than me). They are excellent officers. Their path to becoming an officer may have determined their starting place, but their individual desire to excel and ability to learn and lead are what got them where they are.
Of course, the XO tells me he wishes he’d enlisted sometimes because we seem to have a lot more fun DOING stuff as opposed to RUNNING stuff. No argument here; he won’t be riding turret any time soon. But it doesn’t change the fact that someone competent does need to be running stuff.
You’ll do fine.
Sig
“don’t know how I feel about that uniform yet. I like the idea of camo, but why is it blue? If I fall off a carrier, do I want to blend into the water?” HEHE. i love that. also butter bars sound delicious but thanks to the lil quick reference my heart was broken to find out it is not an edible thing.
<3 mm