Welcome back to commissioned. Today we’re going to be talking about my commissioning source, the Air Force officer training school at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. Tigers lead the way.
Are we really?
Totally. Everybody wants to be a tiger, Colin.
Okay, we got to back up here for a second.
Reed.
What is a tiger?
Tiger is the best squadron at officer training school in the 24th Training Squadron.
And you’re saying that because you were a tiger?
Twice. Twice, yes. Not only did I commission at Air Force officer training school in Montgomery, Alabama, I went back as an OTS instructor and served two years. An incredibly rewarding experience. And that’s what we’re hoping to help you with, is not only from the perspective as prospective students, but also from an instructor perspective. How can you be successful? How can you get selected? How can you get through that training program?
Yeah, pretty awesome that we have the ability to rely on your experience here, not just as a student at OTS, not just being a cadet there or an officer trainee.
Yeah, there’s a cadet trainee. It changes all the time. Yeah.
Okay, there we go. But then you were also an instructor there, experiencing everything from cradle to grave, start to finish, the whole thing. So super excited to have this opportunity to talk a little bit more about ots and how it fits within the broader construct of commissioning, but also the day to day aspects of being there at OTS.
Exactly. And that idea of how ots fits into the overall commissioning scheme is really important because that drives so much of the character and what is OTS? So OTS is the third and last commissioning source for the Air Force USAFA. The Air Force Academy is first, ROTC is second, and essentially, OTS is there to make up the difference. That can mean sometimes OTS is training at 200% capacity and selection rates. Ots are 50, 60%. Other times, when we don’t need as many officers, they may be only holding a board or two a year, and the training program is really whittled down. So that really plays a really large role in the overall character of the training program. But before any of that, the first thing you need to know when it comes to OTS is you have to go through a recruiter.
Right. Unlike the Air Force Academy, unlike Air Force RTC, you work through an actual Air force recruiter in order to apply, get selected, and then get sent to officer training school. And is this a really quick process, Reed?
It is not. So start to finish can be anywhere from six months to two years before you actually enter training. It all depends, again, because it is the flexible partner in the training scheme. If the air Force needs officers, it can move a little bit more quickly. If they don’t, it becomes more competitive and it can take a long time. Sometimes people apply three, four times before they get selected. Yeah.
So let’s provide a little bit more information for those who have not yet gone through this process but are looking to do so, knowing that they have to go talk to a recruiter who’s going to screen them for various capabilities and information. What are some of the things that they need to have going into that process so that it can come off successfully and as quickly as possible?
First and foremost, you have to have your bachelor’s degree done or within about a semester of graduation. Anything before that and they’re really not going to talk to you. They’ve got enough applicants and that has got to be done. You got to have your education done. The next thing is these are slightly different recruiters than the typical recruiter you’ll find at a strip mall in anytown, USA. These are Air Force officer specific recruiters. The best place to find those, go to airforce.com and click join now and go through the steps. It’s a pretty easy drop down box. They’ll give you the contact information of one of these recruiters. The last thing I’ll say on this is you have to be persistent. These recruiters are incredibly busy people. You’re going to have to email them, you’re going to have to text them, you’re going to have to call them. You may even have to show up at their offices in order to really get their attention.
Yeah, absolutely. But the last thing that I would want to say about that, yes, be persistent, but be professional.
Absolutely.
Coming off as someone who is frustrated or angry about how long the process is taking is not going to help your chances to get selected. They have plenty of other people who are looking to go to OTS. They don’t need to spend time with people who are not adding value to their day.
Absolutely. So what a recruiter is going to do is they’re going to help determine what you are qualified to do, what you are interested in doing, and then help you create your package. The package consists of your academics. Where did you go to school? What is your GPA? How well did you do in that program? They’re going to work with you on that. They’re also going to help arrange and allow you to take the Air Force officer qualifying test, or AfoQT. That’s an essential component of all commissioning sources. All officers have to pass that test with minimum requirements before they can enter. They will help arrange for all of that. After that, they’re going to help you work through medical requirements just like all the other sources. You have to meet specific medical requirements in order to join.
Yeah. And you’re going to want to be persistent, professional, and prepared through all of this. It does not take a short amount of time. It requires your patience. It requires your persistence. So do not give up, especially if this is something that you truly, deeply care about. You want to become an officer and OTS is the way that you’re going to do it?
Yeah, absolutely. On a typical calendar year, there are going to be between two and four officer selection boards for ots. Typically, these are divided up into two categories. One half of those boards will be for rated officers. Those are our air crew pilots, air battle managers, remotely piloted aircraft, and our combat systems officers. That is one half of the selection process. The other half are for non rated AFSCs or air force specialty codes. That includes all the other aFSCs that are out there now. Colin, we cannot go into all of the many ways and paths you can get into OTS. I think by my basic math, more than 100 different ways and categories of people. It’s complicated, and hence the reason you have to have a recruiter help you get through this process.
