RE: [DL] Question on Army Rank

["Heivilin, Jim" <banzai@missouri.edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Allan Seyberth [mailto:darious@darious.com]
> Subject: Re: [DL] Question on Army Rank
> 
<snip>
> A third option - Officer Candidate School - is available for 
> the enlisted to be raised to the officer ranks.  And IMnsHO 
> if you are in the service, you WANT as many officers in your 
> chain of command to be OCS. 
>
The only officer I ever saw who really should have been drummed out of the
corp was an OCS graduate.  (he was one of those types of enlisted men they
put in a wall locker and pushed out the 2nd floor barracks windows in the
70s in Europe) But then he would have been a total idiot no matter which
path he took to his commission.  

> They tend to know how the military works (at least in the 
> enlisted side), unlike the officers, who may or may not 
> realize that four years of campus life does not give them 
> a strong knowledge of the military life.
>
Depends on what campus you're on.  And whether they had any trainers who
told them to listen to their NCOs. The most useful advice/training I ever
got as an ROTC cadet was from a West Point Artillery Captain who told me to
always shut my mouth and listen to my NCOs before I said anything or made
any decision.  He smoked like a chimney and yet still ran us 19 year olds
into the ground.  

> God help you if you get a West Pointer. :-)
> 
Two of my best buddies are ring knockers.  One of the best leaders I ever
saw was not only a ring knocker but taught at USMA.  OTOH I did see a few of
them who didn't get over it.  Ruined for life basically.  

<snip>
> And, there is an almost aristocratic manner to the officers  
<snip>
> an officer who engages in such behavior will have a very 
> short career.  Or at least one that dead ends at, at best, 
> a mid-grade rank.
> 
From some of the things I've read a poor choice of branches would also lead
to a dead end career.  Not being forced out but being the same rank
seemingly forever.  Mostly because of the number of field units in those
branches.  

Jim