Careers in the United States Army

CAREERS IN THE

UNITED STATES ARMY

Institute Research Number 623 ISBN 1-58511-623-8

CAREERS IN THE

UNITED STATES ARMY SO THE TIME HAS COME TO DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO DO WITH THE REST OF

your life. Are you ready to make such a momentous decision? You’d better be, because in a few very short years you will be expected to start taking care of yourself. In the Real World that means having a career, and there’s nothing worse than plodding along a career you didn’t want. The fact that you are taking the time to read this report is a good sign. It means you are taking your future seriously. The fact is you don’t really have to decide what you want to do for the entire rest of your life. Relatively few people hold the same job for decade after decade. You do, however, need to make some big decisions about how you will spend the first few years of your adult life. Go to college? Get a job? See the world? Learn new skills? All of these experiences can set you up for career success. You just need to find the path that’s right for you. Some careers have a universal quality that appeals to people from all backgrounds and walks of life. People who enter these careers may pursue them for a lifetime or for 2

only a few years. Either way, they make an indelible mark that can influence life decisions forever more. The military offers careers that fit this description. The United States Army has offered rewarding careers and life-changing experiences to motivated careerists since 1775. Not many employers can make a claim like that. The active-duty US Army currently counts about 540,000 soldiers. The US Army Reserve has about 190,000 soldiers and the US Army National Guard has 350,000 soldiers. That totals over 1,000,000 people, making the Army the largest American armed service and one of the largest employers in the United States. Not a single one of those soldiers was drafted or forced into the Army unwillingly. They all have different reasons for joining, but they all want to be soldiers. Many of those soldiers will return to civilian life after a hitch or two. Not everybody wants to make the military a lifelong career. In fact, most soldiers leave the Army long before they reach the 20-year mark, the point at which they qualify for a pension. Some sign up to get money for college or to learn skills they can use in civilian life. Others simply want to see if they’re up to the challenge. In survey after survey, however, almost all soldiers say that the opportunity to serve their country was a powerful motivator in making the decision to join. In its recruiting campaigns the Army calls this “serving your country while you serve yourself.” In this report you will find sections on how to get started on your Army career, what kind of education you’ll need, where you may be posted and how much money you can expect to earn at various stages in your career. If you like what you read, keep going! There is no lack of information available on Army careers. You can always go right to the source and talk to a recruiter. Remember, talking to a recruiter does not create an obligation to join the Army. If you want the latest, up-to-the-minute information on Army career opportunities your local recruiting station is the place to go.

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WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW THERE ARE MANY THINGS YOU CAN BE DOING RIGHT NOW TO PREPARE FOR YOUR

career in the Army. The all-volunteer Army has no room for dummies. Modern military hardware and procedures are challenging and complex. Army careers require a good head on your shoulders. In order to succeed you’ll need excellent math and communications skills, and it helps to have an appreciation for history and tradition. The Army is an old and proud institution. It operates in strict accordance to established rules and protocols. You will have to be up to the mental challenge of being an accomplished soldier upholding the high standards of the US military. This is no job for slackers. Physical fitness isn’t that important in most professions. It is very important in the Army. Even if you spend your entire career working from behind a desk, you will be expected to meet very stringent physical fitness requirements. You will have to maintain a weight proportionate to your height. You will have to pass a physical fitness test twice a year. From time to time you will be expected to participate in field exercises and deployments that will require you to live in tents, carry enormous packs and do heavy-duty physical labor. And never forget that no matter what your job you can always be ordered into combat. You will need to be prepared. You can learn more about the Army in any number of ways. You can read Army Times, a weekly newspaper published especially for soldiers. There are thousands of excellent histories delving into the US Army in particular and military history in general. If your high school sponsors a Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, join it, even if it isn’t an Army JROTC program. You will incur no obligation and learn about how the military really works.

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HISTORY OF THE CAREER LIKE THE NAVY AND MARINE CORPS, THE US ARMY IS ACTUALLY OLDER THAN THE

United States. Seeing the Revolutionary War looming on the horizon the Continental Congress, the first American legislature, created the Continental Army on June 14, 1775. This is the Army that General George Washington led to victory against the British, thereby enabling the 13 original colonies to become an independent nation free from colonial interference. The new Congress created after the war disbanded the Continental Army and replaced it with the United States Army on June 14, 1784. The difference is really a technicality. The Continental Army was the creation of a rebel government with no legal standing in the eyes of the rest of the world. The US Army was, and remains, the legally constituted force of a sovereign nation. The Army – and Navy and Marine Corps – were lucky to survive the Revolutionary War, and not due to combat losses inflicted by the British. The biggest threat to their survival was the inherent distrust many Americans had of standing militaries. In Europe, from which most Americans of the time had fled, large, full-time militaries had been used by not-so-benevolent dictators to fight endless wars with neighbors and, more importantly, to control the civilian population. With the Atlantic Ocean separating their country from potential enemies, most Americans saw no need to maintain a standing national armed force. Each state sponsored its own militia, the forerunners of the state-based National Guard. American federal forces after the Revolutionary War dwindled to almost nothing. For a few years, the Navy existed only on paper. The need for a full-time federal force became clear during the War of 1812. Fought against the British to keep them from interfering with American trade, the War of 1812 went so poorly that the British actually managed to invade the new capital of Washington, DC and set it ablaze. Not exactly a shining moment for a US force cobbled together from state militias and the tiny federal Army. Although nobody seriously considered disbanding the Army completely after the War of 1812, it remained a small force composed of a corps of professional officers and enough enlisted men to provide deterrence and maintain vital capabilities. Then as now, the Army could expand in time of need and shrink when the threat passed, but it could not disappear completely. A standing army maintains skills, bases and demand for strategic technologies that become critical in time of war. That said, in the early 19th century, accomplished men 5

