How often do Army officers go to schooling? like War College, SAMS, etc.?

Question

How often can they get selected to go Army schools, and the like? They arent branch dependent are they? Also, when going to those school are you literally studying? As in you have an ALMOST normal life but in Uniform? Thanks for any answers.

Answer 1

The career path of an officer is changing as the Army is changing so this is "in general".

An Army office will first go to a Basic Course that is specific to his/her field. That will be part class room and part field exercise. Most days will start with early morning physical training so it is not exactly "normal". This is attended sometime shortly after commissioning.

The next school is generally an Officer Advanced Course. This is probably more classroom but still will have an exercise component. This course is usually attended as a young captain and the current terminology may be Captains Career Course or something like that.

The next course is ILE...something like Intermediate Leader's something or other. It is a reorganization of the old Command and General's Staff College. It is usually attended by majors. There is a warfighter component after ILE. This is mostly academic but not exactly an 8-5 day.

War college comes next and is usually for lieutenant colonels. Getting in war college is highly competitive. This is highly academic.

There are a lot of other courses an officer can take along the way. Most deal with specific skills, such as unit supply, computer systems like the SAMS you mentioned. Some are a little more general like the courses that combine the different fields of logistics. Most of these courses will be classroom oriented. There are other courses still, such as combatives that are physical and don't forget that officers may have the opportunity for Airborne or Air Assualt school. The list of other schools could get really long.