What is life truly like as a Commissioned Officer?

1LT (Join to see) That is great question and there are many on that list that can you a lot of great advice besides myself. I will leave you my perspective being a National Guard and Reserve Commissions Officer. First, and foremost you will have to be competative with other commissioned officers in getting your military education all the way up through the US Army War College. You are going to constantly competing for those schools. You will be competing for Command and key staff positions throughout your 28 years of commissioned service. You have to compete with your civilian occupation on a regular basis to make time for your normal duty, extra duty, and more extra duty. You will have to learn to balance all of this and take care of yourself if you are single and your family if you are married. Pick the branch that you truly love and want to serve in. With prior enlisted service don't forget where you came from and what it was like to be enlisted. Keep that in your bag of tools in your toolbox when you start your relationship with your Platoon Sergeant or Section Sergeant and work way right up to the 1SG and then CSM. Understand what your role is as a Commissioned Officer and what their role is as Non-Commissioned Officers. Stay out of their business and they will stay out of yours. Compliment each other as you grow and build on each other’s strengths as progress through the ranks. Your NCO Corp is the backbone of the military and will make you successful if you fully utilize them the way they want to be utilized. On a personal and Leadership level be true to yourself and the country you serve (integrity and honesty are critical to your success), but what you do when no one is watching is the real test of a great leader. I could go on for about three more paragraphs, but I want to let the rest of these great officers and leaders respond. God Bless you and the best of luck to you as you pursue your calling!

Broad question. As opposed to what? In general, as with anything, it depends where you are and what you are doing. You'll get a lot of platitudes here with this broad of a question. To me being an officer is about duty and service...but that's not hwat you asked. What is life like? I live well...better than many, not as good as some. I have the means to have what I need if not everything I want. Being educated (while not solely an officer's realm) more than average (1 BA and 2 MA's) probably gives me enough of an education to be dangerous to myself, if not to others who don't really care where I got my degrees or what my grades were. My life as a Squadron Commander was much different than my life as a pentagon staff guy. Being an officer is what you make out of it. There are bad ones and good ones. As far as advice, take care of your soldiers and motivate them to be the best. Provide inspiration. Understand why the military exists and instill it in your Soldiers. Understand yourself and refine yourself as necessary to be the best you can be...don't be delusional. If possible, wear a sexy hat and spurs. It helps.

It is everything you think it is and less! OK, many junior enlisted folks during my time used to think what they saw me do was easy, giving orders and walking away not being at every formation, having an office (occasionally) where they thought I used to sit back, put my feet on the desk and siesta for the afternoon. First off you have to have that college degree to become an officer. That's 4 years of time invested in your career and growth before you even put on the uniform. You are expected, like your senior NCOs to set and be the example. That in itself can be demanding. Not that you can't mess up now and then, make a bad decision, fail an APFT, but you have to show everyone how to pick yourself up, get back on the horse and do it again, because you expect nothing less from the SMs under you. Meetings - meetings to plan meetings, meetings to actually do something, meetings to have meetings. it's all about working together as a command and/or staff. You and your fellow officers do the planning, have to be going in the same direction and coordination and meetings are the key to a lot of that. Long days and sleepless nights often a side affect of too many meetings. You still have to meet deadlines, get your work done, write OPORD annexes, contribute to staff meetings, insure your section/platoon/company, etc. are doing their jobs - you know those times when we O's pop our heads into the section shop or actually show up to do PT with you or take the APFT. Additional duties. Sure EMs get picked for police calls and KP (if they still do that) and other menial details but try being the unit MOB officer on top of the company commander or the retention officer or SHARP or maintenance officer or hey your running the urinalysis this drill on top of your assigned primary function. These "additional" duties can sometimes be 2nd full time jobs especially when inspections are coming up. So ya still wanna be an officer huh? Yes sometimes some afternoon eyelid maintenance is in order and sometimes our weekends are cut short because the primary or additional duties call, but it's all part of the job!