were routinely commissioned as officers when needed and decommissioned as soon as they were no longer needed. Uniforms were neither mandatory nor uniform. The Army’s next major undertaking was opening up the West. Known as “Manifest Destiny,” the project to expand the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific was made possible in part by the Army’s commitment to protect settlers, farmlands and cities as Americans moved west. Their main foes were native American Indians who did not want Americans descended from Europe to settle on what they viewed as their land. This period in American history is often represented as brutal and barbaric. Like most of history, however, it is best understood through the eyes of the people who made it, and both sides saw their cause as just. The Civil War of 1861 to 1865 forced the US Army to grow even as it split the institution apart. Officers and enlisted men loyal to the United States of America continued to serve in the US Army, while their counterparts loyal to the Confederate States of America changed their uniforms from blue to grey and formed the Confederate Army. Both sides used mass conscription to draft millions of young men into service. The North won a solid victory, but the Civil War killed more Americans than all other American wars combined. Between the Civil War and World War I the Army fought in several small wars and insurgencies, known today as “military operations other than war,” or MOOTW. Among these actions were the Spanish-American War, the Philippine-American War, the so-called Banana Wars in Latin America and the Boxer Rebellion in China. Although small, these wars forced the Army to develop and incorporate advances in technology and doctrine. World War I began in Europe in 1914. The United States stayed out of the fray until 1917, when German submarine threats to American shipping became impossible to ignore. The Army also delayed entry into the war because it wasn’t ready. The Army was nowhere near strong enough to fight a major war in Europe. Drafting, training and equipping a million or so men took a year. Those men tipped the balance of the war, however, bringing the “War to End All Wars” to a close at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918. That’s 11 o’clock on 11/11 – thought to be where the phrase “the eleventh hour” came from.

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World War II was the Army’s biggest challenge. Once again letting the Europeans fight for a few years before getting involved, the United States entered the war on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on the Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and two years after fighting had begun. In four years the Army, in conjunction with the other services, built up an expeditionary capability unparalleled in human history. American forces fought on fronts in Europe and the Pacific, and suffered no attacks on US soil after Pearl Harbor apart from a bungled Japanese invasion of a tiny Alaskan island. No military in the world has put as much firepower as far from home as the United States. In 1947 the Army Air Corps was spun off into its own service, the United States Air Force. The Army and the rest of the US military settled into the long stretch known as the Cold War. A period of tension between the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its allies, the Cold War never erupted into World War III but did foster numerous proxy wars. The Korean conflict of 1950 to 1953 and the Vietnam conflict of 1964 to 1975 were the most significant for the Army. Although hundreds of thousands of troops fought in both conflicts, neither was a declared war. Fear of turning the Cold War hot forced leaders on both sides to bend their own rules in order to keep small wars small. Neither conflict resulted in a definitive victory for the United States. The invasion of Grenada in 1983 and of Panama in 1989 kept the Army busy until the Gulf conflict of 1991. Led by American forces and troops from 34 allied nations, the Gulf conflict successfully pushed Iraqi forces out of neighboring Kuwait. A stunning success for allied forces, the Gulf conflict was also the last nail in the coffin of the Cold War, as Iraqi forces had been equipped mostly with Soviet weapons and doctrine that proved to be thoroughly outclassed by their Western counterparts. The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 changed the way the Army does its business. Nobody is willing to take on the United States in a conventional war but new and unpredictable enemies have found ways to attack the United States and its interests that don’t have anything to do with massing uniformed troops on a battlefield. Simultaneous conflicts begun in Afghanistan in 2001 and in Iraq in 2003 are anything but conventional. Today’s Army fights what is known as the three-block war, in which soldiers in the first block are engaged in combat, soldiers in the second block are rebuilding what was recently destroyed, and soldiers in the third block 7

are handing out candy to children and trying to build trust with the people whose neighborhood has just been the scene of fighting. This new type of warfare also requires more special forces than ever before. These troops have to meet exceptionally high standards of physical and mental fitness in order to be eligible for special forces training. The Army has evolved considerably over the centuries. It is much easier today for an enlisted soldier to earn a commission and become an officer than ever before. Tuition assistance and the GI Bill make it easy to earn a college degree. Women, who make up almost 15 percent of the Army’s uniformed strength, can now serve in all jobs except those that involve direct combat, and that’s simply a matter of size and strength. In close combat the biggest, strongest soldier tends to prevail and men tend to be bigger and stronger than women. In 2008 the Army promoted the first woman to four-star rank in US military history.

WHERE YOU WILL WORK THE ARMY MAINTAINS APPROXIMATELY 85 MAJOR BASES THROUGHOUT THE

United States and around the world. There are also hundreds of small installations, joint detachments and reserve centers to which soldiers can be posted. If you pursue a career in the Army you will have the opportunity to live in many places, some of which probably never crossed your mind. Like the other services, the Army generally rotates its members every three years or so. This may sound like too much moving around, but after they get used to it most service members cite the opportunity to live in several different places to be one of the most attractive benefits of a military career. Moving around is also the best way to make sure that individual soldiers get the experiences they need to become well-rounded professionals and continue to move up in the organization. The opportunity to live abroad is another attractive feature of Army life. The Army maintains many overseas posts, with large concentrations in Germany, Japan and South Korea. A tour or two overseas is standard in Army life for anybody who stays in for a while. Many soldiers return to their favorite place abroad after they retire.

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You may or may not be able to choose where you will be posted. Strictly speaking, soldiers are sent wherever the Army needs them to be. If, however, the soldier and the Army agree on a posting, such a request can usually be accommodated. The need to cater to spouses with their own careers also complicates matters. All the services are making efforts to better-accommodate spouses and families. The days of “Army wives” without careers are long gone. It has been said that the military recruits individuals but retains families. Of course, you will probably spend some of your career living somewhere nobody wants to live, under conditions nobody would choose to live under. But that’s your job. Soldiers live in foxholes and tents, in snake-infested jungles and wind-swept deserts. That’s the deal you make when you sign up. During especially perilous times it is not unusual for soldiers to move their families to new bases only to deploy to an action zone immediately thereafter. Soldiers can be “based” stateside but hardly ever set foot there because they are constantly rotating into and out of overseas deployments. Sometimes this is exciting. Sometimes it’s difficult. Sometimes it’s heartbreaking, especially for soldiers with children.

