Selecting unit?

Full Metal Bulldog

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Jul 29, 2012
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How would one go about this once they are commissioned and complete BOLC? I know you can ADSO for duty station, but what about individual unit? Would I ever have any ability to make it known that, for example, I want rock be assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division in some capacity, and have a process of getting assigned to that unit?

I understand the Army's manpower and human resources needs come first by far. The main reason I asked is, out of extreme boredom, I delved deep into the innards of the dinosaur of a system that is AKO and stumbled upon what seemed to be a list of "job openings", or available positions. When your time comes to be eligible for promotion or you want to transfer, do you just apply for and network your way into these listed openings? Seems too good to be true......
 
For the most part no especially as a 2LT as for what drug deals occur for unit postitions after the initial PCS I am not 100% sure....but if you get a certain duty station there is a good chance you will be assigned to the major unit on post though. 2ID at Lewis, 25th ABN and Richardson, 82nd at Bragg, 173rd ABN at Vicenza etc.

I know a guy who went directly into a GSB for a SF group but he knew people...

You know the 1st Cav and the units I listed are massive right? So you could easily be wearing the 1st cav patch as a log guy managing a field sanitation unit in a BSB or a cav scout platoon within a standard troop and squadron.

What link were you looking at? For medical, all our ako lists is available duty stations unless its a specific FST or CSH.
 
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For the most part no especially as a 2LT as for what drug deals occur for unit postitions after the initial PCS I am not 100% sure....but if you get a certain duty station there is a good chance you will be assigned to the major unit on post though. 2ID at Lewis, 25th ABN and Richardson, 82nd at Bragg, 173rd ABN at Vicenza etc.

I know a guy who went directly into a GSB for a SF group but he knew people...

You know the 1st Cav and the units I listed are massive right? So you could easily be wearing the 1st cav patch as a log guy managing a field sanitation unit in a BSB or a cav scout platoon within a standard troop and squadron.

What link were you looking at? For medical, all our ako lists is available duty stations unless its a specific FST or CSH.

Spot-on, as far as I know. There was a thing afoot at USMA where they could pinpoint to a brigade within a unit. I don't know if ROTC has the same options or not. Getting assigned to the large unit, as Aglahad mentioned, isn't usually a challenge. It's the specific unit with it that's tough (which battalion, for example).
 
Thanks guys. I just did my homework on the whole BCT system yesterday, so now I'm up to speed on STB's, Sustainment Battalions, etc. Really interesting as to why ROTC usually doesn't teach this larger scale organization. But it sure answered my question as to how I can be assigned to a majority Infantry division (again using 1st Cav as an example since this was the unit I researched the organization of) and yet be branched Aviation or MP. It also showed just how much larger and more prevalent MFE units are than the other branches, which made me wonder why MFE branch slots seem like rare gems when it comes to branching. It seemed to me like there's a whole lot more infantry PL's than anything else.....
 
Thanks guys. I just did my homework on the whole BCT system yesterday, so now I'm up to speed on STB's, Sustainment Battalions, etc. Really interesting as to why ROTC usually doesn't teach this larger scale organization. But it sure answered my question as to how I can be assigned to a majority Infantry division (again using 1st Cav as an example since this was the unit I researched the organization of) and yet be branched Aviation or MP. It also showed just how much larger and more prevalent MFE units are than the other branches, which made me wonder why MFE branch slots seem like rare gems when it comes to branching. It seemed to me like there's a whole lot more infantry PL's than anything else.....

Well, every infantry battalion usually has 1-3 loggies on staff, an intel officer or two, one or two adjutants, and a forward support company with 3-4 loggies. So there you have a good number.
 
Log on to the MSC HRC page. We can get very specific with our choices (BDE, BN, DET, CSH, etc).

https://www.hrc.army.mil/Officer/Vacancies by AOCs

Yes but for a brand new 2LT you don't have those choices. I have a bunch of MSC friends and they had no control of their first unit placement. After an initial PCS I am sure many drug deals and branch manager influences comes into play.
 
Yes but for a brand new 2LT you don't have those choices. I have a bunch of MSC friends and they had no control of their first unit placement. After an initial PCS I am sure many drug deals and branch manager influences comes into play.

I don know if things have changed since I last attended AMEDD OBC (2004), but did you have a sit-down with the 70B branch manager? I was originally going to 44th MED BDE at Ft Bragg, but I asked to be assigned to the 506th INF REG out of Ft Campbell. My branch manager granted my wish. Every 70B had about a 5-10 minute meeting with our branch manager. Did you experience this as well?
 
AT USMA post night, the cadets actually picked units this year, not duty stations. My son got his second choice of brigade at his preferred location.
 
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