What took me so long?!
I’m not sure what other people experienced, but the idea of commissioning was put on such a high pedestal and made out to be such an impossible feat. Had it been marketed in a more attainable and inclusive way, I would have applied long before I turned 35 years old! If you are familiar with the criteria at all, you may be thinking “I thought that was ‘too old’ to apply”. Well, you’re wrong! Many people including myself thought the same thing, but if you have been in the military for any time at all, you’ve probably heard the phrase: ‘there’s a waiver for everything’.
The funny thing about waivers is they only benefit you when you know about them. I, unfortunately, was given misinformation and misguided by the people I thought ‘should’ know. Which made my journey that much longer and even more frustrating.
Hopefully through telling my story you learn what it took and what it didn’t take for me to get accepted into Officer Training School (OTS) and earn my commission.
*Disclaimer:
Everyone’s experience is different and depending on when you apply and what program you apply for can affect a lot. I am simply letting you into my experience, and by doing so, I hope you find something that can help or encourage you in your journey to go for whatever your “next level” is.
Higher Education
Thinking back to the days when I was working on my degree, it seemed like an eternity would pass before I would have enough credits to get that ‘oh so elusive’ piece of paper. Like I mentioned in my post “Joining the Military: Where it all started”, I had previously earned 6 credits from the Dental Assisting course I took in high school and 14 credits from my first semester in college. I only needed 40 more credits to hit my first milestone –an Associate’s degree. Before I could take one class, I had to complete Career Development Courses (CDCs), something every Enlisted member must complete. This usually takes 1-2 years, depending on the Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC).
Academic success
During this time I also earned a certificate in German Studies, and received an inside tip to apply for the Pitzenberger Award (a Military Scholarship given out annually with a monetary reward of $500). This random person who happened to see me walking down the hall of the education office I frequented, said that no one hardly ever applied and the money sits there not getting used. All I had to do was write a one page essay and submit it. And guess what happened?– I got the scholarship!
So many choices
I then learned about the AU/ABC Program which gives you credit for your military training. In order to accelerate my timeline, I researched some online schools and Trident University International TUI was looking real promising because they had 10 week semesters and provide your text books for FREE!
Before I made my final decision on which school to attend, I kid you not, I was at the education office just about every week. I asked about different commissioning programs, scholarships, researched schools, and just dreamed about someday having my degree & being eligible to apply to an officer program. I felt like I was driving my husband crazy! I often came home with a plethera of options and opportunities I had learned about from my many trips to the education office. Instead of really looking at what I wanted to do and working toward that, I looked for the fastest way to get a degree and get commissioned.
He was right
One day Brandon was like, “Enough is enough!” Well, maybe he didn’t use those exact words, but he basically said to me, “I don’t know how you do it. If you could stick to one plan and put your energy in one direction, you might get further faster.” I will admit, I am a recovering information gatherer. I like to know ALL of my options, which has been a blessing and a curse.
I wanted to stay in the medical field
I decided to apply to a program that would give me an opportunity to commission into the medical field within a year and a half if I pursued a business degree. Surprisingly, it only took me 13 months to get my Bachelor’s degree – I was not playing around! I was determined to submit a Medical Service Corps (MSC) package for my very first attempt at commissioning.
I needed help
I remember hearing that getting a mentor to help you apply was highly recommended so they could guide you through the application process. Since I was in the Dental Group, no one I asked was familiar with the process and to be honest I had no idea how to basically “cold call” someone to get help. This is where building meaningful relationships would have come in handy. Articulating my need with confidence would have helped as well! (shameless plug for my BRAG method, check it out!)
What are my chances?
I often wondered how competitive my application would even be. Looking at the previous years’ stats, it seemed that nearly every selected applicant had lots of awards, high GPAs and GRE scores.
My career on paper seemed mediocre at best. I had no substantial awards under my belt and I didn’t earn ‘Distinguished Graduate’ at Airman Leadership School (ALS). Don’t get me wrong, I volunteered for a lot and was an extremely hard worker, but all of that work never culminated into recognition or awards. The interesting thing about getting awards is not always do the most deserving people get them. Not only that, you have to know strategically what to put in your award package and be (or have a supervisor who is) a pretty darn good writer too!
Despite my odds, I applied anyway, and it was not a big surprise that I didn’t get selected. I would not be able to apply for this particular program again because by the next cycle I would meet the max Time in Service (TIS) of 10 years.
What now?
I really wanted to stay in the medical career field so I had to do some soul searching on what to do. Again, I wanted a fairly quick but less competitive program this time. I decided to go the Nursing route because there was a high demand for nurses and they had a scholarship where they would send me to school and after that I would get my commission.
Like I mentioned in my blog Non-Volunteer Orders to Germany, I love how a plan doesn’t come together! In the midst of trying to get the prerequisites knocked out, I got non volunteer orders again, but to Turkey this time!
Side note: My assignment in Turkey was one of my most favorite assignments to date! We worked hard but we had so much fun together. So what started out as a devastating blow to my plan, ended up being what determined me not getting into the nursing program and what put me on the path that eventually led me to applying for OTS and getting accepted.
Until next time…
Well folks, that’s all for now but I can’t wait to dive in deeper and tell you about my pretty frustrating yet successful journey to becoming an Officer in the Air Force. It took persistence and determination sprinkled with a little luck to get there, but boy was it worth it!
Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss when I post Part 2 of Becoming an Officer!