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DESCRIPTION OF WORK DUTIES THE ARMY OFFERS LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF CAREER PATHS IN SPECIALTIES ranging

from military-specific jobs like infantry, to more-common jobs like cooking and catering. When the Army travels, which it often does, it has to bring everything along. Every job you’d find in a medium-sized city can be found on the Army’s payroll. That’s why the military has always been a popular option for young people who want to learn skills they can use when they return to the civilian sector. There are three basic divisions within the Army workforce: enlisted soldiers, warrant officers and commissioned officers. Each division has its own entry requirements and its own career path. Most MOSs (miliary occupational specialties) for enlisted soldiers have equivalent WOMOSs for warrant officers and AOCs (areas of concentration) for commissioned officers (unless the MOS doesn’t have any warrant officers, which is fairly common). Which path you take is up to you.

Enlisted Soldiers Enlisted soldiers make up over 80 percent of the personnel in the Army. They are the people who do most of the work and take most of the risks. To join the Army as an enlisted soldier you need to have a high school diploma. Only five percent of new recruits can be high school dropouts, and they have to earn general equivalency degrees while in basic training. This figure has slipped in recent years, with more like 10 percent of new recruits needing to earn GEDs while in basic training. You will also need to have a clean criminal record and receive a specified minimum score on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. More often than not, new recruits can choose their MOS when they enlist and start to lay out a career path right from the beginning. Enlisted soldiers may occupy the lower rungs in the chain of command but they are also the backbone of the Army. Enlisted soldiers are technicians and experts in their fields. High ranking enlisted personnel, known as noncommissioned officers, or NCOs, have managerial and leadership responsibilities similar to those of officers. As a practical matter, very high-ranking NCOs have more day-to-day authority than junior commissioned officers.

Warrant Officers Warrant officers occupy a very specialized niche between enlisted soldiers and commissioned officers. Composing only three percent of Army personnel, warrant officers dedicate their entire careers to 10

becoming technical experts in very specific fields. Warrant officers are commonly put in charge of sophisticated weapons systems, for example, and serve as pilots for the Army’s critical helicopter operations. Most warrant officers move up from the enlisted ranks after a few years in service, although some specialties recruit civilians directly into the warrant officer ranks when they can’t find enough applicants from within the enlisted ranks. Many Army helicopter pilots enter the service via this route; most are already working as helicopter pilots when they join. Warrant officers are due salutes and the other courtesies given to commissioned officers. Because they are such a small part of the Army, warrant officers tend to stick together, sponsoring their own clubs, sports teams and formal functions.

Commissioned Officers Commissioned officers occupy the highest positions in the Army. Composing the top 15 percent of Army personnel, commissioned officers – commonly referred to simply as “officers” – are the Army’s leaders and policymakers. Commissioned officers direct the efforts of warrant officers and enlisted soldiers, establish policy within the service and advise the Army’s civilian leadership. Candidates for a commission have to possess a bachelor’s degree in order to apply, but such a degree may not be enough to be offered a commission. A commission is a standing order from the commander-in-chief to act on his behalf. A modern officer is the equivalent of an ancient knight, a leader chosen by a king and bestowed with the authority to act on his behalf and to enlist the aid of noncommissioned personnel in time of war. Enlisted soldiers and warrant officers report to commissioned officers, while commissioned officers report directly to the President. This is a fundamental legal difference between officers and enlisted personnel. Ultimately, officers bear the burden of responsibility for everything the Army does. Officers may have the greatest authority and get the biggest paychecks but they also have the most complex jobs. The commissioned world is relentlessly political. The officers who reach general rank are generally very determined and ambitious. Many people want to be officers because they want to be in charge. In fact, none of the services actively recruit officer candidates (except for ROTC) because they always get more candidates than they need. That’s perfectly understandable, but being in charge isn’t for everybody. If you want to become an expert at doing a specific job, become an enlisted soldier or a warrant officer. If you want to make policies, build programs and lead organizations, become an officer. 11

Career Paths The Army offers a dizzying array of career paths to interested careerists. For a current list of MOSs, AOCs and WOMOSs go to www.army.mil. Exact job titles change often as technology and the needs of the service evolve. Jobs are grouped under operational branches of the Army, with enlisted career paths coming under Career Management Fields (CMFs) and commissioned officer career paths being designated by their Functional Areas (FAs). The easiest way to keep it all straight is to find operational branches that appeal to you and then delve into the career paths they offer. Not all operational branches have career paths for warrant officers, but all offer opportunities for enlisted soldiers and commissioned officers. Some branches offer dozens of different career paths. The following branches include hundreds of opportunities. The Army’s operational branches include Infantry, Corps of Engineers, Field Artillery, Air Defense Artillery, Aviation, Special Forces, Armor, Signal Corps, Judge Advocate General, Military Police, Military Intelligence, Financial Management, Psychological Operations, Civil Affairs, Space Operations, Adjutant General, Army Band, Public Affairs, Chaplain, Medical Corps, Dental Corps, Veterinary Corps, Medical Specialist Corps, Nurse Corps, Medical Service Corps, Chemical, Transportation, Ordnance and Quartermaster Corps. CMFs specifically reserved for enlisted personnel include Acquisition, Logistics and Technology; Ammunition, Mechanical Maintenance, Recruiting and Retention and Electronic Maintenance and Calibrations. FAs designated only for commissioned officers include Telecommunications Systems Engineering, Information Operations, Strategic Intelligence, Space Operations, United States Military Academy Faculty, Foreign Area Officer, Operations Research and Systems Analysis, Force Management, Research, Development and Acquisition, Nuclear and Counterproliferation, Systems Automation, Simulations Operations, Strategic Plans and Policy, and Logistics.

