Army Direct Commission

An Army Direct Commission requires you to: take your college diploma and transcripts to an Army recruiter; assemble a personal information packet with that recruiter; take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); and take a physical. A month or so later, after the Department of the Army has reviewed your packet and accepted you as a candidate, you enter the Army's Officer Candidate School. After 14 weeks of OCS and the Officer Basic Course, you'll be a platoon leader at the rank and pay grade of a first or second lieutenant. If you have an advanced degree or medical specialty you might start at the rank of captain or beyond.

The service obligation for a Direct Commission varies between four and six years. Officer performance measures, or Officer Efficiency Reports (OERs), apply to the directly commissioned officer just as they do to the West Point graduate.

Officer Candidate School is located in Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the US Army Infantry School. The four-week Basic Phase of OCS is strict, physical, and demanding on every level. The ten weeks of the Intermediate Phase are more concerned with academics. Here a candidate learns about small unit tactics, ambush and patrolling procedures, light arms and demolitions, and nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. During the three weeks of the Senior Phase candidates are expected to master fundamentals of The Uniform Code of Military Justice, ethics, administration, and leadership.

The OCS experience is quite different for a college graduate and an enlisted person. The college graduate will have a great deal to learn. An enlisted person who has risen through the ranks from private to specialist to sergeant, will thoroughly understand the way the Army functions.