If everything is still the same, you’ll get an opportunity to submit a branch packet to request to be pulled from the order of merit list (OML) to get a specific branch. The packet requires you to justify why you should be considered for that branch over everyone else. If approved, you’ll be taken out of the OML and given that branch. If not approved, it will be based on your ranking in the OML and your preferences. Your cadre will explain the packet early on in OCS. Good luck!

This is basically the carbon copy of my career. 35PAD who came over as a SSG. There is no “form.” There is a form where you put your branches of choice in preference order, but you are subject to the needs of the Army like anyone else. Consult the language regulation but you do get FLPP and the amount is based on the language category. I won’t lie, it is extremely difficult to maintain as an officer. The Army has no obligation to offer you language training and your LT to CPT years will be extremely busy. I lost my language identifier while I was in company command because I could not maintain my DLPT score. As for branching. I got MI, but I wanted combat engineer. They didn’t do the OML when I came through in 2008, but they do now. It’s all based on the OCS OML. The better you do at OCS, the higher you are in the OML. The higher you are on the OML, the more likely you will get your branch of choice. But don’t look at the other branches as some sort of setback. That outlook is shortsighted in my opinion. Every branch is an opportunity to learn something new and important. Expanding horizons is a good thing. If you just can’t live with the possibility that you won’t get a branch you want as your number one, then the Warrant Officer Corps is also looking for good officers. Good luck!

First and foremost: NEVER make a decision out of fear. It will almost always be wrong (unless you're getting shot at). Second, most LTs get the branch they request though sometimes they don't. Infantry (surprisingly) is the most requested branch by ROTC graduates and few get it. MI is fairly popular as well (though not as much as MS) but with your language skills you should be a lock. My best advice is to make friends with a colonel in the MI branch, preferable one you really want to work for. That way if you're branched something else your O-6 can pull some strings and get you where you want to go. That happens all the time.

My OCS class in 2003 ended up branching nearly half the class into Chemical due to needs of the Army. Not a bad branch (I was chemical before OCS) but a crappy career path with little chance to ever get past O-4. Few of them actually ended up in C-OBC because they went to their O-5s and O-6s and got some horsepower behind their branch requests and got them changed.

Now here's a dirty little secret few people will tell you about: Branch Detail. Many of the guys I went through IOBC with were branch detailed to the Infantry, mostly from MI. That means you become a grunt, go to Ranger (mandatory if you're RA) and a few other schools, do some PL time (and maybe a company command) and when you're a captain they send you back to MI through the Captain's Career Course. Now, you may not like this route if its thrust upon you but you will be better for it. Knowing what the grunts really need will make you a VASTLY superior MI officer.