Posted on Jan 7, 2015
TSgt Joshua Copeland
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I have gotten the impression from posts here on RP that Army OCS is by a large majority prior enlisted personnel.

When I contrast that with my own service, I see a different story

Feb 14 Rated OTS board:
Board’s selection rate of 30.39 percent, 93 applicants were selected to serve as Air Force officers. Of the 93 selected, 21 enlisted members.

Oct 14 Rated OTS board:
Board's selection rate of 76.57 percent, 304 applicants were selected to serve as U.S. Air Force officers. Of the 304 selected, 25 enlisted members.


Nov 14 Nonrated
Board's selection rate of 32.53 percent, 161 applicants were selected to serve as U.S. Air Force officers. Of the 161 selected, 100 enlisted members.

FY13's numbers were similar.

With that, is the Army's OCS program really just a enlisted commissioning program or have folks perceptions been skewed?
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SFC Mark Merino
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When I was at Fort Campbell, we had a former SEAL, turned CW2 OH-58D pilot, who went to OCS in 2000/2001. I'd give that bad mamma jamma a pass on everything. His stick buddy was a former Ranger Batt SSG. We always joked that if that aircraft ever went down we would just follow the blood trails they made to their extraction site for pickup.
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CPT William Jones
CPT William Jones
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My son went to Army OCS from Infantry and on to Flight school after completion. In his class was a warrant pilot with over 1000 hours flight time including time in combat time. So candidates come from several sources.
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BG Dep. Director, Military Programs
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I was, what was then termed, a "college option". Went to BCT with MOS 09S and sent to 14 weeks at Benning's School for Boys (although we had girls too). The college option folks were definitely the minority, maybe 20%? It was an interesting mix with SF E-6's in the same platoon with guys who had only been in the Army for two months. Worked out though as the more experienced NCOs were given challenges as the company leadership while us newbies played basic Soldiers and worked up to Platoon Sergeant or Leader by the end.
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COL Charles Williams
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Edited 9 y ago
Actually TSgt Joshua Copeland Army OCS Candidates come predominately from two sources, and the ratio depends on the what the commission needs of the Army is. The most commonly known group are active duty enlisted Soldiers who apply for and are accepted to attend OCS. The second lesser known category are called "College Options or College Ops). These are college graduates who wander into a recruiter (no prior service) and want to enlist to attend OCS. They go to Basic Combat Training like all other recruits, than instead of going to Advanced Individual Training, the go straight to OCS. All who finish, are commissioned at the end.

My class (1-85) was about 75% prior service (coming from active duty; E-4 thru E-7), and 25% percent college options. We also had a few aviation Warrant Officers, who were going to get commissioned. We also lost 75% due to attrition.

In 2010 it was nearly 50/50, as OCS was commissioning at a higher rate to support the war.

Active Duty and Guard OCS are vastly different.
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