FWIW, my dad was a Canadian when he joined the U.S. Army. He told me there were manny non-nationals in the service. While enlisted, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen, I believe independent of anything the Army was requiring of him (this during WW II). On second thought, I’m not so sure about Army requirements, as he spent the war in intelligence with the specific job of following the purple code interceptions between Tokyo and their embassy in Moscow. That’s all peripheral.
On to the question. My father went in as a recruit, then a private, and was a corporal and then a sargent before he went to OCS and became an officer. Most people who become officers in the U.S. military are on a career track predicated on officer status when they enter service. I know there’s a term amongst the military for a person like my father who actually does the ranks before becoming an officer. What is that term?
My dad did the same thing. He joined the army at the end of WW2, then joined the Navy. He went in as enlisted and rose through the ranks, went through OCS, and retired as a Lieutenant (same as an army captain).
The term you’re looking for, at least in the Navy, is mustang.
Johnny, right, you understood what I meant. I’m looking for the Army equivalent of the Navy’s “mustang” appellation. Air Corps folks are encouraged to check in as well.
An NCO is an enlisted man with any rank from E4 (E4 corporal not Spec 4) to E ? (whatever the hell the sergeant major of the army’s rank is). Anyone who goes to OCS outranks even the sergeant major of the army (the highest possible enlisted rank of which there is only one at a time). Non-commissioned officers are a different animal than the OP is refering to. (Although the poster’s father was an NCO before becoming an officer)
“Mustang” is used by the Army, too. There is a less complimentary term, “90-day wonder,” for those who go through OCS (Officer Candidate School), which is a 14 week program.
The Green to Gold program sends qualified enlisteds who are about to get an honorable discharge, or who agree to a voluntary discharge, to a civilian college ROTC to get a 4 year degree. With OCS, you don’t leave the service.
Important thing about Green to Gold - once the candidate graduates ROTC with their new college degree he/she is commissioned as a 2nd Lieutennant and goes back to active duty.
Re six week wonder, I’ve been out of the Army for quite a while and am not up on current jargon, but, “back when,” it might have referred to an enlisted person who had a short AIT (advanced individual training); all the good AITs started at 3 months. I think some of the really high-tech ones, like Army Security Agency crypto training, could go up to 14 months or so. Or, maybe it’s an Air Force term. There’s also “six day wonder” in civilian use.
When I enlisted back in mumblety-four, the Army had a program for brand new enlistees (in boot camp or even at the induction center) where, if your test scores were high enough and you would be under a certain age when you graduated (24?), they would send you to West Point. They tried to get me to go but I just couldn’t see myself at West Point. I did make it to NCO Academy, though.
Another route for enlisteds is Warrant Officer. All the WOs I knew were mellower than O-grade officers and, because of their technical focus, actually knew what they were doing most of the time.
Just thought of another possibility for “six week wonder.” I seem to recall that the National Guards who were in basic training with us didn’t go for the whole time; maybe they only went for six weeks?
Oh, and Beatle, please don’t call your father a “90 day wonder” unless he’s got a good sense of humor.
My dad was a “90 Day Wonder” and never had a problem with the term. He was drafted the summer before Pearl Harbor, spent a year and a half in the pack artillery, then was tested and ordered to go to OCS.
(He may have gone to OCS as a corporal, but I can’t vouch for that.)
He always felt that “90 Day Wonder” was very appropriate for the process that took a mule-skinner and turned him into an officer and a gentleman.