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ARMY PERSONNEL TELL ABOUT THEIR LIVES AND CAREERS I Am an Infantryman “I am the person most people think of when they think of a soldier. I am an infantryman, the backbone of the Army. I have one of the hardest, most dangerous jobs in the world. I never wanted an ordinary life. When I joined the Army I got what I wanted. I joined the Army right out of high school. I was an average student; maybe a little bored with school, and didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. The part-time jobs I held during summer vacations told me that I wasn’t going to land an interesting career without doing something bold. I wasn’t sure what that was going to be until a job fair at my school. An Army recruiter was there. We talked a bit about what I wanted to do with my life and how the Army could help me to achieve my goals, as hazy as they were. After thinking about it for a few weeks, I signed up. There’s no denying that the first week or so of basic training is terrifying. You have no idea what’s going to happen to you and you are completely powerless to do anything about it. The funny thing is, after a while you get to like it. The Army gets you to do things you never thought you could. It also gets you to do great things as a team, working together with people you’ve only just met. That’s a real eye-opener. You don’t know what teamwork or leadership mean until you’ve been to basic training. I deployed to Iraq about a year after joining. It was scary, sure. I knew the statistics. The Army was losing more troops than any other service. That thought is never far from your mind. But you have a job to do. You do it to the best of your ability. Everybody does. That’s another amazing thing about the Army. Put enough trained soldiers in one place and there’s nothing they can’t do. I survived two tours in Iraq. I had some close calls but I also learned a lot. There’s a lot of pride to be taken in a job well-done. If it was a hard job, there’s more pride.

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A lot of people think I’m crazy for volunteering to take the risks I do. I hear where they’re coming from, but America doesn’t stay safe by magic. Somebody has to step up to do the job. I love the benefits, like the GI Bill, which I’m using to earn a bachelor’s degree, and the VA Loan, which I’ll use to buy a home one of these days. But it’s the feeling of doing good that I like the best. Every day, I get out of bed and make a difference.”

I Am a Civil Affairs Officer “I am on the leading edge of military strategy and I don’t even use a weapon. My job is to convince the people we want to help that we mean what we say and that we will do right by them. That’s a tough sell when you’ve just fought a war in their neighborhood. I got into this line of work after a few years in the private sector as a reporter. I covered the military for a few years and noticed that there is often a huge gap in communication between what the military says and what its audience hears. Our most recent military actions have been directed squarely at hostile governments and groups, and not at hostile societies. The Army often tears up whole neighborhoods going after a few bad guys. Nobody ever said war was pretty or easy to manage. It’s not. I saw Army civil affairs personnel trying valiantly to convince people, the innocent victims of war, that the United States would not only repair the damage done by war but make their neighborhood better than it was before. I believed them. The people they were talking to sometimes did, sometimes didn’t. I thought I could help. I had a bachelor’s degree in journalism and more than five years of professional experience. I applied for a commission and was accepted into Officer Candidate School. It was hard. No doubt about that. I learned afterward that OCS is just the introduction to a way of life that requires more dedication and focus than any civilian job I’d ever had. Soldiers take their jobs very seriously. You will find very little hesitation or indecision around an Army base.

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My job is about making friends. If I do my job well, my colleagues’ jobs get easier. For example, I once bent over backwards to convince the residents of a bombed-out neighborhood that the United States would rebuild for them, and do it quickly. We did, and the US military gained credibility as a result. After that, residents started coming to us with tips about the whereabouts of wanted suspects. They had decided that the United States was a better friend than the criminals in their midst. That is true success. This is a pretty dangerous job. I don’t go directly into combat, but I’m rarely far from it. Sometimes only a few blocks. To make myself less threatening to people I often work without a weapon, or only a small sidearm. Rifles frighten people. I always have a few well-armed soldiers nearby, but I have to be as nonthreatening as possible in order to do my job. People ask me if I really believe in what I do. Yes, absolutely. They are shocked, however, when I go on to tell them I don’t necessarily agree with all of the political decisions behind some recent military actions. What keeps me going is my belief in the inherent goodness of the United States and our earnest desire to make the world a better place. Sometimes we go about it in strange ways. Nobody’s perfect. I just want the world to know that we’re trying our best.”

I Am a Bridge Crew Member “As a bridge crew member, it may sound like I have a straightforward, simple job. The idea is simple, but actually pulling it off is another thing altogether. My crew and I can put a bridge anywhere the Army needs to go. I enlisted in the Army after earning an associate degree. I needed money to finish a bachelor’s degree and I wanted to apply the things I’d learned so far. I majored in math, which is pretty general at the associate’s level. I wanted to go into engineering. Thanks to the GI Bill, I am. When I can find the time to take a class, that is.

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My crew builds bridges. We don’t build the kind of permanent bridges you probably think of when you think of bridges. We build instant bridges to get the Army across rivers, streams, swamps, you name it. Without us, the Army would grind to a halt every time it had to cross a body of water. Tanks, Humvees and armored personnel carriers are very heavy. They can’t be used on some terrain and can’t cross some bridges designed for ordinary commercial traffic. They don’t float, either. They need specialized bridges, and we bring ‘em along. Nobody does engineering like the military. Who else would design a pontoon bridge system that moves on its own, purpose-built vehicles that can span a river in a few hours? There’s no simple way to do what we do. We have to take hundreds of tons of bridge sections everywhere we go and be ready to set them up at any time. Sometimes we have to do it under enemy fire. Our bridges literally unfold in sections. Each section can be floated into place or, under some circumstances, attached to the previous section by a vehicle perched upon it. Each section weighs thousands of pounds and can bear the weight of a column of tanks. This is very practical no-nonsense engineering. Throughout history, armies have been stopped in their tracks by inconvenient topography. It’s no wonder so many of the world’s borders are actually rivers. They’re hard for military forces to cross. You stay on your side and I’ll keep to mine – unless it’s the US Army coming. I take great pride in my job. I couldn’t possibly do it anywhere else. When I decide to get out and pursue a career in engineering I will have a serious advantage over my competitors in the job market.”