Absolutely. And also, you should not rely on ots as your primary means for getting into the Air Force as a commission officer. If you have the ability to go to the Air Force Academy or join Air Force RRTC, we highly recommend that you investigate that route first rather than relying on this very complicated, very competitive, very long process of getting into officer training school.
Absolutely. We’re not going to go too in depth on our prior enlisted members, but the bottom line, they also have to go through their local base education center to create a package to compete for selection. So slightly different process, but they still have to compete for selection. So congratulations. You’ve been accepted. You’ve got an OTS date. Now what? That’s what we’re going to cover next?
Yeah. Your recruiter is going to help you to get the date of your class and also set up the process for getting you to the actual class itself, which is always going to be at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.
Exactly. And that’s where my experience as an instructor can kind of help inform what’s going to happen once you get there. Yes, I was there as a student, but to be honest, Colin, I don’t remember a whole lot. It was kind of a scary experience. But don’t worry. That’s what we’re here for. We’re going to help guide you through that. So you show up at Maxwell Air Force Base. The entire point and purpose of officer training school is for you to demonstrate that you are worthy of the special trust and confidence from the president through the constitution in order to earn your commission. You’re going to do that through a variety of ways. You’re going to have academic assessments. There’s a lot of studying. You got to pass some tests. You have to show us that you are competent. There’s physical fitness aspects. You have to pass a PFA like we’ve also outlined, but there’s a lot of physical things that go into it. You’re going to march, you’re going to drill, you’re going to show that you’re able to withstand some of the hard things that are part of this military life. Yeah.
And you’re not going to be doing it by yourself. Part of earning the special trust and confidence of a commission is that you are connecting with other people. So you need to demonstrate your ability to work with others, problem solve, lead, serve, follow. All of this goes into that trust that you hope to earn at the end in the form of a commission. But most importantly, across OTS, Air Force, RTC, and the academy is demonstrating that you have the good moral and ethical character necessary to serve as an officer in the United States Air Force.
Yeah. Without question, the number one way and the fastest route to getting dismissed from training at OTS was to do something to demonstrate that you lacked integrity. That was the easiest way to get kicked out of officer training school. So bottom line, don’t do it. Be an honest person. Do what you’ve asked to do and do what you say you’re going to do. A couple more things about training. It’s hard. It’s long. The day usually starts at zero 430 in the morning and very often ends at 2300 in the evening. And you are going every minute of every day.
Yeah, absolutely. It is going to be a test of your ability to withstand the pressures of the military training environment for whatever length of time that OTS is at that time, because it does change. Sometimes it’s not always six weeks. Sometimes it’s nine. Could be longer. It will change. But the point is, can you stay focused? Can you stay connected, demonstrate competence and that character across the entire duration? But let’s say you finish, you reach it to graduation. Reed, what does it look like when you’re done?
Well, graduation week is the best week. It’s the week that makes it all worth it, right? Your family and friends are going to come from all over the world to help you commission. You’re going to have a graduation ceremony. It’s really fantastic, but it all ends with a really, really nice ceremony. A passing review. It’s a drill formation, Colin, we know you love drill, but it’s really fantastic opportunity to demonstrate your ability to take command, to follow orders, to unify yourself with this thing that is more than just yourself. And when you’re standing there in formation with your right hand raised, reciting the oath of office and a pair of f 15s fly over and you throw your hat in the air, you really know that you’ve done something pretty special.
And now you’re part of the long blue line of being an air force officer, ready to serve, learn lead, and help the Air Force be successful in whatever it does anywhere in the world at any time. Though officer training school is the third and flexible partner in the commissioning scheme, that doesn’t make you any less of an officer upon graduation. Congratulations. You made it through the process. You are now duly commissioned and able to serve the Air Force and the american people.
Absolutely. We’ve gone in depth on this topic, both from the instructor side and from the student side. In our podcast, we’ve got links in the description to where you can find that. We’d love if you could click like and subscribe to what we’re sharing with you today so that we can bring you more content to help answer some of those questions. And if you have questions, if you’re thinking about going to ots or you’ve been selected, you have questions about how to be successful, please hit me up. I’d love to answer those questions. It’s one of my favorite things to do.
And if you’ve already been through officer training school and you see that there’s something that we missed that is really important for us to share with the audience, let us know. We would love to make that information available to everybody so that they can make those informed decisions. Anything else we need to say here, Reed?
No, I think that wraps it up. Thanks for joining us today on commission Ed.