If I join the army as a private. Can I become an officer later on?

Question

I want to enlist now. I will go in as a private. I almost have my bachelors degree. Will I have to re enlist to go to OCS? Can I just go go OCS being a private? or can it not be done?

Answer 1

no, what happens is you get bachelors and sign up for the next OCS class, all people in ocs are either enlisted or warrant officers. Once you graduate OCS you get "honorably Discharged" at the same time Commisioned. My Hubbby went straight from basic to OCS because he had a degree before he joined, but other people do it the way you are going to do it. If you're getting you bach. real soon, I reccoment waiting til you graduate then having your recruiter set you up for back to back like my hubby. He said it was the best way because the first half of OCS is 2 weeks shorter than basic but 2x as hard, so going straight from basic to OCS is good cause you're body is ready to go. GOOD LUCK! contact me if you need more info, I can help.

Answer 2

yep. you'll gain rank -- AND time in service -- which will help that paycheck once you do become an officer. There are 4 main routes... you can go up the enlisted rank and eventaully become a warrent officer, you can go to OCS (officer candidate school) and become an officer, go to an academy (like West Point or VMI, there are others too -- you can't be married or have dependents if you go through an academy) or, you can go through ROTC. All which you must have a degree (OCS) or working towards one (ROTC, west point, vmi, etc) and at the end you become an officer. ROTC is what I would recomend. You get to have a 'normal college life" through the green to gold program, you get a degree, and you become an officer. Good luck... just do a lot of investigating on which route is best for you -- only you can decide that.

Answer 3

it wont happen (but is possible) as a pvt but can happen as an E-3 or E-4. All you need are the credits. All you need to do is submit a 4187 requesting OCS. You may have to create a packet to send with it. You will do better as an officer if you live the enlisted life for a while. You will have a better base of training on stuff like radios for example. I can't count how many officers can't fix their own radio. It's the most basic soldier skill. They don't know how and they look like idiots. Oh, and if you are in garrison, not war, you will push papers as an officer. theres some food for thought for ya.

If you are enlisted first you may have to obligate a certian number of years to the military in order to go OCS. They aren't going to train you to be an officer if you are just going to quit in a year.

Answer 4

I spent five years in the Navy as an enlisted man. Then fifteen more in the National Guard and Reserve. Spent the last five years as an officer.
At that time, you had to be at least an E-5 before you could apply for OCS, but maybe that has changed.
Your best bet might be to join the National Guard and finish your degree.

Answer 5

It is always enlisted men who go to OCS. You can try to get into OCS once you have enlisted. There is no guarantee that you will be accepted.
Since you are close to getting a degree. Contact the Army recruiter and find out if you can finish college while on active duty. Maybe get a commission by going through ROTC.
OCS is the hard way. ROTC the easy way to get a commission.

Answer 6

well lets see the basics if you're goal is to become an officer you can like someone said try joining rotc. you can also join the guard or reserve and I may be wrong but if you have at least 90 credit hours you qualify to join as an officer for the guard at least making a promise that you will finish your degree in x amount of time. though if you have any student loans you can join as enlisted and use the student loan repayment option which will pay a porton of your student loan back for you. Officers dont have that option. aslo depending on how many credits you have will depend on your rank when you join so many credit hours will give you rank bonuses from e-1 to e-4. I would say the very best thing for you to do is sit down with an honest recruiter and get his knowledge and advice. though if I were you I would also want to sit down with an officer recruiter as well.

Answer 7

Depending on the needs of the Army you may be allowed to join OCS from civilian life. Most people are already enlisted when they are accepted. When you go to OCS you are an officer candidate, not a private.

My recommendation is that if you want to do this, please finish your bachelor's degree and try to go straight to OCS, it is not worth the hassle to go to enlisted basic training only to turn around and try to join OCS. Plus they will not let you go to OCS until you have finished your basic training, your MOS and a certain amount of time working in your MOS. The Army is not going to willingly spend money to train you in an MOS only to see you walk away from it to go to OCS.

Answer 8

as soon as you get your degree, you can apply to OCS.. you won't be re enlisting, but you will incur an additional commitment on top of what you have already served.. you do have to serve at least 5 years( I Think, might be six) as an officer.

In the Navy, prior enlisted personnel who attend OCS do so as an E5, or their current paygrade, whichever is higher. they are paid as an E5 until they pin on their Butter Bars, then they get paid as an O1e.

Answer 9

There are Army programs specifically for enlisted men/women who have earned their bachelors and want to get a commission (become officers). This shouldn't be a problem--assuming you are qualified to be accepted into one of the programs.

Answer 10

As soon as you have your degree you can go OCS. I have a friend that went in enlisted and mowed lawns, and retired a full bird commanding a squadron that mowed lawns.