[Buffalobob]

Just to continue to take my usual position on the subject, I will say that the experience of a lieutenant as a infantry platoon leader in combat is not something that can be learned in a classroom once you are a Captain and being assigned to an ODA. All that has happened is that now you are going to put ODA guys at risk while you learn how to give orders in the midst of chaos. The mental nimbleness required for running multiple units in combats such as a infantry company commander has to do is not going to get relayed in a classroom setting. You either have done it already or you are going to have to learn what works when and what doesn't work while people are trying to kill you.

I see no reason an officer who already knows that he wants to be an ODA commander would shy away from infantry and forego the learning experience that seeing your own blood on the ground provides or worse yet the blood of your men. I don't see an ODA as the appropriate place for a captain to suddenly begin gaining combat experience. On the other hand if a person is like many of us and begins a journey down one road of life and comes to realize that the road is not satisfactory to them and they want to change directions and move over to a road that goes to an ODA then that is a different situation and not the one under discussion.

None of the above is to say that officers from other branches are not good officers, as I am sure we all have seen some very poor infantry officers who we would not wish upon any unit.

Finally as I understand the initial question it was a "what if I don't get infantry" so then you might as well do what ever pleases you. Personally, I always had an aversion to being trapped inside a big metal can so I avoided putting armor as my second or third choice.