# Becoming an officer?



## youngdumbbroke95 (Jun 6, 2018)

I'm 24 and I'm graduating this December with degrees in both computer science and engineering. I'm interested in joining either the Air Force or Navy, but here's how I narrowed my options: (1) work after college and get a direct commission from the army as a cyber officer, (2) join the navy and be part of the information dominance corps, or (3) join the air force as an engineer. I was wondering will my age affect me from being in the military of should I stay as a civilian?


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## CDG (Jun 6, 2018)

All those degrees, and you can't follow simple instructions. 

Post an introduction in the appropriate area, as per the site rules you agreed to when registering, before doing anything else. 

Locked.


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## CDG (Jun 7, 2018)

OP has posted an intro. Thread re-opened.


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## AWP (Jun 7, 2018)

youngdumbbroke95 said:


> I'm 24 and I'm graduating this December with degrees in both computer science and engineering. I'm interested in joining either the Air Force or Navy, but here's how I narrowed my options: (1) work after college and get a direct commission from the army as a cyber officer, (2) join the navy and be part of the information dominance corps, or (3) join the air force as an engineer. I was wondering will my age affect me from being in the military of should I stay as a civilian?



1) Look up the basic commissioning regs for each branch, they may differ slightly on age and other requirements.
2) Look up the pre-reqs for your options. Those too will differ.
3) Assume you can't go in to do communications/ cyber related stuff. What's your Plan B?


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## DA SWO (Jun 7, 2018)

Why not Cyber in the AF?


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## Devildoc (Jun 7, 2018)

If you choose to be a direct commission officer in the Navy (cannot speak to the other branches), there is a much wider latitude in age than as a traditional line officer, and with rank your civilian experience gets "rewarded" by entering at a higher rank.  I understand that also to be case with the other branches, but can't confirm.


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## Teufel (Jun 7, 2018)

Man, I never thought I would have subject matter expertise in this field when I joined here ten years ago. Anyway, here goes. You can commission directly into the cyberspace warfare field in the Army and Air Force. Demand always exceeds supply. They are going to start doing the same thing for the Marine Corps in the very near future but we haven’t figured out how that will work yet. I think they will offer it out of TBS for now but will soon offer people cyber contracts like they do flight contracts now. You want to go cryptological warfare in the Navy if you want to end up in cyber eventually. Admiral Rogers, former Director of NSA, was a cryptological warfare officer. The cyberspace warfare field is growing exponentially. You would think that the Air Force would lead the way in cyber because of how technical they are but the Army is massive and dominates the field through their size, manning, and funding.


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## Teufel (Jun 7, 2018)

Here is a photo of ARCYBER funding their cyber mission.


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## Diamondback 2/2 (Jun 7, 2018)

Overnight Captain's for the future... blah blah blah,  earn it is my middle finger B.S. 


But at the end of the day, good luck and best to your career... if you make past boot.


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## Marauder06 (Jun 7, 2018)

Diamondback 2/2 said:


> Overnight Captain's for the future... blah blah blah,  earn it is my middle finger B.S.
> 
> 
> But at the end of the day, good luck and best to your career... if you make past boot.



Hell brother, they're talking about direct commissioning people in at the O6 level in Cyber.  Forget about captain.  That's soooo JAG Corps / MED Corps.


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## Marine0311 (Jun 7, 2018)

Will you be willing to drive APCs and lead front the front?


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## Diamondback 2/2 (Jun 8, 2018)

Marauder06 said:


> Hell brother, they're talking about direct commissioning people in at the O6 level in Cyber.  Forget about captain.  That's soooo JAG Corps / MED Corps.



That's crazy.


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## Devildoc (Jun 8, 2018)

Marauder06 said:


> Hell brother, they're talking about direct commissioning people in at the O6 level in Cyber.  Forget about captain.  That's soooo JAG Corps / MED Corps.