I Am a Patriot Systems Technician “As a warrant officer, I am in charge of an advanced battlefield system. That means I am responsible for making sure that the system works properly and that the enlisted soldiers who run it and maintain it are doing their jobs properly. It’s a big job and a little job all at the same time. 16

It’s a big job because my weapon system is the Patriot missile. A very advanced surface-to-air missile system, the Patriot has been evolving since the 1970s and has become a very potent defense against enemy missiles and aircraft. The Patriot’s job is purely defensive. The missile package is small enough to be mounted on a truck, which enables us to take Patriots to wherever they need to be to do their jobs. Once they’re set up and ready to go, enemy missiles and aircraft will have a much harder time making it to their target. It’s a small job because as a team leader I have to attend to all of the little things that make the system go. That means making sure we have a steady supply of the tools we need to keep the missiles functioning, that the truck is ready to roll at a moment’s notice and that the members of the crew are properly fed and housed at all times. I’m in charge of all these things. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get diesel fuel for a truck in the middle of the desert? How about specialized tools? And those concerns are nothing compared to personnel-management issues like processing leave paperwork, conducting counseling sessions or just generally maintaining my bearing as an authority figure. I became a warrant officer after serving as an enlisted soldier. I don’t have a bachelor’s degree but I do have some college, high test scores and a sterling record as a sergeant, which is what matters most. I like being a warrant officer because I still get to be a technical expert, like an enlisted soldier, but I also get to be a leader like a commissioned officer, but without the drudgery that comes with it. I admire commissioned officers. Don’t get me wrong. But they are the policymakers and diplomats. They do a lot more paperwork and a lot more politicking than I could ever do. This in-between position suits me just fine. We’ve sold Patriot systems to countries that regularly come under missile attack, like Israel, and those that live with a daily threat of attack, like South Korea. The Patriot’s record isn’t perfect, but it gets better with each new upgrade. We only sell Patriot systems to our closest friends and allies. A few Patriot batteries strategically placed along a border can render an enemy’s missile systems and aircraft almost useless, and for a fraction of the cost of those missiles and aircraft. That’s a real winner.” 17

I Am an Armor Officer “I drive tanks for a living. Actually, I should say that I get to drive tanks for a living. This is such a cool job that sometimes I can hardly believe that I get paid to do it. I always wanted to join the Army. I’m not sure I’ll go for a 20-year career, but I never doubted that I wanted to spend a few years in uniform, serving my country and having experiences I couldn’t have anywhere else. I joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps my freshman year of college, which was one of the best decisions I ever made. ROTC was the perfect accompaniment to my college career. I majored in business administration and minored in military science. Mostly, my college years were like anybody else’s: fun, educational and filled with experiences most people can relate to. ROTC was like the icing on the cake. It was fun, educational and filled with experiences very few people can relate to. Not many college students spend their weekends rappelling down mountains, jumping out of helicopters or firing hundreds of rounds at a rifle range. I did all those things when I was in college. Got a partial scholarship, too. Hard to beat that. After receiving my commission upon graduation I immediately signed up to become an armor officer. I’ve always been fascinated by armored warfare. Tanks debuted in World War I but were perfected in World War II, when the Americans, British and Germans used them to great effect throughout the European theater. They have been a critical part of ground forces ever since. As a junior armor officer I am in charge of a single tank crew. I have eight enlisted soldiers on my crew: five mechanics and three crew members who are trained to drive the tank and use its weapons. I am responsible for everything. If the tank isn’t properly maintained, it’s my fault. If we can’t hit the broadside of a barn, it’s my fault. If we don’t get the supplies we need when we need them, it’s my fault. I may assign my crew members to do all of these jobs, but if they don’t come through I’m the one who is held responsible. That’s what it means to be an officer. It’s not a power trip. It’s actually very humbling.

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I’ve been deployed all around the world. I’ve trained with other Army units and with the Marine Corps, and I’ve trained with tankers from allied militaries. I’ve also seen combat. Can’t say I like the combat but I can definitely say that I understand the old saying that “You fight like you train.” If you train hard, you fight hard because you are confident that you know what you’re doing. If you slack off in training you won’t be ready when it’s for real. The world is full of armies that spend a ton of money on hardware but almost nothing on training. They wouldn’t last very long against the United States and our allies. I’d recommend the Army to anybody who believes in the mission and wants to have experiences that most people only dream about. Sure, the life can be hard and frustrating at times, but it’s always definitely rewarding. On the most frustrating days I just remind myself that there have been far more movies made about the military than about dentists. Almost everybody craves adventure, and most people are satisfied to get their adventure vicariously through movies and books. That’s okay, but I prefer my adventures up close and personal.”

PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS NOT EVERYBODY IS SUITED TO A CAREER IN THE ARMY. EVEN MANY PEOPLE WHO

would enjoy and benefit from doing a hitch or two are not necessarily suited to stay in the service for the long haul. An Army career requires exceptional dedication, willingness to sacrifice and the patience to live under a unique set of rules. All of the military services stress the need for their members to be dedicated to their careers. This may sound like empty rhetoric but it really isn’t. When you join the military you are signing up to put your life on the line in the service of your country. All service members hope it will never come to that, but the fact remains that as an active-duty member of the armed forces you can be ordered into combat at any time. You probably couldn’t deal with this if you weren’t dedicated to the higher ideals the military is devoted to protecting. Look at it this way. Most of your friends and family members are Americans, and most of them probably live in the United States, right? History has 19

shown, over and over again, that somebody has to stand up to protect their interests. If you join the Army you will become one of those somebodies. You should be proud of yourself, but nobody will ever tell you that it’s easy. One of the reasons the military conducts as many ceremonies as it does is to remind its members of the importance of the job they signed up to do. Maintaining that dedication requires personal sacrifice of the kind few people are willing to make. Nobody ever got rich in the military. You may not like moving around every few years. The lives of your spouse and children will be routinely disrupted. Does anybody actually like living in tents for months at a time? How about eating sand or going for weeks between showers? This can be a very hard job. If you are going to do it well you must be willing to make significant personal sacrifices. There is no separation between your dedication to lofty ideals and your willingness to make sacrifices to attain them. The Army is not a think tank or a debating society. Everybody who wears the uniform walks the walk and talks the talk, even if there is occasional grumbling about it in private. Just as important as dedication and willingness to sacrifice is simple patience. It is said that much of military life is about “hurry up and wait.” Hurry up and wait means that you will spend much of your time preparing for things that won’t happen, won’t happen on time or won’t happen where the Powers That Be said they would happen. The Department of Defense is a very large organization defined by bureaucratic sluggishness on the one hand and the Uniform Code of Military Justice on the other. Neither is particularly efficient. Many military assignments are characterized by long periods of pleasant employment punctuated by occasional bursts of adventure. If adventure is what you want, you’ll get it. But you’ll have to bide your time. Of course, a full-blown war could break out, but that’s not the kind of adventure anybody should be looking forward to.

