Military terms of service

[Alpo]

I go down and I enlist in the army. I'm going to be in the Army for 4 years. And when my four years is just about up there's going to be a sergeant trying his damnedest to get me to reenlist. Sign up for another 4 years. Stay in.

 

But that's for enlisted. How do they do it with officers?

 

I go through ROTC, or OCS, or the Point, and I come out with a commitment to being an officer for 4 years or 6 years or whatever. Now when that time runs out, do I automatically stay an officer unless I resign? Or do I have to re-up somehow? Get recommissioned?

 

How does that work?

[Trailrider #896]

I don't know how it works now, but it used to be there were two classes of commissioned officers, regulars and reservists on active duty.  Regulars had "tenure", and could plan on staying in for 20+ and possibly 30 years.  Reserve officers, after fulfilling their minimum active duty commitment could elect to stay on, hoping to make 20 so as to get full retirement benefits, or go off active duty and either go active reservist or inactive reservist until the expiration of their total committment.  In the event that a reservist on extended active duty gets caught in a Reduction In Force (RIF), and is forced off active duty as an officer, he/she loses retirement benefits, or, sometimes is allowed to reenlist as an NCO (E-5 or so).  

 

In my case, I was committed to four years active (non-flying) from 1965 to 1969, with an additional 3 years commitment in some capacity, either active or reserve.  When Sec. of Defense MacNamera decided as an economy measure, that if you weren't going "career reserve", and your date of separation fell in a certain window, you could get a six-month "early out".  There were no openings in the Air Force Reserve in my specialty, where I lived, so I went on inactiive status for the next 3-1/2 years, partially reverting to my "permanent" rank of 1LT, until just before I was released from further obligation, when I was promoted back to captain (which I had been promoted to after 3 years while on active).  After the seven year total commitment was up, they "ruptured my duck" (sent me my DD214), and that was that.  Of course, I wound up, by choice, in the aerospace industry, so it wasn't like I didn't work on defense projects for the next 20 years.

[Ozark Huckleberry]

Can't say for other services, can't even say it's how it's done now (and don't care enough to look it up), but when I retired in 1999, this was Navy officer career path:

 

There were:

Unrestricted line -- eligible for command at sea, or in chine of command above those commands

Restricted line -- specialty officers -- oceanographers, etc. 

Staff officers -- officers in fields that were professions of their own -- lawyers, doctors, etc.

Limited duty officers -- technical managers in specialized fields -- engineering, maintenance, administration -- typically promoted from enlisted ranks.

 

Since you oriented your question to what would be considered unrestricted line -- to focus there:

 

Regular officers -- commissioned through the academy or through (ironically) Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) if they actively participated in the program. They had an obligated service after commissioning of around 6 years or so, and their service would continue as long as they met their promotion windows. That being said, since promotions were geared to numbers, if the force needed to be reduced, there would simply be fewer promotions, more people missed the windows, more people out. Two 'looks' by the promotion board, and being passed over for promotion twice (if you were passed over once, it was pretty much a given you'd be passed over the second time) for someone to be separated.

 

Reserve commissions -- commissioned through post-graduate military training (Officer Candidate School). If they went to college on ROTC but were not an active ROTC participant, they were commissioned through OCS. Again, obligated service after commissioning, plus had to meet promotion windows. The difference came in with reductions in force. Reservists could be told, 'Thanks for your time, go on home now, speak well of us to your friends and family,' and packed out without the formality of pushing them through a tightened promotion window.

 

Typically, a reservist who made O-4 could apply to convert to a regular commission and it would be granted without review.

[Trailrider #896]

I can recall two Naval officers who were passed over twice for promotion.  One was Adm. Hyman Rickover, who the Navy tried to get rid of, but Congress promoted him anyway.  The other was Navy Capt. Levering Smith, who was engineering chief for Adm Red Rayburn's Special Projects Office (Polaris Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile).  The AllNav (promotion list) came out on Friday and Smith's name wasn't on it for the second time, meaning he would have to retire.  I was a summer hire intern on Polaris in 1961, at Cape Canaveral. The story we got was that Rayburn picked up the red phone that connected him directly to President Kennedy, and said, "Mr. President, if you want Polaris, I need Levering Smith."  Monday morning an amended AllNav came out with Smith's name on it for promotion to Rear Admiral (lower half).  In 1971, when I was working for Lockheed Missiles & Space, Adm. Smith was now in charge of he entire program (SP).  By that time, Polaris had progressed to Poseidon and Trident I, with Trident II on the way.

[Chantry]

Some  additional comments.

 

Army ROTC officers were not guaranteed a full time active position.  May ended up in National Guard or Army Reserve slots.

Certain specialties required a longer commitment.   It's been a while, but IIRC a pilot was an eight year commitment and a doctor was a ten commitment.  For doctors the military would pay for medical school and they would be paid a second lieutenant's salary during medical school.