What does it mean to be an officer in the Military?

Question

I think it's in every branch. I don't understand what it is. Does it mean you are more specialized in your military career?

Jim, I just want a more detailed definition to the one I currently know.

Answer 1

I'll give you a good answer for this one. Yes, as someone already said, officers must have a four-year degree, but many enlisted men and women have degrees too. The big difference is that an officer is like a manager or a supervisor. While an enlistee has a specialty in an area, i.e electrician, an officer is charged with managing/supervising a large area i.e. electronics.

In a chain of command, the enlisted men and women are the workers. The Chief, Senior Chief or Master Chief Petty Officer is like their boss who oversees them and knows all the inner-workings of his unit in addition to knowledge of electronics - or whatever field - himself. The officer oversees the whole unit and is responsible for reporting all happenings of the unit to the commanding officer. The officer must maintain a broad field and thus must be capable of retaining a lot of information, for as he moves up in rank, the unit under him becomes larger and larger divisions and the more his division covers, the more he must be knowledgeable of and responsible for.

Officers are paid a lot more than enlistee's and outrank them all as well, but an officer who would try to pull rank on an enlistee with many more years experience would just be asking for a career death sentence. They must all work together and respect each other in order to be successful for their respective branch.

Just remember not to necessarily think of officers as 'better' or 'smarter'. It is common for a person to prefer the enlisted career as he/she may be interested in specializing in a specific field, or working with his/her hands.

Officers can be specialists too - enlisted men/women who have been at the top of their games for years with experience, recommendations, awards, etc. may qualify to apply for a position as a Warrant Officer. Warrant Officers outrank all enlisted personnel, but are not technically 'commissioned' like the officers who attended the academies or ROTC programs, OCS, OTS or BOOST.

Answer 2

Basically everything that the guy before me said. In the military you have the enlisted and the officers. The enlisted are those that sign up for the military right out of high school or drop out of college . The enlisted don't have a bachelor's degree or higher, and that's what you need in order to be an officer. The enlisted salute the officer and the officer gets paid more, and does less work. They basically deal with giving reprimands and giving orders to their enlisted men/women who are under their command. The reason they don't do the load of work is because they went to school and majored in that area, so they have knowledge, and with that knowledge they make the enlisted do things right. Being an officer just means they have a bachelor's and because they got an education,they get more pay and less work-since the class room taught them mostly everything about their specific field in an depth type of training. They are more of leaders-they have over 400 people under them, that they have to take care of, discipline-even though some are pieces of shi t. There are three different ways to go about being an officer-OTS (Officer Training School) Servica Academies (West Point; Annapolis -watch the movie-you'll see) or ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps-thats taking a military class hilw in college) -

Answer 3

It's a leadership position which you earn by finishing college and going through an ROTC program, OCS, OCC, or the like.
To be an officer is to command and be responsible for the men under your command. In an infantry unit, a company grade officer would lead the men into combat and share the hardships with them as they carried out their duties. Other roles are different and necessary to prepare an office for higher command.

Being a *good* officer doesn’t just mean you passed through college and got a higher pay grade and the title of “Sir”. Being a good officer is really somewhat intangible because it requires so much of various things. You must take care of those beneath you, under your command and not. You must discipline them when necessary and guide them when they need it. You are basically their father…although you may “put them across your knee” today for something they did, you might have to help the same tomorrow through instruction and guidance.

If you want to get a better explanation, read a book about being an officer or speak to a recruiter in an OSO (Officer Selection Office) office.

Answer 4

for starters in the Navy and Air Force officers are the cannon fodder, the ones who really "pull the triggers" (pilots, ship commanders and the like) in the Marines and Army the individual soldure is the front line combatant. Many of the non combatant rollse in the military are more political in nature than factual. Just read some of theri performance reports and you wil understand. Their degree of authority and responsibility is higher which can cause some ego problems as well. It does necessarily not mean you are more specialized, but once you get out sied the combat units the presumption you are making is a little closer to correct although not always true there. Many officers rotate through a wide variety of positions to give them a wider background to prepare them for higher managerial roles.

Answer 5

No it doesnt mean more specialized, you want more specialized than become a Warrant Officer. Officers are those that have only gotten a degree before entering the military. Sometimes though even with their degree, they act stupid. But they do get more pay and are saluted to.

Answer 6

No. It means you're more generalized. You sign a lot of paperwork.

Answer 7

It means you get paid more and do less work than your enlisted counterpart. And they enlisted guy has to call you Sir and salute you.