Is 1stLt a typo??? Don't tell me six weeks of training lets you skip ahead a full rank
Is 1stLt a typo??? Don't tell me six weeks of training lets you skip ahead a full rank
"Qualified civilians can now directly apply for a commission as an officer in the U.S. Army Cyber branch. That means you could join the Army
at the rank of First Lieutenant or higher. You will help to build the future of Army Cyber and electronic warfare."
Unreal, eh?
I wanted to shed some further context on this. These are not my personal views, just my attempt at explaining the rationale behind the Army’s decision.
The Army and military in general has struggled to recruit people with knowledge/talent and backgrounds in cyber fields and many higher-ups believe that this has made America vulnerable since cyber warfare is becoming more and more important, especially to our enemies in NK, Russia, China, and Iran.
Many IT and cybersecurity professionals are already paid in the six-figures out of college in civilian jobs. Put yourself in their shoes - subtracting patriotism and a sense of duty from the equation, why would you subject yourself to the gruelling training of OCS and the relatively strict discipline of military life
and take a substantial pay cut as well as run the risk that you won’t even be doing anything related to your field? It’s not unheard of for people with CS degrees to get voluntold to become combat arms officers and since the field moves so fast, stagnating for a few years can often impede a future career in the civilian world. For them, going the traditional OCS route and getting booted all the way to O-1 as well taking the risk that they won’t even get put into their field of study is a dealbreaker. Many are also not interested in the typical career progression of an Army officer; they’d much rather stay working with a small team of skilled technical experts than ever command a large unit, and that therefore the progression to command can actually be a
downside for them.
The Army’s goal is simple. By assuring these professionals that they will remain in the cyber field (And not have to endure the training of BCT and OCS) as well as raising their rank of entry to at least O-2 to make military pay more competitive with the civilian sector, they will attract more professionals and talent to the field. Furthermore, by managing cyber officers through a specialized direct accession program, they can ensure that they are being put where they are needed the most. Yes, learning to put the needs of the service first is important for them, but finding someone who is willing to take the (still rather significant, even as a O-2) paycut out of the desire to serve their nation is rare, and these men and women need to be out into the field where their expertise can help the most. The officers that are coming from this program aren’t likely to be from some podunk university with a degree in basket weaving too - they’re likely to be coming from reputable schools with STEM degrees or to have years of experience in the field, experience that can greatly benefit the US military. Many might even be prior-enlisted.
Does it go against tradition? Maybe. Should it disgust you because their commission path is much easier than others? Perhaps. But with our rivals in China and Russia both vastly improving their cyber warfare capabilities and operating their own incentives programs for cyber personnel, it would be foolish if the US military didn’t try to revamp their techniques to make themselves competitive among high-paying companies in Silicon Valley or the tech giants of Google and Apple. Maybe in the past special incentives like this weren’t needed, but culture and technology and times have changed, and failure to adapt and revamp the recruiting efforts towards those with important technical skills could prove disastrous in a future where cyberspace is a battlefield.