How do I choose an Army Branch?: A Framework

The purpose of this article is to address one of the biggest Rally Point questions among Army ROTC Cadets: I am a <Blank> with a major in <Blank>, which branch should I choose? One of my goals is to help you filter through what you will get back. After all, don’t we all turn to the nameless, faceless internet trolls to determine our future? The immediate challenge is that the people responding are well intentioned but generally don’t know you from Adam. Second, it is hard to bound that question and people default to personal or vicarious experience as it applies to them….not you. Generally, it is easier to provide targeted feedback of some sort of choice, as an example, “I am trying to decide between Armor and Aviation” which is pretty definitive or “I am trying to decide between logistics branches” which stubs it to three hard choices and one ‘sometimes Y’ choice with Medical Service Corps. The responses will be a mile wide and a mile deep. Some will provide you eye-wateringly brilliant insight from 1982. Others will try and map out an entire career of things like they did it, or wish they had done it. Proceed at your own risk. The goal of this article is to provide you with a framework to help you make a decision; it is yours and yours alone to make. It is really important for you to understand what you can influence, what you can’t influence, and things that really are irrelevant to the whole branching process. The attached photo represents the situation as I understand it.

Disclaimer: This article was written in Summer 2018 with the best known information at that time. Accessions change with needs of the Total Army. Most of the concepts are pretty consistent with my own accessions process in 1993 all the way through to what is used now. Part of the reason this article is written the way it is written is due to my discovery and surprise to the regimentation of the contemporary Order of Merit List (OML) vice the OML I experienced which seemed opaque and subjective.

STUFF TO WORRY ABOUT

Know the process: It is critical you understand the formal process and the tools the Army will use to make that ultimate decision. Wait? Jay did you just say ‘the Army” will use. Yes. The Army makes this decision of which you provide input, via Branch and Assignment Preferences and indirectly by your performance in the commissioning program. Speaking from the ROTC perspective, a cadet returns from Advanced Camp and will complete the list their branch and assignment preferences. This is structured where you ultimately produce a 1-n list of preferences which must include some combination of combat, maneuver support, and sustainment branches in certain places. This has varied over time and your commissioning source cadre are the best source of feedback on this. I looked at USACC Circular 601-19-1 that has 2018 guidance, you end up on an OML and there is a USACC branching process then a DA model they follow to pick you based on their number of lieutenants they are authorized that year. There is also the component decision based on what you had already committed to or not (such as a Guaranteed Reserve Forces Duty contract or a letter of acceptance from a ARNG unit) . Reserve components work this differently as they have a more finite set of slots and geography to consider. What you need to take from this is be the best, authentic ‘you’ you can be. It has to be ‘you’, because if you are faking a version of you, they’ll figure it out at your first unit.

Considerations: You can influence the Order of Merit List (OML) factors in Circular 601-19-1 Appendix D ROTC Order of Merit Model (APFT etc), Appendix E Cadet Evaluation, Appendix G Grade Point Average, DA Photo Fat Check (this is on you), and ultimately your interests and your perception of branches (what is good and what is bad). Considerations you need to be aware of but can’t control: Needs of the Army. Other considerations that are a little fuzzy: Life After the Army, You wanting to deploy, Cool Guy Schools, and Right of the Boom decisions. Some of these considerations are obvious. I will hit on a few that are not. FIGURE D-1 in USACC Circular 601-19-1 is a snapshot of the OML variables.

Academic Major and your Interests: There is not a 1:1 alignment with Army Branches….even Finance. Corporate Finance is about acquiring capital to fund projects and ventures. The Army gets an appropriation. Finance officers are more accounting than finance. MP Officers and Criminal Justice, is probably a close fit. Your two best bets:

1. BASELINE YOUR UNDERSTANDING: Read DA PAM 600-3 and the corresponding branch specifics (https://www.milsuite.mil/book/groups/smartbook-DA-PAM-600-3 which were recently pulled out of the DA PAM 600-3 and placed behind a CAC-enabled wall) and identify branches that align with your major and/or interests. Majors sometimes don’t matter at all. I saw English majors as Ordnance Officers or Economics majors as Engineer Officers. I was a Civil Engineering Major on an Army ROTC Science and Engineering Scholarship with my number one choice of Engineer Branch and was branched Ordnance. We were successful on our own merits, but you just can’t tell.

2. RESEARCH: Do some cursory research on the branch, on your own. Develop some good questions.

3.TALK TO OTHER CARBON UNITS: Talk to officers in that branch. Rally Point and even AKO has made that easier than it ever has been. Not everything is a webpage.

