What is an Officer?

Thank you for the detailed explanation and information, I was aware of the USERRA protection, a buddy in the National Guard just came back from a deployment and was telling me that his employer was threatening to let him go while he was deployed but the Army was taking care of it. I did not know that some employers continued pay while training.

The engine room and engineering plant sound interesting.

Absolutely.

Good to know about the Coast Guard having little flexibility.
I don’t know that I need any waivers, they’re typically for medical/background correct?
Good to know Incase I do need a waiver though.
If I were doing it for the money I would go active, according to the 2018 pay chart O-1 makes the same as most LEO’s in my area and O-2 makes more than 10+ year LEO’s, but I’m not doing it for the money.

 

Or you should look into the RC-135's . I'll just say they do some REALLY interesting stuff!

 

I went in as an E1 and made it to E6 before becoming an O2. Finished as an O5.

An officer is someone who mostly gets to sleep in and have weekends off, money, and a wife.

 

USAF will pay you to get your BS and send you to flight school.....but requires a ten year commitment after you get your commission.

KC-135 is a 707-based airframe (actually a completely different plane, though) and is a flying gas tank with additional cargo space, and can be used for medevac and VIP transport. The biggest challenge on the plane is the "boomer", the guy who flies the refueling probe. It is a strategic asset, so is kept out of direct combat, but closely supports combat aircraft. More of the "straight and level" type of flying.
C-130 is a tactical aircraft, slower (turboprop instead of jet) than the 707 but very maneuverable and has many applications, from trash hauling to medevac to paratroop drops to gunship. It has short field capability, can get in and out of marginal airfields. Noisy as hell inside, think of it as a rodded diesel pickup that can do donuts and handle like a sports car. I spent 8 years as a Flight Nurse in the USAF (1987-1995, Just Cause, Desert Shield, Desert Storm veteran), aircrew-qualified in C-130's and C-141B's (long ago decommissioned and replaced by the C-17). Speaking of the C-17, you might be interested in one of those. Twice the size of a C-130, has short field capability and is amazing to watch fly.

If he doesn't learn what to do by the time he makes 0-2 (1st Lt.), he'll never make it to 0-3(Captain), in my experience. You don't make promotion by the second go-around, you're out. Promotion from 0-1 to 0-2 is sort of automatic if you don't do something that would earn a BCD.

If you have a skill the military needs already, and a degree, you can take a direct commission and the military will give you the fine-tuning needed to fit into their way of doing things. I was a Registered Nurse before joining, that's how I went in.

 

In the Navy, for line officers, its automatic until O4. O4 is the first selection board rank and its generally based on quals earned vice leadership capability.

This is a very large factor in the bumper car games the Navy has been playing with merchant vessels...

 

When I took my commission, I was sent to what the USAF called MIMSO, or Military Indoctrination for Medical Service Officers; we called it Salute School. I spent four weeks at Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, Texas learning how to put my uniform on correctly and how to march in formation and how and who to salute or get saluted by and when. Then I was sent to my assigned unit who sent me to Flight Nurse School at Brooks AFB in San Antonio. I was there for 12 weeks; then back to the unit where I did many training flights to qualify on the C-141B, after passing my checkride. Later I went TDY to a C-130 unit for training on the C-130. Then back to my unit.

I should have realized you were talking about the Navy. :-D