Officer & Aircrew selection,training: UK versus US
Thread Starter
Officer & Aircrew selection,training: UK versus US
Dear all,
I am interested in how the system works across the other side of the Atlantic for officers and aircrew selection.
When I was in the University Officer Training Corps, quite a few of the guys and girls went for their TCB (Territorial Commissiong Board) and after 3 day selection (individual interviews, group planning exercises, leadership and leaderless tasks with rop and drums and ladders plus PC based aptitude test and PT and gym fitness tasks etc etc and with the green light to go for 3 week commissioning course at RMA Sandhurst (as one described it as' pushed from pillar to post' or 'a sadists dream' )
I had the pleasure of looking after a syndicate of potential TCB candidates back in autumn of 1999 up at Chilwell Barracks who came from all walks of life and that was interesting to see what they had to go through! One of them was a girl in her 20s who was previously a sub Lt in the RN who left and decided to join up again as a Territorial Army (TA) 2nd Lt
One candidate in my syndicate told me about a guy who was in the UOTC then got his TCB and his commission was assigned to a unit that got mobilised for NI and he was given a call to say how did he fancy being put on full time for the next few years and jumped at the chance. Needless to say I suspect after the unit's time in NI was done he returned back to civilian and back to be a weekend warrior.
There was another guy who got his commission via the TCB and was in the Royal Engineers but after uni he wanted a regular commission so thereby he'd lose his rank and it was back to RMA Sandhurst for the commissioning course and another year of fun
Its my understanding that over in the USA, most of the officer corps go through the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) route, with a good number for either Colorado Springs, Annapolis,or West Point or the various Officer Candidate Schools (OCS). If I am correct, in the ROTC, than the officer cadet does every weekend, all available courses plus the summer camps so when they graduate from the university they receive their commission as a reserve Lt then they transfer into the regular commission easily?
What process apart from interviews and a written recommendation by a senator does the applicant do to get into US Military Academy (USMA), US Naval Academy (USNA) and US Air Force Academy (USAFA) such as a 3 day selection that involves leadership tasks and fitness and aptitude testing before being selected such as the Admiralty Interview Board, Army Officer Board (combined from the Regular Commissions Board and Territorial Commissions Board) or Aircrew & Officer Selection
Likewise for aircrew candidates over in the USA, do they take the same PC based aptitude tests regardless of whether they do ROTC or OCS or the academies and is it around the time when they do their selection process?
IIRC, the USMC officer corps either do their 4 years at university with the Navy ROTC or USNA then do the OCS at Quantico then The Basic School. At one point the Annapolis graduate could just to the TBS than the OCS however I was told by an EA-6B Prowler pilot from one of the VMAQ squadrons over at Mildenhall Air Fete in the 90s, that the rules changed. This meant that the Corps decided, regardless of the 2nd Lt earnt from Annapolis, they would have to do the OCS before attending TBS.
And if I am correct at the end of the 3rd year of academy life, the officer cadet can transfer to the other services academies and graduate as a 2nd lt in the other service? Not like here when someone halfway through Sandhurst decides to join the RAF and the 6 months of Initial Officer Training (IOT) is over or the IOT cadet decides to have sea legs and join halfway through BRNC Dartmouth.
Cheers
I am interested in how the system works across the other side of the Atlantic for officers and aircrew selection.
When I was in the University Officer Training Corps, quite a few of the guys and girls went for their TCB (Territorial Commissiong Board) and after 3 day selection (individual interviews, group planning exercises, leadership and leaderless tasks with rop and drums and ladders plus PC based aptitude test and PT and gym fitness tasks etc etc and with the green light to go for 3 week commissioning course at RMA Sandhurst (as one described it as' pushed from pillar to post' or 'a sadists dream' )
I had the pleasure of looking after a syndicate of potential TCB candidates back in autumn of 1999 up at Chilwell Barracks who came from all walks of life and that was interesting to see what they had to go through! One of them was a girl in her 20s who was previously a sub Lt in the RN who left and decided to join up again as a Territorial Army (TA) 2nd Lt
One candidate in my syndicate told me about a guy who was in the UOTC then got his TCB and his commission was assigned to a unit that got mobilised for NI and he was given a call to say how did he fancy being put on full time for the next few years and jumped at the chance. Needless to say I suspect after the unit's time in NI was done he returned back to civilian and back to be a weekend warrior.