4.TAB: There is also the CAC-accessed Talent Assessment Battery (TAB) to help you explore branches with respect to you. If nothing else, call that branch manager at HRC and see if they recommend someone as a good example to talk to (they are way too busy to do it personally, but you never know). Your branch may also vary across the Army, this distinction used to be Heavy (i.e. 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment) vs Light (i.e.3rd BCT 101st Airborne Division). An Armor Officer in a light RSTA Squadron applies his/her skills and attributes differently than a Tank Platoon Leader in a Combined Arms Battalion. Individual experience may vary…An Ordnance officer in an Ammo Company uses different skills and knowledge than one in a Field Maintenance Company. An Infantry Officer in an Airborne unit works differently than in a mechanized unit.

5. MAKE A LIST: Make a list in the beginning and use it through out your decision making. Would recommend making a tool in MS Excel that lists all the branches in Column B, make Column A your priority for the branch. Column C should be positive things that attract you to that branch. Column D should be negative things about that branch. If you see the same negative things pop in each branch or most of the branches, drop it. That is a personal bias and doesn’t really apply to the branch itself. Use the sorting function so it turns over your choices as you learn more. On a separate piece of paper write your personal/professional goals, hand written. Don’t go all Stephen King and write a novel. Consider these as you prioritize branches. Get yourself oriented on your top three to five choices, particularly if you elect to branch detail.

Needs of the Army: This is the single largest determinant, in case you had not gleaned that already. Where possible, they will try and align an officer with the branch they desire. In my day it was described in terms like this: “90% of those accessed were branched within one of their top 10 choices”. That was out of 16 choices folks. This was considered successful. From reviewing the current process, it appears the USACC model and the DA branch model are less capricious. But like in any merit based system, there are those on top, and those that are not. Someone, somewhere will get their feelings hurt.

ON THE LINE

These aspects of the decision rest on the line between ‘stuff to worry about’ and ‘red herrings’ you need not become bogged down in.

Life After the Army: In some ways the Army is like Highlander, there can only be one. So the last man standing from his year group is the Chief of Staff of the Army. Everyone else will eventually be chaptered out. It’s up to you whether it is a good chapter or a bad chapter. So that means that you will need to consider what you will do after the Army, whether that is your Active Duty Service Obligation (ADSO) or retirement. Understand this, you still need to “Army” for about 6-8 years and that is why I determined this consideration fuzzy. It is a balance and it should not define you. Aligning a branch to a specific career or job is nebulous as well. This is best taken care of once you identify a field and what the industry requirements are. This is almost an over the horizon decision (addressed later).

Deployment: Choosing a branch because you are more likely to deploy is Hooah, but trying to game that is hard. Obviously the Army needs you to play away games. Consider my career, we weren’t at war for about a decade on the heels of Desert Storm. Korea and Bosnia were considered tip of the spear. Then 9/11 hit and it was on. Expect that if there is a combat mission, there’ll be plenty for everyone.

Cool Guy Schools: Attending pre-commissioning schools like Ranger, Airborne, Sapper, etc will not lock you into a branch, but could be a deal sweetener if that aligns like Sapper and Engineer Branch and you pick Engineer Branch. With otherwise good personal stats, your likelihood of getting Engineer branch is higher. It is a small factor but shows your commitment to the profession. In the near term it will positively impact your OML standing.

Right of the Boom Decisions: Several career decisions lay ahead of you - AFTER you are commissioned and which branch you are isn’t as important. The largest two that get you another bite at the apple are functional area designation (FAD) and non-accessions branches. FAD can open a whole new world to an officer. The Faustian bargain is that the majority of FADs take you out of a command track at BN and BDE levels. The spectrum is too wide to discuss meaningfully here. Look at DA PAM 600-3 and talk to an officer in the FAD/Branch for those too. The Army has also adjusted when they look at you for FAD and you get an opportunity earlier. Others include: specialized education, training, and certification that carry a utilization tour; Fully Funded Legal Education Program (FLEP); Medical School/ Physician’s Assistant (PA) Program; personally pursued education and life decisions; and the red herring of Branch Transfers.

Branch Transfers: While technically possible, they are not probable. There is a window after accessions. USACC has a process. The next window is three years into Active Duty. There are a very limited number of opportunities for the Army to facilitate branch transfers for accessions. Three years in, the losing branch must want to release you and the gaining branch has to accept you.

RED HERRINGS AND OTHER DISTRACTORS

Beware of the Red Herrings. Don’t get over invested in things that you can’t control or that don’t matter in this process. Red Herrings include: gaming the dream sheet, enlisted MOS, college attended, specific unit/duty station, promotion potential, ‘this branch doesn’t deploy’, and over the horizon decisions.

