What is it like being a Commissioned Officer?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 03 May 2019 09:29:24 -0400

Throughout my training in Basic and Ait, Ive been told by Sergeants and my Drill Sergeants that being a Commissioned Officer is a great opportunity. But idk what kind of stuff they go through. I know they get paid a lot, but what do y'all do on a daily basic. Is it stressful? is it hard?

Response by LTC Jason Mackay made May 3 at 2019 9:52 AM

LTC Jason Mackay — Fri, 03 May 2019 09:52:15 -0400

SGT Private RallyPoint Member the Commander is responsible for everything the unit (Company and up) does or fails to do, AR600-20 Para 2-1a. You,may want to thumb through AR600-20. As an extension of this throughout the regulation it specifies numerous authorities and responsibilities to maintain including good order and discipline; EO, Ready and Resilient; SHARP; conduct and authority of those in their charge; unit readiness; etc.

The programs they are managing, or should be managing on a routine basis are listed in AR 1-201 Table B-2 but this list is not exhaustive. Planning, deconflicting, coordinating, executing, evaluating, recovering and Conducting AARs from the items Below are what usually took up my day

Discipline / UCMJ
Soldier Issues
Maintenance
Training
Misssion Execution
Managing Organizational Property
Responding to taskings and HHQ staff tasks
Mentorship/Leading subordinates
Battle Rhythm Events
Review and signature of official documents plus associated corrections/research.

Understand being a commissioned officer is not what the commander does, but all commanders are commissioned officers. All other commissioned officers are either staff officers working at battalion and above or Company grade officers supporting a company commander as an extension of his span of control. Platoon Leaders and XOs are leading people and subordinate organizations and securing key enabling support in direct support of their commander's intent. The NCO support channel is doing the same except with respect to ensuring individual soldiers are trained, ready, and performing tasks in support of the unit's mission.

Platoon Leaders and Platoon Sergeants train Squads and Evaluate soldiers
Company Commanders train Platoons and evaluate Squads
Battalion Commanders train Companies and evaluate Platoons.
Brigade Commanders train Battalions and evaluate Companies.

There used to be Army Training Evaluation Program (ARTEP) and External Evaluations that would be conducted along these lines.

If it were easy we'd have league shirts and everyone would do it. They'd call it bowling. Most of us simply try and serve humbly and faithfully. Being a Company Commander is the best job in the Army. If it isn't for the officer, they are in the wrong line of work. Unfortunately over a 20 year career, 18 months will likely be in Company Command and 24 months in Battalion Level command. The rest is Staff and professional schools. I served 22 1/2 years. Was a Company Commander for a total of three years between two companies. I was a Garrison Commander for 24 months. So 5/22 of my career was in "official" command. I served in temporary command for about 12 months between Troop, Company, Battalion, and Brigade command.

Response by LTC Eugene Chu made May 3 at 2019 10:03 AM

LTC Eugene Chu — Fri, 03 May 2019 10:03:22 -0400

It varies per unit. Along with other posts, some of the areas that commissioned officers are responsible for...

UCMJ decisions or recommendations
Property accountability at unit level
Standard Operating Procedures at respective level
Validation / signature for major reports to higher echelons
Approval of administrative actions (i.e. leaves, education, transfer, etc.)

Response by MSG Frank Kapaun made May 3 at 2019 10:52 AM

MSG Frank Kapaun — Fri, 03 May 2019 10:52:50 -0400

Why being a commissioned officer is the bomb! Every day is a holiday and you eat steak every night. Seriously, if you become a commissioned officer, get a really good pillow to sit on for all the meetings you will attend and a briefcase with a spare ass in it. The ass you have will get chewed off on a daily basis.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made May 3 at 2019 1:00 PM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Fri, 03 May 2019 13:00:33 -0400

The one aspect I liked about being an officer was having a lot of different positions in the army.

Response by LCDR Joshua Gillespie made May 3 at 2019 1:24 PM

LCDR Joshua Gillespie — Fri, 03 May 2019 13:24:27 -0400

PVT Nelson-Good questions; hope this helps a bit.

