Re Michael O'Leary's post, it parallels my experience as a 20-year-old gunner promoted to officer cadet and sent on Army Officer Candidate Training in September 1960. One should never forget that all officers cadets regardless of entry programme had to meet the same entry standards in terms of intelligence tests and selection boards. [The average age of our course was six months older than our ROTP compatriots, but that is another story.] We were second class citizens as was evident when we were not allowed to participate in the summer officer cadet sports day and our OCP class was the only one without formal recognition of the top student with a trophy or award. Ok, sore point, I led our course and did get an interview with the commandant as a reward.
When we reached our regiments, we found there was little difference in standard, except that we were second lieutenants and the ROTP were lieutenants except for a couple who did not have a degree. Honking big difference in pay by the way. In terms of performance, little if any difference except for the approximate 50% of the ROTP who made no bones about taking the program for the "free" degree and had no intention of serving a day beyond their three year commitment as a commissioned officer. They were largely idle wastes of rations. There was enough dissatisfaction with the inequalities and general favouritism towards ROTP at the time, that those who intended to make a career of it agreed that the system was broken. By the seventies the course standards, etc were the same and in fact the OCTP and ROTP candidates were integrated.
So what? Junior officers are pretty much a work in progress and formal education is only one factor in determining how well these young men and women will do when the stress fairy waves her magic wand all of a sudden. As a second lieutenant I was faced by two sudden challenges. The first was a few months after commissioning when I had to resolve a domestic situation involving alcohol, adultery and a loaded firearm in the hands of the aggrieved husband. The second involved the premature detonation of a live round 15 metres out of the muzzle of a field gun that wounded six of my soldiers. I wasn't perfect, but both turned out well.
Back then the majority consensus of officers through both streams was that the system would work better if selection to pursue a degree came after a few years service.
When we reached our regiments, we found there was little difference in standard, except that we were second lieutenants and the ROTP were lieutenants except for a couple who did not have a degree. Honking big difference in pay by the way. In terms of performance, little if any difference except for the approximate 50% of the ROTP who made no bones about taking the program for the "free" degree and had no intention of serving a day beyond their three year commitment as a commissioned officer. They were largely idle wastes of rations. There was enough dissatisfaction with the inequalities and general favouritism towards ROTP at the time, that those who intended to make a career of it agreed that the system was broken. By the seventies the course standards, etc were the same and in fact the OCTP and ROTP candidates were integrated.
So what? Junior officers are pretty much a work in progress and formal education is only one factor in determining how well these young men and women will do when the stress fairy waves her magic wand all of a sudden. As a second lieutenant I was faced by two sudden challenges. The first was a few months after commissioning when I had to resolve a domestic situation involving alcohol, adultery and a loaded firearm in the hands of the aggrieved husband. The second involved the premature detonation of a live round 15 metres out of the muzzle of a field gun that wounded six of my soldiers. I wasn't perfect, but both turned out well.
Back then the majority consensus of officers through both streams was that the system would work better if selection to pursue a degree came after a few years service.