I commissioned at the same time as a friend.  In our corps, he had experience (I had none).  But I had been an enlisted man for 12 years.  He commissions an O2, picked up O3 in less than a year.  I went in O1E, day 1, ground floor.

He loved rubbing it in he could tell me what to do and give me orders.  Joke was on him when he asked for help with things like orders, travel vouchers, uniforms, etc.


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## youngdumbbroke95 (Jun 10, 2018)

Sorry I haven't replied in a few days. I was wondering if it would be possible if I could do software engineering or is that usually done by enlisted guys?


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## Teufel (Jun 10, 2018)

youngdumbbroke95 said:


> Sorry I haven't replied in a few days. I was wondering if it would be possible if I could do software engineering or is that usually done by enlisted guys?


As a cyber officer in the Army or Air Force? Honestly DOD civilians and industry does a lot of that. Some enlisted will do it as well.


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## youngdumbbroke95 (Jun 10, 2018)

I was wondering if I can do software engineering as an officer in either the Army or Air Force if that's possible.


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## AWP (Jun 10, 2018)

youngdumbbroke95 said:


> I was wondering if I can do software engineering as an officer in either the Army or Air Force if that's possible.



The odds of you doing that in either branch are astronomical. That's why the military has contractors. An officer coding all day? Maybe in some one-off slot buried in places no one knows, but that would come along with projects no one would dream to discuss outside of a SCIF.

The Air Force's heavy cyber lifting is done by enlisted and contractors; Officers direct and manage. I've seen one of the Army's Cyber Protection Teams in action. Maybe that is a great group of people, but the team I worked with? Clownshoes. Not knowing the difference between TCP and UDP is one of many stories from that 3 day adventure.


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## Teufel (Jun 11, 2018)

youngdumbbroke95 said:


> I was wondering if I can do software engineering as an officer in either the Army or Air Force if that's possible.


You may manage development or capability requirements at some point. That’s about it.


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## youngdumbbroke95 (Jun 12, 2018)

Really? Another interest I had besides cyber was doing nuclear engineering in the Air Force if that’s an option.


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## Marauder06 (Jun 13, 2018)

youngdumbbroke95 said:


> Really? Another interest I had besides cyber was doing nuclear engineering in the Air Force if that’s an option.



That’s probably more likely.  

For the record we have that kind of thing in the Army too.


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## Teufel (Jun 13, 2018)

youngdumbbroke95 said:


> Really? Another interest I had besides cyber was doing nuclear engineering in the Air Force if that’s an option.


Well that’s not it, I mean you lead cyber teams. Officers generally command, lead, or plan, while enlisted specialize in their work roles and do the heavy lifting. In this case that’s the programming and on keyboard stuff. That’s the way it works in almost every field except I suppose aviation.


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## youngdumbbroke95 (Jun 14, 2018)

After doing more research I see that the Navy has a designator called cyber warfare engineer and after reading the job description it sounds like you'll be doing software engineering, but It's highly competitive and you're only stationed in Maryland.


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## Teufel (Jun 14, 2018)

youngdumbbroke95 said:


> After doing more research I see that the Navy has a designator called cyber warfare engineer and after reading the job description it sounds like you'll be doing software engineering, but It's highly competitive and you're only stationed in Maryland.


No surprise there. The bulk of cyber is in Maryland.


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## youngdumbbroke95 (Jun 25, 2018)

Since I'm still deciding would it be a good option for me to enlist after college and then become an officer later?


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## Marauder06 (Jun 25, 2018)

I don’t think so.  If you want to be an O, be an O.  Only enlist if it’s part of the path to OCS.


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## Teufel (Jun 25, 2018)

When do you graduate? The Air Force is sending some of their officers through the full cyber pipeline. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Army does as well soon.


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## youngdumbbroke95 (Jun 25, 2018)

I graduate in December. Reason why I was talking about enlisting is because is't OCS more competitive and a much longer process?


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