Hello I have been lurking for a while and decided to make my first post today.
Can someone explain to me the differences between being an Intelligence Officer in the Air Force or Army. As of now I was planning on applying to the Air Force Academy only, with the eventual goal of getting into AF Intel. The reason I thought I wanted Air Force over Army is for the better bases and I thought that the Air Force would have a larger intelligence community to work with.
However, I just recently read that the Army has an entire Military Intelligence Corps with over 28,000 personnel (wikipedia). I have not been able to find any similar info for the Air Force. Also, I read somewhere (I can't find the link right now for some reason) that a lot of higher-up intelligence positions are being filled by pilots (though this isn't exclusive to the intelligence field; it happens in a lot of the different positions) as opposed to career intelligence officers. I wanted to confirm if that was a valid point or not. I also read that the Army is more people-centric and that the AF is kind of like two worlds (rated vs non-rated) which might explain the article that says that pilots take a lot of the high up positions.
Essentially, I want to serve in the branch that I will have a) the greatest chance of me becoming an Intel Officer, and b) the greatest possibility for upward mobility into the intelligence community. I want to have an impact in that field so I want to be in the branch that will give me the most opportunity. Which branch do you think that is? Should I consider applying to West Point as well?
Can someone explain to me the differences between being an Intelligence Officer in the Air Force or Army. As of now I was planning on applying to the Air Force Academy only, with the eventual goal of getting into AF Intel. The reason I thought I wanted Air Force over Army is for the better bases and I thought that the Air Force would have a larger intelligence community to work with.
However, I just recently read that the Army has an entire Military Intelligence Corps with over 28,000 personnel (wikipedia). I have not been able to find any similar info for the Air Force. Also, I read somewhere (I can't find the link right now for some reason) that a lot of higher-up intelligence positions are being filled by pilots (though this isn't exclusive to the intelligence field; it happens in a lot of the different positions) as opposed to career intelligence officers. I wanted to confirm if that was a valid point or not. I also read that the Army is more people-centric and that the AF is kind of like two worlds (rated vs non-rated) which might explain the article that says that pilots take a lot of the high up positions.
Essentially, I want to serve in the branch that I will have a) the greatest chance of me becoming an Intel Officer, and b) the greatest possibility for upward mobility into the intelligence community. I want to have an impact in that field so I want to be in the branch that will give me the most opportunity. Which branch do you think that is? Should I consider applying to West Point as well?