The real 18A

[jrhunger]

Hello Gentleman,

I am currently torn between officer and enlisted, I have been reading on the forums for a while in order to educate myself on the operational distinctions. After reading around for a bit I've gotten the idea that the 18A basically just "tags along" and files paperwork. This seems unreasonable given the fact that he is the CO; but based on what I have read it sounds very much like the NCO does all the actual operational planning, and the rest of the ODA does the rest.

My questions to you are;

1) How much time, roughly, does an officer actually spend in the field before he gets promoted out of the field.

2) At what rank, generally, does an officer stop being a real operator in the field.

3) What does an officer REALLY do in an average ODA compared to his enlisted counterparts, and NCO.

4) How does his experience/training ultimately vary. E.g. is his shooting nearly as good, can he plan a raid well, does he understand how to create an explosive out of whatever given materials. I'm sure you get the idea.

If any of these questions were answered at a reasonable length before in another thread then I apologize that I didn't see it (though I did look). I know there are places that discuss 18A responsibilities but what I'm reading here tends to dispute most of those claims, so I would like to set things straight.

Thank you, I would appreciate any knowledge you can share.

-Jarek