Army Branching & Navy Designation

On Oct. 31, Norwich Army ROTC cadets were informed in the White Chapel of what branch they would be assigned after graduating and commissioning with the army.

Branching is the term used for a career field like artillery and infantry.

At the branching ceremony, cadre from the Army department "call (the seniors) up front and we named their branch and give them their branch insignia," said Arnold Piper, the assistant professor of military science for the army department.

The navy's term for branching is designating, said U.S. Navy Lieutenant Lisa Blachford, a naval science instructor at Norwich.

Senior midshipmen from the navy department have been informed of what their designation will be, explained Blachford.

"There wasn't a big ceremony, like the army has branching, but we don't do anything like that," said Erica Schuler, a senior communications major from Yorktown, Va.

"They all just brought us into the Ward Room, and (Colonel Oliver) read off a list and said, ‘Hey, Schuler, you got this, whoever got that,'" said Schuler. "It's kind of casual, like ‘Let's sit down and talk about it'"

To receive their desired designation, navy midshipmen with either a contract or scholarship must fill out and submit a designator request sheet the summer after junior year, according to Blachford.

"They have to put down their top five," said Blachford. "That can consist of anything from surface warfare, to submarine warfare, to aviation, to special operation, and special warfare."

To help midshipmen decide on what branch to choose the naval department tries to expose them to different opportunities within the navy during their freshmen and sophomore years, according to Blachford.

"… we go down to training exercises in Newport, R.I," said Blachford. There the midshipmen can "look at all of the surface tactical trainers, they are on surface ships, but they are all simulated ships," said Blachford. "We also try to expose them to submarine and aviation areas throughout that time."

The navy department maintains a staff with officers from several of the different designations to help the midshipman make an informed decision before their junior year, explained Blachford.

There are "three naval officers here, one aviator, I am a surface warfare officer, and then we have one submarine officer," said Blachford. "We maintain these billets here to teach different classes and expose them to the different designators."

The designator request sheets are sent Pensacola, Fla., the location of the Naval Services Training Command's head quarters. Here the Naval Services Training Command determines the designation of every junior midshipman in the country, explained Blachford.

 "They look at their GPA, their PRT scores throughout freshman year," said Blachford. A PRT is the acronym for Physical Readiness Test. This is the test used to judge and determine a navy midshipmen's physical fitness.

The Naval Services Training Command also keeps track of any probations and the midshipmen's learning aptitude score, gathered through peer evaluations, explained Blachford.

Four-year scholarship midshipmen are also required to take specific classes. "Everybody in the navy has to take two semesters of calculus, and two semesters of physics," said Schuler. "But that is everybody with a navy scholarship. Those are prerequisites that everybody has to have."

Navy midshipmen will go onboard navy vessels for summer training exercises, according to Blachford.

"Summer cruise or summer training happen every summer exposes them to different areas, whether they want to go to an aviation squadron, or spend some time on a surface ship out at sea, or a submarine," said Blachford.

There are two types of summer cruises; a second class cruise is cruise where a midshipman spends time shadowing enlisted personal. A first-class cruise is a summer cruise where a midshipman shadows an officer and it this cruise the midshipmen is evaluated on, according to Schueler.

"My cruise was OK. I was on a LHD, which is a huge, huge transport ship that transports marines. That was pretty much the goal of it," said Schueler. "It was just really big, with tons of people on it. It was easy to get lost, but I had a good running mate and learned a lot. I learned a lot more than during any other cruise."

  Despite having her first-class cruise on a LHD, Schueler wants to be assigned to a destroyer.

  "I want to pick a destroyer, because I have been on a destroyer for summer cruise, and I felt more at ease there than the bigger ship I was on this past summer," said Schueler.

  For a midshipman to be assigned to the ship they want, they need to focus on their navy perquisites. "Don't short change the things that are going to affect your future," said Schueler.

  "Being in the corps of cadets is great, but it is not really going to get you anywhere in the real military. Focus a lot on your ROTC requirements than corps requirements," explains Schueler.

  The army bases its branching off on an order of merit list or OML that ranks cadets on a possible number of points based on their performance and participation in academics and other activities, explained Piper.

"Academics is the highest weighted," said Piper. "It is weighted 40 percent overall."

The remaining weight is based off of the army's Leadership Program. This program is broken down into two separate categories, leader and physical, said Piper.

LDAC is the acronym for Leadership Development Application Course, which is the program an army cadet takes part in the summer after their junior year, at Fort Lewis in Washington State.

The Leader category is based on an army cadet's performance at LDAC and on campus experienced based observations.

The on-campus experienced based observations include "cultural language awareness program, the cadet training extracurricular activities, such as ranger challenge and the ranger club," said Piper. "Those are things based on campus."

Both the Rangers and Mountain Cold Weather special units count toward the cadet training extracurricular activities, according to Piper.

The physical category is based on three things, "The fall campus physical fitness score, the spring campus score and the first score at LDAC which counts three times as much as the other scores," said Piper.    

There is also the Additional Service Obligation Program (ADSO) "That is a program the army has and implemented three years ago," said Mike Bernard, a Department of the Army civilian worker. "In exchange for the army giving your branch you will give the army three more years of your life."

"I offered four more years of active duty," said Fernando Rincon, a senior political science major from Lancaster, Calif. "I know for sure if I had not done the ADSO I would not have gotten my slot."

Rincon was able to get his number one choice, aviation, because he was selected for an ADSO.

"Basically I got counseling on my performance in the army department has been so far," said Rincon. "Basically my options were either try and offer an ADSO for aviation or try to go for something else, I decided to stick with it."

"What I think influenced a lot was extracurricular activities," said Rincon. "I don't have splendid grades, but it didn't hurt to have a 3.0 GPA average."

Rincon was involved in activities such as the corps of cadets drill team and model United Nations.

Other cadets were able to get their first choice, but only after fulfilling the needs of the army like one cadet who got "military intelligence, branch detailed, field artillery," said Caroline Bell, a senior criminal justice major from New Milford, Cont.

"My main job the higher up in the ranks I get will be military intelligence, but my first job will be field artillery," said Bell. "So I do (field artillery) for three to four years, but then I'll go to captain's course for military intelligence."

Branch detail is common and involves cadets fulfilling the needs of the army by having the army place them in positions they need to fill for the first few years and then giving them the branch they desired in the future, explained Bell.

"Field artillery will be interesting, it's a pretty small branch for females, it is capped off at 4 percent," said Bell. "Being a female and getting to do a combat arms branch will give me a tactical one on other people going into military intelligence, from what I have been told they just do paper work so I'll get to do the dirty work before coming in."

Out of the army cadets who received their branching, 60 percent received their first choice. The national average was 61 percent this year, according to Bernard.

"If any of the cadets received any of their top three branches, that is job satisfaction," said Bernard. "72 percent received one of their top three choices; the national average was 68 percent this year."