Population Representation 2004 - Selected Reserve Officer Accessions and Officer Corps

SELECTED RESERVE OFFICER ACCESSIONS AND OFFICER CORPS

Source of Commission. Each Reserve Component applies its own selection procedures for officer candidates. Many officers who transfer from an Active Component already possess at least a college degree. Officer candidates who do not have a degree undergo rigorous selection procedures and must successfully complete an officer candidate or training school. Forty-one percent of Army Reserve officer accessions were commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Thirty-six percent of ARNG officer accessions were also commissioned through ROTC.

Table 6.6 shows the sources of commission that each of the Reserve Components most frequently use. The USNR, USAFR and USAR use direct appointment as a source of commission more than the other Components. In fact, the USNR and USAFR use direct appointment as their largest source of commissions. The overwhelming majority of USMCR officer accessions (76 percent) obtained their commissions through OCS or the Marine Corps Platoon Leader Class (PLC). PLC is a split-training program in which candidates normally attend officer training in the summers after their junior and senior years of college. The Army components rely heavily on ROTC, primarily without scholarships, and the ANG uses other programs as their main source of commission. [Footnote 2]

Table 6.6. FY 2004 Source of Commission of Selected Reserve Officer Accessions (Percent)
Source of Commission	Army National Guard¹	Army Reserve	Naval Reserve	USMC Reserve	Air National Guard	Air Force Reserve	DOD Total
Service Academy	0.0	3.7	15.8	5.6	5.7	12.2	6.6
ROTC-Scholarship	10.4	16.6	17.4	0.0	5.0	14.3	12.9
ROTC-Non Scholarship	26.0	24.4	2.8	11.1	10.2	17.4	17.5
OCS/OTS/PLC	2.1	4.8	17.3	76.1	6.0	22.5	13.9
ANG AMS/ARNG OCS	42.6	6.0	0.0	0.0	13.9	6.7	13.8
Direct Appointment	14.4	22.3	33.7	0.0	14.9	23.3	20.7
Other¹	2.6	1.6	6.0	0.0	44.4	3.6	6.3
Unknown	1.8	20.7	7.1	7.3	0.0	0.0	8.2
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Columns may not add to total due to rounding. Also see Appendix Table C-33 (Selected Reserve Officers by Source of Commission and Component). ¹ ANG officers receive their commission from one of the sources listed here. A large portion of ANG officer accessions are listed as "Other," because most of ANG officer accessions are prior service and commission source is not transferred in the personnel data system.

[Footnote 2] For Reserve Component commissioned officer accessions, "other" sources of commission are defined as: Merchant Marine Academy, Aviation Cadet, and Aviation Training Program. [back to paragraph]

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