Service Academy Commission vs Senior Military College Commission

spartan919

5-Year Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2011
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I am presently in a debate with a few people on being commissioned out of college. Are the commissions the same (2nd Lt.) from military service academies (West Point) and senior military colleges (North Georgia)?
 
No matter your commissioning source after your undergraduate graduation, be it Service Academy, SMC, or civilian college ROTC, you will be commissioned as a 2LT (or Ensign if you are in the Navy of course). There used to be a distinction of regular versus reserve status between active duty officers with Academy grads being guaranteed the regular commission, but that is no longer the case. All the commissions are the same now.
 
I remember getting in this debate a few years ago and one of the captains at our det cleared it up for us. Currently, all active duty officers have "regular" commissions while all reserve officers have "reserve" commissions (regardless of ROTC, academy, OTS, whatever).

A long time ago, academy grads were given "regular" commissions from the beginning while everyone else had a "reserve" commission until they got promoted to major. I guess that's why it was named the "Reserve" Officer Training Corps even though today they commission active duty officers.
 
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