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ATTRACTIVE FEATURES ABOUT HALF OF THE PEOPLE WHO JOIN THE ARMY PUT IN AT LEAST 20 YEARS, SO

there must be plenty to like about it. In practical terms, the benefits are outstanding. Soldiers get to make history in a way that few others can. And serving your country is unquestionably an honorable way to earn a living. There was a time when most people had only one or two employers during a working lifetime. In the private sector, this is no longer the case. Gone are the days when it was perfectly reasonable to expect a pension after a few decades of devoted service. In the Army, however, it is normal to serve for 20 years and then receive a pension equal to half of your basic pay for the rest of your life. You’ll also get life-long health insurance and access to commissaries and exchanges, military-only supermarkets and department stores with very low prices. While you are in the Army you will get 30 days of paid leave per year, many holidays, and healthcare and housing for yourself and your family. The GI Bill can put you through college and the VA Loan can help you buy a home. With such generous benefits it can be truly said the Army will always take care of its own. For good or evil, the exercise of military power has been one of the prime movers in the history of humankind. Societies rise or fall, trade markets are opened or closed, and ideas take hold or die in tandem with military power. Historically, democracies have been extremely reluctant to start wars. This is because presidents and kings don’t do the killing and dying in wars – regular people do. When regular people are in charge, as they are in a democracy, they tend not to start wars, given the likelihood of injury, death and destruction. If it’s important enough, however, free people will choose to put themselves on the line for a higher cause. As a soldier in the army of the world’s greatest democracy you will serve higher causes from the moment you take the oath of enlistment. You won’t read about them in newspapers or see them on television. You’ll be there, in the arena of history-in-the-making. If you don’t truly believe in the importance of serving your country, don’t join the Army. The idea of service is not just stirring promotional copy for recruiting campaigns, or a comforting justification to inspire you to take great risks. When you finish basic training and get into an operational unit you may be surprised at how genuine the notion of service is among most soldiers. Some recruits think they’ll join just so they can qualify for the benefits and then 21

discover that service is a satisfying benefit in its own right. Until the 1970s all American men were required to serve for a few years – or qualify for a deferment – when they turned 18 or ceased to be full-time students. This was because most Americans believed that spending a few years serving the country was a good and honorable thing to do. There’s no draft any more, but the patriotic motive is still strongly felt.

UNATTRACTIVE FEATURES IT IS NO SECRET THAT THE ARMY AND MARINE CORPS – GROUND FORCES – TAKE

most of the casualties in combat. Navy and Air Force personnel get off relatively easy, staying safe at air bases far behind friendly lines, or on ships at sea. During recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers and Marines did so much of the hard work that the Navy and Air Force started sending their personnel to a special Army training program so they could share some of the burden. These sailors and airmen, known as individual augmentees, took over some duties from their ground-pounding counterparts. Still, while sailors and airmen can easily be trained to guard facilities and do other relatively simple soldier jobs, they cannot take the place of personnel trained from the beginning to go into dangerous neighborhoods and take on bad guys. So while the individual augmentee program has spread out the casualties somewhat, soldiers and Marines are still taking most of the risks. Being a soldier is one of the hardest jobs in the military. Even while you are putting your life on the line you will not always be pleased by the support you will get from your employer, the Department of Defense. The DoD can’t do anything quickly. The process of issuing and awarding contracts to design and build equipment may cost almost as much as the equipment itself. Just keeping up a steady supply of something simple-but-important like bullets, can be a paperwork nightmare. The DoD is so entrenched in bureaucratic red tape that its travel offices actually spend more money on complying with financial rules than they do on travel. The list of inefficiencies and affronts to fiscal responsibility could go on forever. If you become a soldier you will fight with the system, and the system will almost always win.

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Even more frustrating is how your work and life may be viewed by friends, family and even complete strangers. Most Americans support their military. If you travel in uniform when you go on leave, for example, you will find that many people will give you their seats or offer to buy you meals. Some will ask to have their picture taken with you. But there is no shortage of cynical people who think the military is part of the problem, as though your very existence as a soldier inspires people on the other side of the world to foment riots, burn American flags and blame the United States for their own problems. If we just weren’t so powerful, they think, the rest of the world wouldn’t “hate” us so much. That kind of attitude may make your blood boil.

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EDUCATION AND TRAINING FORMAL EDUCATION PLAYS A MUCH LARGER ROLE IN TODAY’S MILITARY THAN AT

any time in the past. A high school education can still get you started, but it won’t get you very far. The Army will provide you with innumerable opportunities for training and advancement after you join, but your best bet is to plan on a combination of education and training inside and outside the Army. For starters, you need to graduate from high school. By law, only five percent of Army recruits in any given year can be high-school dropouts (although that percentage has been known to expand when the Army needs more soldiers). In order to get in, dropouts have to score higher on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB, than high-school graduates, and they have to complete a General Equivalency Diploma while in basic training. If you earn a bachelor’s degree you may qualify for a commission to become an officer. This is the primary distinction within the ranks of the military. Recruits with only high-school educations may enlist in the armed forces, while recruits with at least a bachelor’s degree can apply for a commission. Enlisted personnel become the military’s technical experts while officers become the leaders. Officers, who compose only about 15 percent of the Army, outrank all enlisted personnel. Officers are due salutes and other courtesies that enlisted personnel are not. Officers are paid more than enlisted personnel, but they also shoulder much more responsibility. Don’t assume that a career as an officer is inherently “better” than a career as an enlisted person. This depends entirely upon the nature of the individual. If you want to become a skilled mechanic or expert marksman you should pursue an enlisted career. If you want to manage projects and lead people you should pursue a career as an officer. Many formerly enlisted personnel who earned commissions later in their careers have lived to regret the decision. If you want to be a technical expert, enlist and be proud of your decision. Earning a bachelor’s degree is required in order to apply for a commission, but is not a guarantee of being selected for one. The enlisted ranks of the modern military are filled with personnel with bachelor’s degrees and even master’s degrees who choose to stay enlisted simply because they like their jobs and don’t want to get bogged down in officer duties like personnel management and endless paperwork. 24

