Regular Commissions for Officer Accessions.

This paper concludes that there is a need to take a new approach in the commissioning of newly accessed officers. The regularreserve commission mix for active-duty officers could very well be a thing of the past. In fact, a radical redesigning of the entire commissioning system is needed one that provides equal status for all officers initially entering active duty. Such a break from traditional ties could result in total alignment of the active-duty officer force that would be equitably managed on a demonstrated-performance basis. The Defense Officer Personnel Management Act was passed in 1981, in part to create an all-career force at the field-grade level. Upon promotion to major, active-duty reserve officers are offered career status, and from that point until retirement, no distinction is made between reserve and regular commissioned officers. This portion of DOPMA was fully intended to eliminate inequities and disparate management of career officers based on type of commission. Unfortunately, DOPMA did not extend the same safeguard for junior officers. Officers are still accessed onto active duty with about a 5050 mix of regular and reserve commissions. At the company-grade level, this continues to proliferate the inequities that DOPMA eliminated for field-grade levels. Information was gathered from a review of the DOPMA and the Congressional Committee background report, as well as from volumes of the 1986 ROTC Study. Informal conversations were held with former Professors of Military Science, and with action officers from The Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel, and The Total Army Personnel Agency.