Last Updated on August 15, 2023
This article is the place to find out about the process of becoming a commissioned officer if your soldier is joining the military for the first time.
Let me say up front that this information has been gathered from our experience through this process and a combination of online resources.
Your soldier’s experience may differ, but I hope this article can give you an idea about what is to come.
We had a hard time finding information about the process, so I hope this article can help you learn a bit about the process you are about to enter.
The Process of Attending OCS
To attend OCS (Officer Candidate School) you must be a US citizen between 19 and 32 years old and have a college degree. Age waivers are considered if you are not within the age range.
My husband started the process by talking to a few different recruiters. We found that many recruiters have never done an officer packet before and did not know the process for officer enlistment.
If there is a college campus (especially a school with a large military tie or ROTC program) near you, I recommend that you talk to the recruiter there. If you don’t live near a college, you can call a campus recruiter elsewhere.
Unfortunately, we moved during the process, and my husband had to find a recruiter in our new area. The local recruiter assigned to him had never done an officer enlistment before, but an older NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) at the station had some experience and helped to oversee the process.
Recruitment Packet
At that point, the recruiter will give your husband a set of information that he will need to return to the station as soon as possible. This is called your “officer packet.”
This includes copies of all high school and college transcripts and diplomas, 3 letters of recommendation, a current resume, an essay explaining “Why I want to be an Army officer,” an 8×10 picture, and the dreaded SF86.
The SF 86 is the federal government’s security clearance form. All officers must be able to get Secret clearance.
This form will ask for every address he has had for the last 7 years, the name and address of a non-family member who can verify that he lived there, every school he has attended, every job he has held in 7 years and the information of his supervisor, a drug and mental health history, information on family members, detailed information on spouses and former spouses, and contact information for 3 people that have known him well throughout his life.
In other words, it’s your life story in one tidy little packet for the military. Have fun trying to find all of this information especially if your soldier has a few more years on him than the typical fresh out of college graduate.
This takes a long time to fill out, so be prepared with your address book and do not wait until the last minute. (Keep a copy of the SF86 forever – you do not want to have to fill this out again from scratch).
His packet will also contain a medical evaluation, ASVAB (a vocational test) scores, and physical fitness test scores. The recruiter will handle these.
MEPS Appointment
When you have gathered everything for the packet, he will take it back to his recruiter who will schedule an appointment for him at the nearest MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) center. Note – If you live more than a few miles away from a MEPS center they will put him in a hotel the night before.
He will arrive there around 4 or 5 in the morning and take his medical exams and the ASVAB. Officers must score 110 on the ASVAB. There are plenty of study guides available if you need one.
Many wives go to MEPS with their husbands, but you do not need to go that day. I can assure you, there will be nothing for you to do, and he will not sign his contract or be sworn in that day.
The recruiter will take your husband for a physical fitness test sometime during this process. He may have a few different tests.
Scoring well on this part is very important for his packet. He must score at least 60 points in each area. You can see the grading scale by age here. They might test him a few times during the application process.
My husband met his recruiter at the station about 6:30 am and they conducted the test at a nearby high school track. If your husband needs help getting into shape, someone from the station will probably help him.
Once all of these components are completed, his officer packet will be sent to the Officer Board Selection Committee. They usually meet once every month or two and select the people who will be offered an opportunity to attend OCS.
They will review his packet and interview him. My husband knew he had been approved before he left that day.
Contract & Oath
The next step is to return to MEPS for a mini-physical, sign his contract, and take his Oath. This is the day you want to go to MEPS.
You can discuss his contract with him before he signs it, but there is not much to negotiate as an officer. We were told that since officers are not assigned their MOS (job specialty) until OCS, you can’t negotiate for MOS or choice of duty station.
Also, officers usually do not qualify for the big enlistment bonuses that are advertised so much right now. You can negotiate his start date, but keep in mind that there are a limited number of days he can start because they only offer OCS a few times a year.
If he has student loans, you can negotiate to have the Army pay those off. He will sign his contract and take his Oath that day. Take your camera. They will also tell him his ship date (the day he will leave for basic training).
Shipping Out
Your husband will ship out from the MEPS center. My husband had to meet at the recruiting station the day before his ship date at about 4:30pm. They took him to the hotel near MEPS and I drove there to have dinner with him.
I stayed in a hotel nearby to spend as much time together as possible. He went to MEPS about 4:30 the next morning, and I went up there around 7:30.
He spent the morning doing more processing, took the Oath again, and then left on a bus around noon. Other families are there, so don’t worry that you will be the only one.
I know my husband appreciated having a few more hours to spend with me, and I felt sorry for the other soldiers without family to see them off. Feel free to take your camera on shipping day too.
Basic Training & OCS
Your soldier will attend Basic Combat Training (BCT) for 9 weeks and then OCS. The schedule varies for everyone, but my husband spent 1 week in Reception, 9 weeks in BCT, and then had 1 day to get to OCS.
Some officer candidates leave BCT before graduation and head straight to OCS, so don’t book your plane ticket until you know what he will be doing.
OCS is held at Fort Benning (now Ft Moore) in Georgia and is 14 weeks long. He will be told his MOS during OCS, and from there you will know where he will attend officer basic (MOS training).
Good luck with the process. I wish you and your soldier the very best!
Student Loan Repayment:
The Army pays one-third of the loan annually for three years and will only pay principal, not interest.
You can request that his loans be put on forbearance for 3 years and you will not be required to make monthly payments during that time. Request the forbearance due to military service paperwork.
Interest will still accrue monthly, so be sure to find out how much will accrue and make sure you pay that off every month. Some companies only send out statements once a quarter, so be sure to save every month for those payments.
The Army will not pay your loans if they are not in good standing and won’t pay for the interest that accrues during those 3 years.
This was very helpful !!! Thank you !
This was helpful, thanks! My husband and I went through a similiar process as this. He is currently at BCT and graduates at the end of September. He is National Guard and really wants to do the 8 week accelerated OCS course that starts in January but there’s a slim chance of him getting in that quick. One thing that we were NOT told about from our recruiter because he didn’t have a lot of officer experience was BOLC. Technically OCS is BOLC phase 1 but everyone just calls it OCS. What we didn’t know about was BOLC phase 2. This is where they do their specialty training for their MOS, ie military police, infantry, field artillery, military intelligence. I found out about BOLC at three am on a forum while he was in reception and I freaked out! The average is about 16 weeks long. I send him an angry/crying text while he was at reception asking if he knew about this, he didn’t and felt horrible that he didn’t know. Then I felt horrible about making such a big deal about it! Anyway, NOBODY talks about BOLC. Why is that? The national guard’s website doesn’t talk about it, only OCS. I eventually found it on the Army’s website. Does anybody have any info about BOLC? What was your experience? How soon after graduating OCS do they usually begin BOLC? Did your recruiter tell you about it? My husband says he is leaning toward Military Intelligence.