There are three ways to earn an active-duty commission: Earn a bachelor’s degree and apply for one after you graduate and attend Officer Candidate School Join the Reserve Officer Training Corps, or ROTC, while you are in college and earn a commission while you are still in school Enter the US Military Academy at West Point and successfully graduate The path to an ROTC commission is explained in the Opportunities section of this report. To get into the academy, commonly known as West Point, after the New York city in which it is located, you will need an outstanding academic record, evidence of leadership potential and excellent physical fitness. You also have to be a US citizen between the ages of 17 and 23, single and without dependents. You will also need a nomination from a member of Congress, a requirement usually granted only after a personal interview. Only about 1,200 students are offered seats at West Point in a given year. Getting into West Point is very competitive. It should be noted that all commissions carry equal weight. All second lieutenants have the same amount of authority after they are sworn in, whether they were commissioned through Officer Candidate School, ROTC or West Point. Whether you enlist or are selected for a commission you will start your Army career with initial accession training. Enlisted recruits complete at least nine weeks of Basic Combat Training, or simply “basic,” before moving on to a secondary course to earn a Military Occupational Specialty designator, or MOS. Basic is where you learn to be a soldier, your MOS is your specific job. Officer candidates attend 14 weeks of Officer Candidate School, or OCS. If they successfully finish the program they are commissioned and sent to the seven-week Basic Officer Leadership Course. After that they earn an AOC, for “area of concentration.” MOS and AOC courses vary in length for enlisted personnel and officers depending upon the subject being studied. Many people who would enjoy and benefit from time in the military are scared away by the need to go through basic training. Depicted in movies and popular lore as a relentless and unforgiving process characterized by constant yelling, modern basic training 25

consists mostly of classroom learning. Yes, you will have to stand at attention and make your bed just right. You will not be hounded to within an inch of your life by a crazed drill sergeant, however. Even the parts of basic that seem silly, like folding the corners of your sheets in a certain way, have been fine-tuned over more than 200 years to drive home the point that orders must be obeyed to the letter every time. If you can’t take an order to make your bed properly why should anybody trust you to take orders with a gun? There is no doubt, however, that physical fitness plays a very large role in basic training. You will have to climb, swim, fight, carry heavy loads and do routine exercises like push-ups. The requirements are challenging, but they are not superhuman. Think of basic training as nine to 14 weeks of school with an unusually intense gym class. Do not let an irrational fear of basic training put you off joining the Army. After you complete your initial accession training and have been in the Army for a while you can explore other opportunities for education and training. The GI Bill can be used to pay for some or all of your college tuition all the way up to a PhD degree. Many MOSs and AOCs come with tuition assistance programs that will pay tuition for civilian academic training without the need to tap into your GI Bill. If you become an officer you can be sure that you will have an opportunity to go to graduate school. In fact, for some AOCs it is required that you earn a master’s degree in order to advance to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In these cases the Army will send you to either a civilian university or to one of the institutions of higher learning operated by the Department of Defense, like the Command and General Staff College, the National Defense University or one of the schools administered by the other services, including the Air College and the Naval War College. No matter how you pursue your Army career you can plan on receiving extensive education and training as you go along. No other organization in the world trains as many adults on a day-to-day basis as the United States Department of Defense. With requirements and technologies changing constantly, keeping the force trained is the department’s highest priority. In fact, unless there is actual shooting going on, training is what the armed forces do the most. If you join the Army you will never be lacking for seminars, courses and briefings designed to make you better at what you do.

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EARNINGS NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE POSTED OR HOW CHALLENGING YOUR JOB, YOU WILL

never lack for money or benefits if you join the Army. In all military services your paycheck is actually composed of several different kinds of compensation. The largest portion of your paycheck is base pay. This is your salary without benefits. Although rates change from year to year, currently a new enlisted soldier in the rank of E-1 is paid $1,400 per month, or $16,800 per year. This may not sound like much, but keep in mind that most E-1s are in basic training where they also get their housing and three meals a day, and have almost no opportunities to spend money. Base pay jumps to $1,569 per month for E-2s and $1,588 for E-3s. Early in your career you will live in government barracks and eat in Army chow halls. All of your basic needs will be provided for, so your smallish paycheck will actually go pretty far. When you rise to E-4 your base pay will jump to $1,921 per month if you’ve been in for at least two years or $2,025 per month if you’ve been in for three years. An E-5 with four years in earns $2,335. After that your base pay will increase every two years all the way up to $5,928 per month for an E-9 with at least 26 years of service. The highest-ranking personnel can, under certain circumstances, serve for as long as 40 years. With a combination of hard work and some luck, you could top out the pay scale at $6,830 per month in base pay for an E-9 with at least 38 years of service. At some point you will probably move off-base and into a house or apartment of your own. When you do you will be entitled to a housing allowance. Housing allowances are calculated based on your rank, location and whether or not you have dependents. The housing allowance for a single E-5 soldier living in a rural area, for example, would be substantially less than the housing allowance for a married E-5 soldier living in an expensive metropolitan area. Housing allowances for some areas, especially overseas, can be as large as or larger than your base pay. Typically, however, a housing allowance will account for about one third of your paycheck. After your base pay and housing allowance there are additional entitlements. The cost of living allowance, or COLA, adds to your base pay when you are assigned to an area with a high cost of living. Hazardous duty pay means some extra money when you deploy to a dangerous area. Your paycheck will be tax-free if you are deployed to 27

an area declared a combat zone by Congress. That can mean a substantial difference. Soldiers who can prove their fluency in certain languages may be eligible for a monthly bonus. The list of ways to boost your paycheck is quite lengthy. All of these bonuses will require hard work on your part. Want to earn an extra $600 per month? Learn Farsi, also known as Persian – the language spoken in Iran. Pay scales for officers are higher than those for enlisted soldiers. Most other allowances are higher too. Base pay for a new officer at O-1 grade starts at $2,655 per month and rises to $3,483 for an O-2 with two years of service. From there the pay scale rises to a maximum of $18,061 per month for an O-10 with at least 38 years of service. Keep in mind, however, that there have only been 210 O-10s in the entire history of the US Army. There are very few four-star generals. The Army also fields about 25,000 warrant officers, an intermediate rank that can usually only be attained after you have served as an enlisted soldier for a few years. Nobody becomes a warrant officer by being promoted. If you want to be a warrant officer you will have to apply for a position. Warrant officers are technical experts typically put in charge of complex battlefield systems. In the chain of command they are above all enlisted personnel but below all commissioned officers. Not all MOSs have warrant career paths. Base pay starts at $3,285 per month for a W-1 with at least six years of service, the least amount of time in service you’re likely to have before becoming eligible to apply for the warrant program. A CW-2, or chief warrant officer two, the next step in the chain, earns $3,704 per month with at least eight years of service. A CW-5 with at least 38 years of service tops out the pay scale at $8,514 per month.

