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Old 09-05-2017, 13:56   #9
HardRoad
Quiet Professional
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Georgia, Florida and North Carolina (its complicated)
Posts: 92
G2G advice - FWIW

As a lot of people here have noted, you need to focus on the 25 and 50 meter targets - getting through the Q course and onto a team. Not to throw cold water on you, but the last time I looked, most 18X candidates don't make it all the way through the pipeline (I've heard the 18X program described as "a terrific tool to improve the quality of junior NCOs in the 82d ABN.") I know that you're motivated and above average, or you wouldn't be in the pipeline in the first place, but I've known a lot of really switched on, motivated candidates who didn't make it through the 18X / REP63 pipeline for one reason or another - so get through that first. It's going to take everything you've got, and if you do, you're going to show up at your first team with zero reputation one way or another, and if you want your CoC's endorsement for going the commissioned route, you're going to have to build a terrific reputation as a performer, a team player and as a leader -and you're going to have to do it while surrounded by the highest quality peers in the Army.

On the other hand, as long as you don't anticipate and throw the round, I don't think that it's necessarily a bad idea to know which way to shift the barrel for the 300 meter target, so here are some things to think about in terms of going the commissioned route, whether OCS or green to gold.

First, your question seemed to be asking how quickly you could return to school - understandable if your college has a time limit on a leave of absence vs. having to reapply and be re-admitted. If you get the opportunity to transfer to an ROTC program before your enlistment is up, I'd urge you to think hard about it - assuming you do get selected to come back to SF as an officer down the road, a captain is going to get 18-24 months team time - in that time, you'll likely get a JCET or a combat rotation, but probably not both. An 18X contract is what, six years, and two of that will be in the pipeline, so probably 4 years or so (less specialty schools and whatever other time sucks you run into) of team time. I'd take advantage of every minute of that if I could instead of trying to cut away too early. Short of going to an SMU or the like, you're going to get less than two years of O time doing the fun stuff out of a 20 year career. I wouldn't shortchange myself on my enlisted team time without a lot of thought.

That's especially important if you end up spending some time in the 82nd before you re-apply for SF. If it happens, that time will be valuable - I don't regret having been an SF baby, but I would definitely done some things differently, and probably done them better, if I had had some conventional experience first. But if you do end up in the 82nd, you'll probably rate higher among your peers than you would in the Regiment, and the choice may come down to going back to try SF again, or going green to gold out of the 82nd.

Last edited by HardRoad; 09-05-2017 at 14:18.
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