Expert: Aaron Shifferly - 9/28/2009

Question
QUESTION: I am in the process of joining the US Army.  I am a licensed attorney but want to get out of that field and am working with the Army to become a translator.  I am older (40) but my paperwork/goals are going smoothly.  I have a great recruiter but he is trying to sell me on the idea of simply enlisting instead of doing OCS.  He says that the contract I sign would guarantee me a role as a translator if I enlist, but there's no guarantee what my job would be if I go the route of OCS.  I am looking to find out about: any opinions on whether this seems like good advice and any opinions on the translator under OCS or enlisted route.  Thanks for your time!

ANSWER: First thing to know is that there are no officer-translators so you would have to come in enlisted if you want to go that route. The highest rank you could come in as would be a specialist (E4). This year's pay scale puts you at 1827.60 base pay per month and you would be living in the barracks so no housing allowance or food allowance. You would get Foreign Language Proficiency Pay (FLPP) of about 400.00 more per month (language and score dependent). As an officer, your base pay starts at 2655.30 plus you get about 275.00 for food allowance, and an area-dependent housing allowance so you can live off base someplace. Other issues would be moving your stuff from place to place and such as officers have a much higher weight allowance. The only change to this if you're married is you get some money for dependents but its the same as an officer or enlisted. So, your recruiter is right.. you can sign a contract and get a job as an intel guy and learn a language, but you would be taking a SEVERE pay cut. Your other option is to take a crap shot at the 'branch lottery' and do OCS and see what they assign you. If you stay in long enough, you can declare a 'functional area' as a foreign area officer and then you can learn a language and be stationed at an embassy somewhere in the world. This typically happens about 8 or 9 years into your career. A third option would be to join the Army as an attorney (JAG Corps). They bring you in as a First Lieutenant instead of Second (3058.80 per month base pay) and you get promoted to Captain (3540.30 base pay) after about 6 months. I would urge you to take a look at what your personal goals are, but I seriously think that enlisting would bring about a lifestyle change that you may find difficult to accept. Please feel free to follow up if you have more questions.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks a million for your answers.  It was VERY informative and it helped tremendously.  I have a few follow up questions. (1) So I enlist and go to Monterey to learn another language.  After that I start working.  Based on my age would it be too late to become an officer IF (big IF) I do my job really well and I have the educational background that I do?  It seems the Army would want me to be an officer and utilize all of my skills/talents.  Or (2) if  I do the enlistment/translator route is the officer route not possible due to my age and career route.  (3) You mentioned First Lieutenant/Second Lieutenant and then Captain in 6 months.  If I become a Second Lieutenant (not the attorney route) how long is the promotion timetable from there?  A year or more from Second Lieutenant?  There are about 10 jobs which appear to require language skills, so perhaps there is one that require me to be an officer.  Again, thank you for your kind assistance.  It has been very, very helpful.

Answer
First answer. If you enlist and go to Monterey to learn another language the Army will be paying a substantial amount of money for your education. I've seen some people, even one lawyer then go officer, but she went officer in the JAG program. You have to take care of yourself first, because no one will be a better career manager for you than you. I say this because NCOs and Officers should recognize talent and encourage that individual to better themselves, but far too often it doesn't happen nowadays. If you want to go and be an officer your best bet is to do that initially. Your language skills will have little bearing on your job as an officer through OCS (I know because I went to DLI, learned a language, and have yet to use it 'officially' for the Army 10 years later.). The regulation is always in flux as to the age limit in applying to OCS (It used to be 34 with a waiver, but I'm told it's gone up) but have your recruiter show it to you in writing. I would venture to say that if it was available to you (HUGE IF) after enlisting you would have a very very narrow window in which to complete your paperwork and get it done. Your age is working against you right now.  If you became a Second Lieutenant normal route, it would be 18 months before you were promoted to First Lieutenant. Then it would be another 18-24 months before your promotion to Captain (that's done at an Army-Level board and your promotion sequence number will determine the amount of time it takes you to make Captain.) There are only a few jobs in the Army Officer corps that require language skills. They are:
Foreign Area Officer - a functional area that an officer designates after 7 years in their base branch and then they go to Monterey and do the Embassy tours.
Civil Affairs/PSYOPS officer - these officers are part of Special Operations Command and they designate this at the 3-4 year mark after commission. They learn languages usually at Fort Bragg.
Special Forces Officer: These officers are 1LT or CPT and higher and are assessed after a very demanding physical test and course into the Special Forces Branch (Green Berets).

All of those branches are branches that you cannot just 'become' upon commission as a Second Lieutenant.
Something that may help you make your decision is that the enlisted personnel are truly the 'doers' in the Army system. They are the true experts at their jobs, particularly the mid-senior NCOs. Officers are the policy-setters and general experts. This is why, even in Military Intelligence fields, Languages are generally not required of the officers. They have NCOs and Warrant Officers that are the true experts in the details.

I hope this helps and please keep emailing me with more questions.