this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2023
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The following applies to the US Army as of 20+ years ago, but I doubt it has changed a whole lot since:
As far as I'm aware there are 3 main paths to becoming an officer: 1) West Point 2) ROTC and 3) OCS.
West Pointers are by far the most numerous, and they typically come from wealthier communities, especially in the NE. West Point is considered to be a top notch school, and the majority of people who go there to be upper crust types who later spend the minimum amount of time they need to be in, and then get out and go work on Wall Street or whatever. Some stay in and make it a career, of course, and these represent most of those above the rank of Captain.
ROTC - These are people who come from college ROTC programs and are more rare. I think they probably come from a range of different backgrounds.
OCS - Officer Candidate School - These are basically NCOs who became officers through the OCS program. These are also rare I think, but officers who go this route generally get more respect from enlisted ranks for obvious reasons.
OCS can also be officer candidates who already have a degree. IIRC, the most common path for enlisted to officer (aside from warrant officers and limited duty) is to go through the academy.
so would this analysis apply to other academies, like the navy one? iirc westpoint is the one that needs congressional recommendation?
so OCS are selected from enlisted, meritocratic like?
im kind of surprised that westpointers outnumber rotc people, seems like rotc is more common
The Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland has that same requirement, as does the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
I can only speak to Navy shit (was an enlisted sailor in a previous life), and I'm going on vibes and anecdotes, but basically every officer Commander (O-5) and up I ever met was a ring-knocker (slang for Academy fuckers). The majority of them seem to have come from military legacy families. Naval officers are a little different, as they still have a lot of the aristocratic accoutrements of the old Royal Navy. I heard one of them say that the surface navy was the last vestige of medieval feudalism, where the Captain was still the lord and what he says goes. The officers ate on bone-china plates with actual silver silverware (I know, I fucking had to polish them) and drank out of crystal glasses, all in their fancy wood-paneled wardroom while we ate on those divided plastic prison trays, eating dry ass beef with a fork and butter knife.
So, the class character of senior naval officers is predominantly the sons of senior naval officers. They almost all go work for the military industrial complex after they retire at 20 years.
wait so the implication of this is that the marines are probably the best officered lmao
The marines are absolutely the best at actually "being the military" and, yes, that includes their officer selection all the way down to their basic training. Look at the absolute psychos they have at the top and it's clear they promote on merit far more than other branches.
thats the other side innit. you can get the good soldiers but they're fucking mad murderous fools
Can you say more about how they operate compared to the other branches?
US marine officers go through navy training, whether the Naval Academy, navy ROTC, or navy OCS. So, both navy and marine officers are ~~trained~~ yelled at by both navy chiefs and marine gunnery sergeants. They do tend to be less weird about the aristocratic shit compared to navy officers, and most of the marine officers seem to only really eat in the wardroom on ships because they're not allowed to eat elsewhere.
You wouldn't be wrong. Minor adjustments to what you've said in regards to point one and two however:
The Academies also draw from the "upper crust" of high schools across america with JROTC program head instructors being able to write recommendations alongside the national level legislative representatives even though there's a limit of recommendations to be handed out yearly per state. From my connections out in the boonies a largly decent chunk of those reccies are partitioned out to service brats of field grade officers to generals but it can vary year by year with more hardcore civvies getting in as well since it's a free ride through a prestigious college if they get in alongside a guaranteed job to whatever bullshit branch they decide upon.
In regard to ROTC, it's divided between pure civvies, service brats, and green-to-gold enlisted trying to become mustangs. The pool of personel is akin to a pyramid in the sense that the first two years of the ROTC program are open to all and do not require signing a soul contract to the military for a free ride through college in exchange for a longer contract in the military (or failing and owing the DOD your student loans instead of DOE). Funny enough, a semester to a year of ROTC lets the average person experience life in the military and how much it can fucking suck and it acts to as a great filter to the pool of potential officers and each additional year further sheds potential officers until you're left with the people that're either plain deadset on joining the military or fucked up and signed the DOD contract and don't want to get crushed by student loan debt from the military. The pool of personnel is a lot more diverse here by virtue of being able to sign your soul to the devil is a whole lot easier.