"Why do you want to be an Army officer?" (Commissioned Officer)
In this picture above I hid 2nd Lieutenant rank on my ACU as a symbol and a reminder of my goal, how I should carry myself and guide my thinking. Yes, I know it is entirely out of Army regulation, but just read and I think it will be made clear as to why I secretly wear this passion.
Two days ago while on duty I had a bit of down time, so I decided to recall all of the questions that were asked of me in the first Officer Direct Commission board that I attended. (If you recall, I wrote a post explaining in great detail how that board played out here.) After jotting down the questions I looked over them carefully and made mental notes of the ones that required the most crucial answer. The questions were as follows:
- Tell us what you do or tell us about yourself.
- Who is your mentor or guide at your unit?
- How do you plan to make up for the training you've missed in OCS and ROTC?
- What other leadership roles have you had besides teaching?
- What do you see yourself doing in the Army in the next 3 to 7 years?
- Why didn't you do ROTC in college?
- Why are you trying to become an officer now?
These questions were critical and very probing. I stumbled to put it very bluntly. However, I basically concluded in my blog post about my first ODC board attempt that my trouble stemmed from not having a clear answer to the most important question that wasn't asked in the first interview:
Why do you want to be an Army Officer?
So, after jotting down these questions and thinking over them, I then resorted to answering this critical question above.
I have natural passion for leading and teaching people.
I desire to be greater than I am by expanding my abilities through knowledge, trial and error, while continuing to press forward.
I believe my purpose lies within the realm of military leadership and decision-making to help serve and protect people of the United States and it's Constitution.
I know that my civilian education, teaching experience and skills will uniquely aid me in developing the additional technical and tactical proficiences and qualities needed to be an Army officer, once coupled with officer training.
Overall I believe that by serving as an Army Reserve commissioned officer, I will be a better leader than I am, allow me to further myself in higher education, and ultimately open doors for a civilian occupation with a major US governmental agency.
I wrote my answer to this question in a creed-like fashion because it makes my thoughts and intentions very clear to anyone that reads it. I know what I am after and I will not give up! I stumbled on the first try, but this second time I believe I will do exceedingly better to earn the boards recommendation for direct commission.
My mission is to become a U.S. Army Reserve Commissioned Officer.
Warrior Ethos: I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit.
