Got Delayed a Year and got thinking

[Lundymaphone]

Of Note: I am 19 going to be 20 come application, I have an above 80% average, was in competitive athletics and am in the process of joining the reserves. Also any reference to officer or NCM refers to Infantry of both types. The actual question(s) are in Bold the rest is just to put it in perspective. So if you are an encyclopedia skim down till you hit the Bold paragraph. Also I apologize in advance for the long winded nature of the post, I am not an "internet forum" kinda guy so I was just attempting to be thorough.



Hello again (for the one person who remembers me). I was originally planning an attempt to get into the 2010-2011 ROTP program but got delayed due to an educational issue, not marks it seems the ministry of education does not believe I finished a particular and necessary grade 10 course. So after much ministry fighting I decided simply to (re)do the course (PE is easy after all) and just get it done.

So basically I have a full ca lander year (well 10 months anyway) until I have to start worrying about ROTP and RMC again. I have been sort of reluctant to go the officer route simply due to the fact that school/admin work although my area of strength is no an area that commands my full interest. NCM/NCO work has always had an allure, possibly the whole young blood knows no fear effect. I am intrigued by the prospect of specialization and being called on because of a certain skillset whether it be sniper, pathfinder, recce, JTF2, etc. Although me being colorblind would be an issue for all of those specializations mentioned above, I am only going to be a CV 2 and I assume all three "prefer" CV1's.

But I decided that the long term factors favoured my being an officer. Teachers, recruiters, etc I have always been told that I am a good administrator, leader, strategist and that "A good NCO can save dozens of lives by a good officer can save hundreds." On top of that I will inevitably have a family and due to the constant moving will probably be the primary breadwinner so the extra income is always a plus. And on top of that having that degree/experience may come in useful as with a family I may hang up my boots at captain and not make the CF a career as it is not always the most "family friendly" due to the nature of the constant moving and spousal career issues.

I also feel somewhat "uncomfortable" leading from anywhere but "the front". It is not an obsession with firing guns or going the Rambo route, I simply prefer to do hands on leadership, whether it be in sports or academics (and I assume warfare, although with no experience it is pure conjecture at this point). Basically I want to be able to visually observe and react.

Now here comes my real questions. Is all this just me being 19 and the lack of experience that goes along with that age? Do you think that after say 8-10 years of being a 2ND LT.-Captain I would simply grow tired of direct combat and happily accept major, a position which as far as I can tell is best described as a semi-combat position. Is the workload for a Major 80% Paperwork/politics  20% field/personal work? Also is the fact that I am already considering my retirement after just 5-9 years sort of insulting to the military? I will always value my career rest assured but my future family will come first no doubt.

I am not looking for a new voice in my head, I am far to hard-headed for that, I am simply looking for any input/voice of experience to add to my decision making process.

 

[vonGarvin]

Dude
You're 19 going on 20.  If you make major by 29, good on you.  Anyway, most officer positions involve staff work.  Such as paper work, working the the development of subordinates, etc.  Consider the "typical" officer career in the infantry (post completion of all training)
Platoon Commander for 2 years.  80% of that time (or more) is in garrison, doing office work.  (Remember: Office, Officer.  Office, Officer)
Support platoon or staff position (assistant adjutant, recce pl commander, duty officer, etc) for 1 year.  Pretty well 100% office time
First posting.  Could be anywhere.  Say it's the infantry school as staff.  There is field time, but you're instructing, not commanding.  For 3 years.  Complete a variety of courses as well: OPME, ATOC, AOC as examples.
Second posting back to a unit for 3 years.  LAV Captain, Coy 2IC, etc.  Creeping close to 100% garrison time.  Lots of paperwork
Second "away" posting.  Again, could be anywhere, and again, courses.  OPMEs, Second Language or even AOC as examples.  100% garrison time.
After this, it's up in the air where you'd go, depending on merit, competition with peers, circumstance, luck, etc.

 

[Lundymaphone]

"Dude
You're 19 going on 20.  If you make major by 29, good on you."

Ok I didn't quite articulate that how I wanted, I meant 8-10 years AFTER RMC. I thought that 4 Years as a 2ND/LT and 6 Years as a Captain was somewhat optimistic but not a "good on ya" moment. Then again you know better then I so I may have completely mislead myself.

And I do accept the 80%/20% setup (other then actual deployment I suppose but thats a whole other can of worms) for the LT-Major part of your career.

Thank you though, I actually thought (or maybe wished) that it was about 65% garrison/command duty and 35% staff/instruction duty for those first 10 years. The fact that it is 50/50 is a bit of a turnoff but I suppose you have to put in your due time to get where you want.

 

[TangoTwoBravo]

I also feel somewhat "uncomfortable" leading from anywhere but "the front". It is not an obsession with firing guns or going the Rambo route, I simply prefer to do hands on leadership, whether it be in sports or academics (and I assume warfare, although with no experience it is pure conjecture at this point). Basically I want to be able to visually observe and react.

Now here comes my real questions. Is all this just me being 19 and the lack of experience that goes along with that age? Do you think that after say 8-10 years of being a 2ND LT.-Captain I would simply grow tired of direct combat and happily accept major, a position which as far as I can tell is best described as a semi-combat position. Is the workload for a Major 80% Paperwork/politics  20% field/personal work? Also is the fact that I am already considering my retirement after just 5-9 years sort of insulting to the military? I will always value my career rest assured but my future family will come first no doubt.

I am not looking for a new voice in my head, I am far to hard-headed for that, I am simply looking for any input/voice of experience to add to my decision making process.

I am not Infantry, but I am in the combat arms and work pretty closely with the infantry. If you are an officer in a command role within a battalion and your element is in combat then you can expect to be in combat (not sure what direct and semi-direct combat roles are in your question). Leadership in the combat arms is pretty much hands-on and up-front if it is being done right. Command is a fairly heavy burden and I doubt that you will be bored even if you are not on operations or the field. When you have 109 subordinantes (or any number) there is always something that needs attention, and something doesn't have to be exciting to be important. Having said that some guys do want to do more exotic things and go for it. You might be one of those guys, but you won't get the opportunity to do more exotic stuff unless you do the fundamentals.

As for promotions, it is hard to predict what will be happening in ten years. When I was a Troop Leader (97-99) there seemed to be no promotions to Major and hadn't been for a while. Many really good guys got hurt by the timing. Two years later lots of guys got promoted to Major, and it has been pretty steady ever since. I still spent nine years as a Captain and the fast guys in my branch were spending eight (one might have been seven). As an aside, would you happily accept a career as a Captain?

T2B

 

[CallOfDuty]

  You seem like an intelligent guy, but man you're only 19.  While it's nice to think about the future....I would say you're looking wayyyy too deep into it.
    Just join the army. No big deal. People change jobs/careers ALL THE TIME.  It's the norm these days.  If you don't like it, you can do something else.
  Stop overthinking it.

 

[Lundymaphone]

Ok fair enough guys. And no I would not be upset with a career spent largely as a Captain. And thank you to all that took the time to post. And what the hell, thank you to those that read it the topic but did not post, your all right.