Cadet Command Mission Goals

Jcleppe

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http://www.army.mil/article/110279

Interesting article.

They talk about meeting the goal of 5350 commissions for this year. Then talk about which of the final six will make that mark.

If these cadets are at the bottom of that list, I sure hope they asked them first before printing their names.

What exactly does CC mean when they say "Which ones will make the mark" since that article is about total commissions. Will there be some cadets not allowed to commission this year at all. I must say, whoever wrote this left out a lot of details.
 
Thanks for update. Forwarding these to DS if he hasn't heard from BTN yet. He is working on small details now: classes, fitness, leadership, communication, etc, and the big picture is always good to know.

Sent using the Service Academy Forums® mobile app.
 
http://www.army.mil/article/110279

Interesting article.

They talk about meeting the goal of 5350 commissions for this year. Then talk about which of the final six will make that mark.

If these cadets are at the bottom of that list, I sure hope they asked them first before printing their names.

What exactly does CC mean when they say "Which ones will make the mark" since that article is about total commissions. Will there be some cadets not allowed to commission this year at all. I must say, whoever wrote this left out a lot of details.

I had to read it twice to understand. I think the writer was trying to say that one of the six would get the "honor" of being named the 5350th commissioned this year, marking the mission as complete. It seems that the others will still be commissioned.
 
what a strange article. HOnestly, the effort was there to use a literary device to make it an interesting read, but in the end it was very poorly written. The device didn't work and in fact was completely misleading. There is no competition to be number 5,350. It is the opposite.

Well, at least I gain this from the article... the mission of 5,350 is about the same as last year... which if I recall was somewhere between 5,400 and 5,500. However, this does not address the cut line between AD and Reserves/Guard. That's the big question I have for this year's Commissionees... will it be about 3,000 mission set for Active, or will it drop to 2,500? 2,700? Which means the Reserves absorbs more than in the past few years.
 
I had to read it twice to understand. I think the writer was trying to say that one of the six would get the "honor" of being named the 5350th commissioned this year, marking the mission as complete. It seems that the others will still be commissioned.

I thought that at first as well, until I read the line "but you only have so much room". The way they talk about the choice not being easy is what made me wonder.

I agree with Dunninla, very poor writing, with not much explanation.

I kind of feel for those they named if they are in fact the bottom of the list, not sure I'd like my name printed in that way.
 
I agree with jcleppe and dunninla - this was a poorly communicated way to draw attention to the diversity, talents and dedication of the newly commissioned class.

Did the author really mean that these individuals were ranked 5,350 through 5,355? It almost suggests a perverse reality show: "America's Least Qualified Second Lieutenant."
 
My interpretation of the article was that they choose some random cadets to show a broad spectrum of the types of majors and genders involved in the AROTC pool. I did not come away with the feeling that these cadets were the least qualified and were on the bubble. Quite the opposite. In my opinion the article implies that the choice will be very hard based on the type of quality cadet mentioned in the article. Again just my interpretation. I do agree the article could have been written better.
 
That is the problem facing U.S. Army Cadet Command as it tries to decide which of the final six cadets will meet this year's magic commissioning number.

I hope your right, but reading this, it doesn't sound like they are talking about random cadets.

The way it is written, seems to imply that those that don't make the "Magic Number" will not commission.
 
For the last batch of AD I knew a couple cadets who were on the bubble and this how CC worked it out to fill the remaining slots (The basics at least, as for exact OMS number and raw cadet ranking I do not know but the cadets I knew were in the 80 something percentile regarding rank):

RC
RC
RC
RC
AD
RC
RC
RC
RC
AD...and so on

Every fifth person in the bottom couple hundred got AD. Pretty arbitrary method but I know a few people who got lucky and a couple who did not. This article was really poorly written as others have stated and I am still trying to figure out the point they are trying to get across.
 
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Did the author really mean that these individuals were ranked 5,350 through 5,355? It almost suggests a perverse reality show: "America's Least Qualified Second Lieutenant."

Well, you never know...kind of like Mr Irrelevant of the NFL draft. The young lad/lady may turn out to be an awesome Army officer. 5350 is just a number. I know they have to find some way to whittle down the numbers but a super high GPA and alot of OML points for volunteering for color guard (or whatever) has little bearing on the making of a quality leader anyway.
 
Well, you never know...kind of like Mr Irrelevant of the NFL draft. The young lad/lady may turn out to be an awesome Army officer. 5350 is just a number. I know they have to find some way to whittle down the numbers but a super high GPA and alot of OML points for volunteering for color guard (or whatever) has little bearing on the making of a quality leader anyway.

So does this honor come with a post assignment at Disneyland? :yllol:
 
Every fifth person in the bottom couple hundred got AD. Pretty arbitrary method but I know a few people who got lucky and a couple who did not. This article was really poorly written as others have stated and I am still trying to figure out the point they are trying to get across.
Aglahad - do you know, for the cadets in this list, if they would ADSO this would prevent them from getting into this list?
 
ADSO does nothing for AD ranking only post, branch or GRADSO traditionally
 
It does now.

With the new 2.75 GPA and applicable Major and Branch choice.

I stand corrected, looks like I need to get ahold of those slides too! With these cadets (FY 13) it did not effect them however.
 
AFROTC and Polish Mom to boot, can someone explain to me the real intention of this article?

My understanding is AROTC is not like AFROTC, thus all of these cadets will be commissioned as an O1 way or another. Is this a puff piece to make the Army look strong meeting numbers? Or is it a sly way to say watch out something larger maybe brewing?

I.E. If they met their numbers, so 5 of those 6 will not be commissioned at all, and given walking papers.

AFROTC did this back in 09 (?). Approximately 90 days prior to commissioning cadets with assignments were told they were free to walk, nothing owed. They just had too many cadets, and although those cadets fulfilled the terms for commissioning, the AF didn't need them at all which resulted in the release. Trust me, there was a cadet at our DS's det that was ticked. They had spent their senior yr preparing to go ADAF, never interviewing or applying for grad school, to only find out in March that he was not going ADAF..

As I said, in the end if it was a puff piece than who cares if you are number 5351 when they are still going to commission you? Why IMPO publicly call these cadets out?

I feel for those cadets, can you imagine now the world knows your business, and every cadet at the det. knows too. Can you imagine being a parent here as a poster or lurker reading this article and seeing their kids name without any notice or warning?

One last question. Does the school caliber matter at all? I know a few of the schools, such as Appalachian, ERAU, but I have never heard of Olivet Nazarene. IOTW, is it not only the major, and the cgpa, but could it also be the college too that placed them that low on the list.

AFROTC places the school rigor as far as I know in the equation too. I.E. A cadet at Yale majoring in philosophy with a 2.89 will be viewed differently than a cadet at Timbucktoo University with a 3.1 in engineering.
 
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