West Point exists to educate and train Cadets who are commissioned as Officers in the US Army upon Graduation. The commitment is for a total of 8 years, 5 of which are on active duty and 3 in the Reserves if you choose not to continue on active duty. A very few graduates may select commissioning in other services, primarily where one of their parents has served a career in another service. The primary options for Army service are the choice of branch of service. You choose that at the beginning of your senior year. What are your army career options? After graduating from West Point, you will be commissioned in one of several Army branches. You may want a combat arms branch such as Infantry, Field Artillery, Armor, Air Defense Artillery, Aviation or Combat Engineers. You also may choose a combat support branch such as Signal, Military Police, Chemical or Military Intelligence.

You may also want to choose one of the combat service support branches such as Ordnance, Quartermaster, Transportation, Adjutant General or Finance. Opportunities are also available for the Medical Service Corps or the Judge Advocate General Corps later in your service career. You will advance to positions of greater responsibility in each branch based on your abilities. West Point is looking for well rounded young men and women who want to serve as commissioned officers in the US Army. By well rounded I mean good students, good athletes, and good leaders. The focus is on service in the Army rather than on the college education part.

Requirements for a larger Army transcend those of the immediate present. Solving the problems of the efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan is and will be the job of the existing forces and only if the problem persists will Army expansion begin to play a role. If the commitment does persist, however, thinking that today’s soldiers, most of whom are returning to a combat theater for the second, third or fourth time, will in another three years be returning for their fifth or sixth tour, combines wishful thinking with disastrous force management. The most pressing need to grow the Army is the possibility that the Iraq and Afghan campaigns will continue.

Aside from that primary requirement, growing the Army is equally important for the long-term health of our military establishment and for the nation’s ability to satisfy its national military strategy. We are sustaining our current war capabilities by expending our materiel assets and overtaxing our manpower. We are either ignoring our strategic requirement for coping with another major contingency or we are overestimating the capabilities of the other services to handle such a crisis. We have depreciated if not endangered our future by reducing the resources available for the training and education of our leadership and for the research and development of new equipment and technology. We are contracting for services once provided by Army structure and expertise.