Yes, it has been around for awhile. Basically auctioning off prime locations.Is there really a thing now called PADSO? If so, I guess they really are trying to get longer commitments from as many cadets as possible.
Yes, all aviators will go to Fort Rucker for training. This is also true for all branches. All Infantry will go to Fort Benning and all MPs will go to Fort Leonard Wood as examples.
Post night delivers their first assignment AFTER training. This is the location where they will spend 3 or so years.
That's generally what I have heard. Rather than picking their post on Post Night, they supposedly are given an envelope. That suggests that the assignment could pretty much be anywhere and they'd probably never know if it was done in any type of selection order based upon the lower ranked cadet. However, the most important thing is that the Army stations them together, which is all that really matters.Heard a little about fiancés posting. There is a formal process and I don't know very much about the details, but they do look at where each is on the post selection order for their branch(s) and try to use the selection for the lower ranking cadet for both. Obviously won't work in every case and I assume some adjusting in many cases to get both cadets posted together.
As always, needs of the Army takes precedence.
% BRADSO = the ones actually charged the 3 extra years?: Yes, that is how I read it. 18% of 983 = 177 BRADSO'sOn that chart % BRADSO = the ones actually charged the 3 extra years? If so, that's a huge percentage. Also, who's the cadet needing to BRADSO into FA? LOL.
No, posting happens later, except for Cyber. All Cyber officers go to Ft. Gordon, GA (for both BOLC and initial post) so there is no need to attend Post Night. At least, that was the case for the class of 2019.
That actually changed including the for Class of 19 officers once they got to CY BOLC.
My main point ... is that Post Night at USMA does not apply to Cyber cadets as they all go to Ft. Gordon for BOLC and what happens next is determined at Ft. Gordon, not West Point.
Curious about PADSO since we don't have anything like that down in Annapolis (or in the Navy).
To me it seems like this is a way better deal for the Army that the cadet. I'm not sure how the Army is in terms of time away from home, but in my community in the Navy it's not unusual to spend 2/3 or more of a tour away from home, be it on deployment, work up, or TAD.
I spoke to an instructor pilot once who had spent 25 of his first 32 months on his sea tour away from his home base. Let's say that he had hypothetically taken PADSO(if such a thing existed for the Navy) for that duty station. That would mean he would have signed on to serve an additional 3 years for just 7 months of time in his preferred duty station!
To me it doesn't seem like giving the Army three more years of your life in exchange for what would amount to a few months in Hawaii or Italy would amount to a very worthwhile trade.
So do many cadets take PADSO, or is this just happening for a small percentage of the class each year?
In the graph for MI, the cadets who got the branch based on OML were ranked 1 to less than 357. Thee final cadet could be ranked 356 or 156. No way to tell from the graph.@jl123 I feel like I’m missing something on the bar graph that you posted. Am I understanding this correctly?
Let’s take MI, Military Intelligence. Does the graph mean the following:
Of the 63 who ended up MI, their OML rankings ranged from number 1 (with 1 being highest ranked) to number 706? And of the cadets who chose to BRADSO to ensure they got that branch, no one was ranked worse than 357?
When selection for the branch is completed, all cadets in the branch are ranked by OML. They get charged for the extra 3 years if they elected BRADSO and fall in the bottom 25% of the branch.In the event a cadet chooses to BRADSO to increase chances of branch selection, under what circumstances will the 3 years not be “charged?”