Can anyone explain what this means, "Soldiers also have a high likelyhood of being passed over for officer promotions, which may lead to?

Let’s just saw you do something profoundly stupid as an LT. It results in a GOMAR. And let’s also say you have 2 years commissioned service. You will likely be passed over for promotion and subsequently separated from the Army and only have 16-17 years service.

The likelihood of a SFC screwing up that bad is unimaginable. Don’t worry about it. Go to OCS and kick ass. Also, know this: to retire as an officer, you must have 10 years commissioned service. So, you will have to stay until 24-25 years total service to retire at highest grade held.

It has been law for years under DOPMA. On the officer side, it's up or out. If you fail to select (FOS) for promotion twice, you must separate within a specified timeframe or get approved by a continuation board to hang around for a good 20; if O-4. In normal promotion flow, O-3s go up for the O-4 board at the 10+ year mark. If FOS twice, they must leave AD, typically about 6 months after. They can transfer to the Reserves and continue there. If you continue to FOS, you can apply for pay billets or VTU for points only. You see continuation boards for O-5s because they are typically FOS twice at around the 15 year point. I recall some stuff about if you have a good 18, you're automatically continued for 20. For sure, anyone that doesn't pass the continuation board would be silly to have that all disappear. Do whatever in the Reserves to make a good 20. You don't see anything until age 60, but given the calculations, getting 38% or so of high three isn't something you casually toss. In your case with 14 good years in and automatic promotion to O-2, that equates to 18 years in and automatic continuation. O-3 has around a 95% promote rate, so you're good for around 23-24 years TIS before DOPMA pushes you out. You look good to go as this aspect really won't affect your ability to retire. My only recommendation to anyone is work to retire under your terms, not the Service's.

If you do 10 more years and retire as a senior CPT in todays terms your retirement per month will be 60% X $6435 = $3861. That is a nice chunk of change.

Make sure you invest in TSP to get matching funds, and it lowers your taxable income.