There was another guy who got his commission via the TCB and was in the Royal Engineers but after uni he wanted a regular commission so thereby he'd lose his rank and it was back to RMA Sandhurst for the commissioning course and another year of fun
Its my understanding that over in the USA, most of the officer corps go through the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) route, with a good number for either Colorado Springs, Annapolis,or West Point or the various Officer Candidate Schools (OCS). If I am correct, in the ROTC, than the officer cadet does every weekend, all available courses plus the summer camps so when they graduate from the university they receive their commission as a reserve Lt then they transfer into the regular commission easily?
What process apart from interviews and a written recommendation by a senator does the applicant do to get into US Military Academy (USMA), US Naval Academy (USNA) and US Air Force Academy (USAFA) such as a 3 day selection that involves leadership tasks and fitness and aptitude testing before being selected such as the Admiralty Interview Board, Army Officer Board (combined from the Regular Commissions Board and Territorial Commissions Board) or Aircrew & Officer Selection
Likewise for aircrew candidates over in the USA, do they take the same PC based aptitude tests regardless of whether they do ROTC or OCS or the academies and is it around the time when they do their selection process?
IIRC, the USMC officer corps either do their 4 years at university with the Navy ROTC or USNA then do the OCS at Quantico then The Basic School. At one point the Annapolis graduate could just to the TBS than the OCS however I was told by an EA-6B Prowler pilot from one of the VMAQ squadrons over at Mildenhall Air Fete in the 90s, that the rules changed. This meant that the Corps decided, regardless of the 2nd Lt earnt from Annapolis, they would have to do the OCS before attending TBS.
And if I am correct at the end of the 3rd year of academy life, the officer cadet can transfer to the other services academies and graduate as a 2nd lt in the other service? Not like here when someone halfway through Sandhurst decides to join the RAF and the 6 months of Initial Officer Training (IOT) is over or the IOT cadet decides to have sea legs and join halfway through BRNC Dartmouth.
Cheers
Join Date: Dec 2003
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I think Kitbag is right. There are so many questions in there that it reads like a proposal for a masters' thesis. I can address a couple of the points but don't know much about the others.
I received a USAF ROTC commission back in 1990. Things may have changed since then, but ROTC is essentially another college course and counts as an elective. There are other responsibilities that you have to undertake as part of the cadet corps, so there is some extracurricular time required and that can be as little as you need or as much as you want. If one is not a scholarship recipient, then freshman and sophomore years are non-commitment. If you sign up after Junior year, there is a contractual commitment IIRC.
It seemed to me that all the services ROTC programs were more or less the same, but there are/were some differences. For the USAF there is a 4 week summer training camp between sopohmore and junior year. Between junior and senior year there is some sort of shadowing program in each service. Navy midshipmen got a summer cruise on a ship of some kind, the USAF folks could go on a familiarization tour with a squadron in their chosen career field. I'm guessing the Army guys went and slurped mud for a while someplace.
There is an aptitude test for officer candidates and it's one of the first steps in any commissioning process. For the USAF it is the AFOQT - Air Force Officer Qualifying Test. It's pretty much what you'd expect an aptitude test to be, and it can influence if a cadet gets a scholarship, is offered to join the ROTC corps, qualifies for OCS, and probably has some other affects on OCS candidates, too, but I don't know what. I think it is also a qualifier for certain career fields, but I can't remember.
On the day you graduate from ROTC you receive a Reserve commission as an O-1. For the USAF, there is only technical training for your career field if required but, as a civil engineer, I just showed up on base when my orders said so and pretty much went straight to work. I believe it's the same for Navy and Army. Marines get commissioned the same way, do not go on to OCS, but all of them DO go on the The Basic School, and then on to any specific career field training. If that's changed, then my info is out of date. TBS teaches them leadership skills in an infantry context, as far as I know.
The difference between a Reserve and a Regular commission is mostly semantics until it comes time for an involuntary Reduction In Force (RIF). Then the Reserve folks are on the chopping block first. Other than that, it was a non-issue, unless you weren't granted one after some period of time, in which case it would have been for cause and you'd be sharpening up your CV for a job on civvie street.
