I read a few posts and really thought this forum is a great place, anyway....

I'm currently an ROTC cadet, with 3 years to go, but that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about the future!

My main interest is Field Artillery, I want to be boots on the ground but not that front line infantry officer. Outside certain units requiring their officers be Ranger qualified, do newly commissioned gold bars usually get Ranger spots? I don't quite know if Ranger school is for me.

Thanks guys

Norfolk

For an FA officer, Ranger is largely optional. It's possible to get a slot after FA OBC but, to my knowledge, the decision is at the discretion of the unit you are going to. You are more likely to go if you are going to a light or stryker brigade, as opposed to a mech or heavy brigade. So, if you want to go you probably can, but you don't have to if you don't want to.

As for your comment regarding not wanting to be "that front line infantry officer", I would like to add that everyone who is deployed now does what used to be deemed "infantry stuff," especially in Iraq. In Afghanistan, FA guys get to do more classical FA stuff (i.e. get to use their guns), but still conduct patrols and other tasks. Also, if you're an FO, you'll be in with an infantry or armor unit, working with them everyday.

My caveat and advice: get as much info as possible, and base future decisions on what a branch does doctrinally. Not everything can or should be based on current ops. Take them into account, but know that future conflicts may be the same or maybe completely different.

For more information about the FA branch, check out the branch orientation website:

http://www.branchorientation.com/fieldartillery/home.html

The website will give you a better idea of the jobs you could do in FA.

-Edge11A

This brings up a good topic, and Edge you are exactly right that what is going on right now with FA, or any branch for that matter could change a lot in the next few years.

As a Green to Gold cadet I try and remind my peers that more than likely their imagination of an officer's life and the reality of one will be very different. I can only really speak to the life of an MI officer, but for example as an MI LT more often than not they were Company XO's and Staff folks. This is highly different than what they are trained for as a Cadet and even OBC didn't seem to prepare them all that well for those positions.

We train these ROTC cadets to be infantry PLs and the overwhelming majority of us will no be doing those jobs. The Signal, MI, QM, FI, AG, Trans guys of the world will be hard pressed to be expected to lead patrols, etc even when deployed.

The biggest challenges I saw with new LTs and even some CPTs was that they had to be XO, or the S1, or the S4, the BMO and then on top of these jobs that as MI officers they had no real training for they were having to plan the social events in the Company or BN, run the FRG, cup and flower funds, etc.

I guess my point is that no one will be able to tell you exactly what kinda job you will be doing and even if you go into a branch where the majority of folks are doing one thing there is the chance you will end up in the one unit where they don't really need say an FA officer except they have a slot for one on their MTOE and now you are filling it.... what do you do then?