Gaming the Dream Sheet: Your branch preference sheet is your last enduring thumb print you leave on the process before the Sorting Hat decides to send you to Hufflepuff. Reverse psychology doesn’t work. If you want Aviation, put it first. If you put it last, then I hope you like one of the 15 branches in front of it. The only strategy is to list your most desired to least desired. Some would say that you could use a branch choice to fill a spot to NOT choose another branch. This is a slippery slope. You essentially waste a vote in doing so, especially if you are not qualified for that branch (like Aviation if you failed a flight physical). It may end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy in getting a branch you did not want. Don’t leave it to chance.
Prior enlisted branch: With the exception of reserve component commissions, this doesn’t matter. If you were enlisted in a unit, in a certain branch and did SMP and then got a letter of acceptance from that unit, then sure, you would end up that branch. Active Duty doesn’t work that way. Stud Medic? Congratulations, you’re now MI. You were a medic too? Congratulations welcome to OD Maintenance. You were an MI Interrogator? Congratulations, you are now ADA. All of those are actual examples. I have also seen the Mechanic that becomes an OD officer. It’s not a lock either way.

College Attended: Simply put, doesn’t matter. Purdue or Wilson Pickett State Teacher’s College, you are all Lieutenants.

Specific Unit and or Duty Station: If I pick Finance, then I will get 230th FMSU at Ft Carson. Don’t bet on it. Certainly some branches will be where there are units with those slots. 230th is indeed one of a few FMSUs, but there are other Sustainment Brigades you could be assigned to as well as all the other FI LT slots out there. As a Lieutenant, you can’t game it beyond a range of possibilities. I tried this approach and it worked, sort of. Assuming I would be branched EN, I wanted to be on the west coast. Well they closed Ft Ord. The Army being quick on the draw assigned me to Fort Irwin, CA. West Coast, check. Active Duty, Check. Ordnance was in your top six. Army’s Position: man we gave you everything you wanted, what are you complaining about? Be prepared for whatever comes up on the wheel. Grow where you are planted. Remember that your initial duty station is just that. If you don’t like it you get another shot every two to three years. Short overseas tours are a year.

Promotion Potential: You can certainly look at the year on year promotion rates. Understand that there are MANY variables driving it besides just branch. DO NOT pick a branch because you think you are more likely to become a General Officer. Scenario: I’ll pick Infantry, most of the CSAs were Infantry. Well so were many officers in their respective year groups, vastly more than the lone CSA. What if you are not a good infantry officer? Then what? Pick the branch you think you will do well in and that you might get satisfaction from. You will have to spend nearly twenty years “getting somewhere” in that branch. That is a lot of time holding your breath for something you will not likely get (sorry, dream killer). You must do the best you can, where you are planted and derive personal satisfaction from that. If you are destined for greatness, it will happen. DA PAM 600-3 defines a successful commissioned career as Lieutenant Colonel.

This Branch Doesn’t Deploy: Don’t bet on it. If there is a combat mission, there will be plenty to go around. The mission is to fight and win the nation’s wars. We don’t play home games.

Over the Horizon Decisions: Many will over-advise based on over the horizon opportunities. There are many, many, way down the road decisions that should NOT cloud your branch choice. Sister service ILE, sister service schools, exchange assignments, ILE, individual duty assignments, broadening assignments, assignments that no longer exist, assignments that might be etc. 100% of them are way too far off to legitimately worry about. Some, such as sister service schools will be outside your grasp regardless of what you do. Get commissioned, get branched, and become the best company grade officer you can be and the opportunities will be available to you. Obviously, if you want to command an Engineer Battalion, you need to branch Engineer. That’s just common sense. It doesn’t mean you WILL command an Engineer Battalion, lots of intervening events will determine that regardless of the gaming and mental maneuvering.

Determining your branch preferences should not be a daunting task. The points in this article should steer you toward what matters and away from what doesn’t. At the end of it all, you will be commissioned a second lieutenant. Be secure in your 1-n prioritization of branches, as you will have to live with your Plan B….C….D maybe even Plan G. Further, as you progress in your career, company command will be similar for most branches. Life as a Company and Field Grade staff officer will mean similar experiences and functions performed by all. USR is USR. MDMP is MDMP. Writing orders is writing orders. Being a project officer is being a project officer. What you are branched and the assignments you get all ride on how you perform in them….and that is the single largest determinant you can influence with a solid approach and a good attitude.

Jason Mackay is a retired Lieutenant Colonel with 22 years on active duty as an Ordnance and Logistics Corps Officer. He has served at a wide variety of levels of command and staff. LTC Mackay’s career includes the command of a Headquarters and Headquarters Company in Korea, 95th Maintenance Company (TMDE), and the US Army Garrison at Picatinny Arsenal. His deployments include Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2008-2009 and 2011. Special acknowledgements go to LTC Kevin B., CPT Gabe Snell, SFC (P) Palmer Utley and SGT (Join to see) for providing contemporary Army ROTC perspective, suggestions, and peer review to this article.