I do believe that an academy grad can elect to take a commission in another service but I don't know if that is still the case or the details of the process.
I hope that answers some of your questions, but I'm not even sure a recruiter could answer them all.
Just out of curiosity, what's behind the request for the info? Looking to get a commission in the US?
I received a USAF ROTC commission back in 1990. Things may have changed since then, but ROTC is essentially another college course and counts as an elective. There are other responsibilities that you have to undertake as part of the cadet corps, so there is some extracurricular time required and that can be as little as you need or as much as you want. If one is not a scholarship recipient, then freshman and sophomore years are non-commitment. If you sign up after Junior year, there is a contractual commitment IIRC.
It seemed to me that all the services ROTC programs were more or less the same, but there are/were some differences. For the USAF there is a 4 week summer training camp between sopohmore and junior year. Between junior and senior year there is some sort of shadowing program in each service. Navy midshipmen got a summer cruise on a ship of some kind, the USAF folks could go on a familiarization tour with a squadron in their chosen career field. I'm guessing the Army guys went and slurped mud for a while someplace.
There is an aptitude test for officer candidates and it's one of the first steps in any commissioning process. For the USAF it is the AFOQT - Air Force Officer Qualifying Test. It's pretty much what you'd expect an aptitude test to be, and it can influence if a cadet gets a scholarship, is offered to join the ROTC corps, qualifies for OCS, and probably has some other affects on OCS candidates, too, but I don't know what. I think it is also a qualifier for certain career fields, but I can't remember.
On the day you graduate from ROTC you receive a Reserve commission as an O-1. For the USAF, there is only technical training for your career field if required but, as a civil engineer, I just showed up on base when my orders said so and pretty much went straight to work. I believe it's the same for Navy and Army. Marines get commissioned the same way, do not go on to OCS, but all of them DO go on the The Basic School, and then on to any specific career field training. If that's changed, then my info is out of date. TBS teaches them leadership skills in an infantry context, as far as I know.
The difference between a Reserve and a Regular commission is mostly semantics until it comes time for an involuntary Reduction In Force (RIF). Then the Reserve folks are on the chopping block first. Other than that, it was a non-issue, unless you weren't granted one after some period of time, in which case it would have been for cause and you'd be sharpening up your CV for a job on civvie street.
I do believe that an academy grad can elect to take a commission in another service but I don't know if that is still the case or the details of the process.
I hope that answers some of your questions, but I'm not even sure a recruiter could answer them all.
Just out of curiosity, what's behind the request for the info? Looking to get a commission in the US?
Thread Starter
Pitts,
Many thanks for that and basically its my curiousity or as Kitbag rightly says I'm comparing the selection and training on this and your side of the Atlantic
Both systems work well to produce a fantastic set of individuals tailored to serve their particular branch of the military.
At one time in the UK, apart from the Initial Officer Training at RAF Cranwell and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst there was Officer Cadet Training Unit at RAF Henlow which moved up to Cranwell in 1980 while the Mons Officer School closed in 1972 and its responsibilities transferred into Sandhurst.
Cheers
Many thanks for that and basically its my curiousity or as Kitbag rightly says I'm comparing the selection and training on this and your side of the Atlantic
Both systems work well to produce a fantastic set of individuals tailored to serve their particular branch of the military.
At one time in the UK, apart from the Initial Officer Training at RAF Cranwell and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst there was Officer Cadet Training Unit at RAF Henlow which moved up to Cranwell in 1980 while the Mons Officer School closed in 1972 and its responsibilities transferred into Sandhurst.
Cheers
I received a USAF ROTC commission back in 1990. Things may have changed since then, but ROTC is essentially another college course and counts as an elective. There are other responsibilities that you have to undertake as part of the cadet corps, so there is some extracurricular time required and that can be as little as you need or as much as you want.
Caz, I don't think you were the last course to go straight to BFTS minus the Chipmunk training by a long way. I went from OCTU in 1976 straight to JP3A training on 17 Course at 1FTS Linton-on-Ouse; never flew anything with a fan on the front during my time in the Royal Air Force.
Indeed, Caz. I'm sure there were several courses after mine that never flew a Chippy/Dullbog before being unleashed upon the mighty JP. They were clearly still experimenting with straight-to-BFTS for some time after your 'last' course.