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OPPORTUNITIES YOU CAN GET READY FOR YOUR ARMY CAREER LONG BEFORE IT ACTUALLY STARTS.

The two most direct paths to an Army career are the Reserve Officer Training Corps, or ROTC, and its high-school counterpart the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, or JROTC. You can also take a part-time path into the Army by joining the United States Army Reserve. If your high school hosts a JROTC program, join it. It should be noted that JROTC comes with no obligations. The Army is actually prohibited by law from focusing recruiting efforts on high school students enrolled in JROTC programs. All the services sponsor JROTC programs. If your high school hosts a Navy, Marine Corps or Air Force program you should still join that. You will not be obligated to join one of the other services, but your experience in any JROTC program will serve you well when you join the Army. In simplest terms, JROTC is a class that teaches basic military bearing and skills. It comes with opportunities to participate in Army-sponsored field trips over the summer. JROTC students, known as cadets, typically wear their uniforms to school one day per week. JROTC can be a rewarding experience even if you never join the Army because it offers opportunities you can’t get anywhere else. College-level ROTC comes with a four-year obligation to serve as an officer in the Army. Once you’ve signed the contract, which you’ll do at the beginning of your junior year, ROTC is not optional. On your college record, ROTC counts as a minor in military science. You will attend regular ROTC classes, wear your uniform at least one day per week and spend part of your summer vacation receiving additional training. You will also participate in at least one field exercise every semester, always held on a weekend. Most ROTC cadets receive some kind of scholarship, from a few dollars to a free ride. If you satisfactorily complete the program you will be offered a commission in the Army. You’ll get to skip OCS but will still have to earn an AOC. ROTC is a very popular path to a commission. Some people aspire to be citizen-soldiers and follow a two-track path. Luckily the Army provides a career path for such people. The US Army Reserve requires part-time soldiers to serve a minimum of one weekend per month and two weeks per year. Other than that, Reservists have regular jobs and lead normal lives. Reservists are eligible for the GI Bill and VA Loans, can shop at commissaries and exchanges, and can buy relatively inexpensive health insurance for themselves and their families. To join the Reserve you will still need to go to basic training or OCS. The upshot of being a Reservist is that you can always be called up at a moment’s notice to augment the active-duty Army. 29

GETTING STARTED GETTING STARTED ON YOUR ARMY CAREER AFTER YOU HAVE FINISHED SCHOOL IS

very simple. If you go to the academy or through the ROTC program you will be offered a commission upon graduation. If you did not take either of these routes and want to join straight out of high school or college you need to talk to a recruiter. The only thing you really need to know before talking to a recruiter is that nothing is binding until you sign an enlistment contract. You can make an appointment with a recruiter or just drop by a recruiting office unannounced. Like most marketing representatives, recruiters have monthly goals and will happily give you all the time you need if they think you are serious about joining. As long as you don’t sign anything you are not obligated to join the Army. Recruiters are there to answer your questions, so don’t be afraid to ask them.

You will have to take the ASVAB during the recruiting process. You incur no obligation by taking the test. In fact, you can’t negotiate an MOS until you’ve taken the test because your score will determine what MOSs you qualify for. Typically, you will meet with a recruiter, talk about your goals and areas of expertise, and sketch out a tentative plan for your accession into the Army. If your ASVAB score is high enough for your chosen MOS, and there are billets available, you will negotiate a contract that spells out where and when you will go to basic training and what school you will attend afterward to earn your MOS. After that, you’ll be in the Army. No matter how you go about joining the Army, take pride in your decision. Only about one half of one percent of all Americans serve in the armed forces. The other 99.5 percent of Americans depend upon their compatriots in uniform – their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, sons and daughters – to protect them, their country, their interests and their way of life.

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ASSOCIATIONS PERIODICALS WEBSITES  Afghan National Army

www.mod.gov/af  American Legion

www.legion.org  Army ROTC

www.goarmy.mil/rotc  Army Times

www.armytimes.com  Australian Army

www.army.gov.au  British Army

www.army.mod.uk  China Defence Today

www.sinodefence.com  Defense News

www.defensenews.com  French Army

www.defense.gouv.fr/terre_uk  French Foreign Legion

www.legion-recrute.com/en/  Global Security

www.globalsecurity.org  Israeli Defense Forces

www.dover.idf.il/IDF/English/  Jane’s

www.janes.com  Military.com

www.military.com

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 North Atlantic Treaty Organization

www.nato.int  South African Army

www.dod.mil.za  Swiss Army

www.vbs.admin.ch/internet/vbs/en/home.html  Today’s Military

www.todaysmilitary.com  United Nations

www.un.org  United Nations Security Council

www.un.org/docs/sc  United States Air Force

www.af.mil  United States Army

www.army.mil  United States Army Cadet Command

www.rotc.monroe.army.mil  United States Army National Guard

www.arng.army.mil  United States Army Reserve

www.armyreserve.army.mil  United States Coast Guard

www.uscg.mil  United States Department of Defense

www.defenselink.mil  United States Department of Veterans Affairs

www.va.gov  United States Marine Corps

www.marines.mil

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 United States Navy

www.navy.mil  Veterans of Foreign Wars

www.vfw.org

COPYRIGHT 2009 Institute For Career Research CAREERS INTERNET DATABASE www.careers-internet.org

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