Should I join the Army as an officer?

Question

I am about to go into my second year of college, and really want to join the military, as an officer. I am considering joining either Air Force ROTC or Army ROTC, and have talked to an Air Force captain at my college about the program. The problem is that I have never even flown in my life, though I love planes. Another thing is that many of my family members have served in the Army. I am extremely interested in doing intelligence work, and I respect the Air Force heavily, but it seems like the Army has more of an adventurous element to it, and the Air Force has an undeserved reputation of having a lot of its people sit behind its desks, being more like a 9-5 job, while if someone says they served in the Army, it has more of a bada** element to it.

I am not afraid to go to the Middle East and facing some danger, but I can't see myself breaking down doors and getting in firefights with the enemy as much as regular infantrymen do. I am no coward, as I would volunteer to go on the front lines immediately if this country needed me, but there are plenty of men who would much rather be getting in firefights than I would. I am more of the type to use my brain and analyze data, as I love to analyze things. I wouldn't want to spend my years in the military sitting behind a computer, either, however.

Answer 1

There's more jobs than just Infantry in the Army, just like there's more jobs than just pilot in the Air Force. To be frank, only about 2% of the Air Force actually gets to fly one of the sweet planes they showcase in their commercials. Most of the Air Force deals with the upkeep, logistics, and also the vast array of ICBMs. Due to the latter fact, their bases tend to be in the middle of nowhere out West.



The Army actually has the largest number of aircraft of any service. AC-130s, choppers, and attack helicopters make up most of them. Their bases also tend to be in the Southern US, Germany, and South Korea; but they're really all over the place.

However, Army ROTC only commissions a small number of their graduates as active duty personnel. The others are put into the Army Reserve. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps commission their officers as active duty.



If you want to avoid sitting behind a computer, stick with the Army.

Answer 2

I would finish college, get your degree, and commission through ROTC. You will need to get on top of it soon because you can't register in ROTC after your second year. I'm in Army ROTC as well and had the same question of whether I wanted to enlist or commission. I got some great advice from NCO's and people I look up to who are officers. There's no reason not to finish school, commission, and have a great job right out of college. When you commission, you choose four branches of choice. You could choose from anything from finance corps, corps of engineers, infantry, armor and the choices are everywhere. If you don't want to be in the middle of the shootouts I would highly suggest being an officer. Officers are much more involved in behind the scenes operations and you can get to do some really cool stuff. I hear chemical corps is especially interesting. You can get deployed with SF units all over the place only for the purpose of training them. Officers are a special breed, especially in the army.

Answer 3

I was Active Army and now work for the DoD. I am an Army Civilian but work with all branches. In my last couple jobs, while I was Active, I worked with all the branches.



I didn't like working with the AF. Not because they are a lessor service, I just didn't like their style of leadership adn the way they do things.



Which ever you chose getting into ROTC would be a good move.



ADD: As far as what people may say about intel. You don't gather it sitting behind a desk.

Answer 4

Intelligence in the Air Force, Navy, Army, or Marine Corps is going to be relatively the same (i.e. sitting behind a desk). If you want adventurous then go Navy, they travel the most, some guys see six countries in one deployment.

Answer 5

What your degree in and if you really want intel work go FBI CIA N.S.A D,O D these are were you should really look into Take up some language skill of asian and mid east that were the future of what intel we will need ... Good Luck

Answer 6

Someone has to desk jockey. If you don't want to fight, army isn't right for you. If you want to use your head, join the airforce. You don't have to fly to be an officer in the airforce.