Cadets

[perardua]

Decided to split this off into a new thread to see if it goes anywhere!

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Boy, that's hardcore -- having to go to Sandhurst on top of an officer training program...that's like going to West Point on top of going ROTC...

It's not quite as hardcore as that when you bear in mind that Sandhurst is a 44 week course (last I checked, anyway) rather than being an actual university like West Point. And it makes sense when you compare the structure of, say, an OTC/TA commissioning course with that of the regular one. A lot of stuff is cut down or missed out by neccessity due to the practicalities of fitting effective military training in between someone's civilian life. After all, there's only so much you can fit into weekends, Wednesday nights and a two week residential course at Sandhurst. Same goes for the other services.

Obviously, having had the reservist experience before joining full time is very beneficial, and I know of one individual who had gained a commission via the OTC at his university, then binned off going to OTC training and persuaded a local TA unit to let him act as one of their platoon commanders (TA are always short of officers at that rank). That gave him a lot more practical experience in leading troops than the OTC would have, as OTC cadets tend to rotate through various command positions in order to give all the potential officers a fair crack. Also, as he'd done the 2 week course at Sandhurst as part of his OTC commissioning, he already knew the place quite well when he finally got there for his regular commissioning.

I remember having a discussion a while ago on how the commissioning process differs between the US and UK. Basically, it seemed to be that in the US Army the commissioning process was more a means of preparing officers for their branch training, where the real military stuff happens, whilst in the UK the system seems closer to that of the USMC, with Sandhurst focusing entirely on preparing cadets for service as an officer capable of leading an infantry platoon (though not to the extent the Platoon Commander's Battle Course does). After all, only a small number of US Army officer cadets will pass through West Point, whilst Sandhurst trains every officer in the Army, whether Regular, TA or Late Entry.

The above also goes for the RAF and Navy. The Royal Marines are a bit weird, being the only service that does their officer training at the same location as the training of their enlisted personnel, and they effectively include the Platoon Commanders Battle Course as part of the training of all their officers.