I'd suggest anyone choosing a commissioned career for the money is doing it for the wrong reasons, and will be disappointed. Sure, you get paid more... you find out pretty fast that the more you get paid, the more "Stuff" you tend to acquire...including debt. Bottom line, no one has ever made "enough" money.

How "hard" your career as an officer is depends on a lot. If you're in combat arms, you're not just out doing combat arms stuff... but expected to develop leadership in those areas. If you're in a support MOS, you're "responsible" for a lot of the stuff going on...as opposed to following someone else's directions.

One of the "hardest" parts of the life to master is knowing what you "are" and what you "aren't", and living/acting accordingly. A platoon commander is the "boss", but not "in charge". If things go pear-shaped, YOU will be held accountable... but generally speaking, you'll have very little to actually claim in either success or failure, since your primary role is coordinating the efforts of the subject matter experts in your unit with the "big picture" from higher. The day you pass blame, or take credit, might be the beginning of the end for your career (at least any career you can hope to be proud of).

There are definite "perks"... you'll often have the opportunity to "live better", but there's a VERY fine line between being a "part of the Mess", and taking privileges that will alienate you from those you're supposed to be leading. Most of the "good" JOs I knew never ate or slept before their men. Often, you have to ask people to do hard things... and the higher you get, the more often you may not be directly participating. Still, if your people are cold, hungry, wet, exhausted... and you're warm, full, dry, and happy... you're either a general officer, or doing things wrong.

Around O-3, you'll be tempted to start thinking you "know stuff", and that's dangerous, because that's when you actually do start to be put in real "charge" of stuff. Some people work though it, keep learning, and become great field grade officers... other's end up being real @$$=holes and make everyone miserable.

Retirement is elusive. Politics are deadly. Promotion is a shell game at times, and there are as many "informal" rules, as there are "official" expectations.

Oh, and O's tend to "eat their own"... just saying.

That said, it's one of the best feelings to stand in front of the finest warfighters on the planet and feel a connection to traditions that go back a long, long way.

Best wishes, and good luck!

Response by Maj Wayne Crist made May 3 at 2019 6:32 PM

Maj Wayne Crist — Fri, 03 May 2019 18:32:25 -0400

Good question. Is it rewarding – yes. The money is better than being enlisted but is nothing great compared to what you might make as a civilian. Day to day it is simple. You make decisions for your unit. Those decisions are based on the decisions made up your chain of command. Part of your job is figuring out how to follow those orders so the result is successful and not in conflict with conflicting orders and SOPs from different levels of command who do not care about the conflicts they have created. Not only taking care of your people but making sure they can do their jobs is the priority. Stress - if you consider being the lowest ranked person in a project meeting and having to tell an Army 2 star General (you are from a another service) he can’t build his helicopter pad where he wants stressful then yes it can be very stressful. Bottom line with more responsibility comes more work, more stress and some perks. I have had more than one Senior NCO tell they would not be an officer because they could not put up with what an officer did on a daily basis.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made May 5 at 2019 8:44 PM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 05 May 2019 20:44:05 -0400

I would try to first learn about the Army first. I was enlisted and then became an officer. I don't think you would even understand the answers here. Plus, all of our jobs are different.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made May 16 at 2019 1:39 PM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 16 May 2019 13:39:20 -0400

If I really boiled it down, I would say Officers plan, resource, and asses training and operations, while NCO's execute. Everything you ever do in the army is because an Officer made a decision.
Is it hard? To be successful as an Officer, you have to like being in the Army. Officers need to go "full Hooah." You cannot half ass things as an Officer or your unit will suffer. I love the job, so I don't find it to be hard. However, I know another Officer that has asked to be moved to staff because he finds the job to be too hard.
Is it stressful? sometimes. A lot of the time it feels like you have to juggle tasks to accomplish competing requirements.
To be successful as an officer requires grit, determination, and self sacrifice.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 27 at 2019 4:36 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 16:36:52 -0400

Thanks you for your response, It means alot