Accessions for Cadets

Questions and Answers about obtaining an Option 40 Contract and other routes to serving as a Ranger in the US Army.
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Rico
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Accessions for Cadets

Post by Rico »

Here’s a rundown of the accessions process as of last year. Keep in mind that with every new Accessions Commander (we just recently had a changeover) things are subject to change, but for the most part they remain the same. So, here we go:

Roughly 3,500 to 4,500 cadets across the nation access each year. The breakdown of these kids ranges from the following categories:

-Scholarship (2, 3, and 4 year)
-Non-Scholarship Contracted cadet (contracted to commission and receiving monthly stipend but not receiving tuition)
-SMP (Simultaneous Membership Program)

Within the SMP category you have GRFD (Guaranteed Reserve Forces Duty) cadets who have chosen to go to a RC immediately after commissioning, and non-GRFD SMP cadets. Those who choose the GRFD option can pretty much pick their branch as long as they can get a paragraph and line number from that unit commander accepting them as a 2nd Lieutenant. As a GRFD contracted cadet you receive different funding for college from either the Reserves or National Guard. Even if you are not on a GRFD scholarship, you can opt for reserve forces duty upon commissioning and you’ll be assessed with everyone else, but you can change your branch the same way as the GRFD people by finding a unit that will have you in a desired branch. Off the bat you’ll have about 400-500 GRFD kids every year. In the past they accessed with everyone else, but now they have fixed the problem and they are taken out of the equation. This will figure in later.

When the cadets get back from Advanced Camp (now called Warrior Forge or LDAC – Leadership Development and Assessment Course) they fill out their accession’s paperwork ranking the Branches in the order that they would like. Commander’s comments, Cadet Evaluation Report, and all supporting documentation which I will show you further on, are compiled in their accessions packet and sent up to Cadet Command. Cadets attend Warrior Forge during the summer between their junior (MSIII) and senior (MSIV) year. While at Warrior Forge, the cadets are evaluated on the following:
1. garrison leadership
2. squad stx
3. platoon stx
4. IMT lanes
5. water confidence course
6. NBC chamber
7. FLRC (field leader’s reaction course)
8. day/night land navigation
9. written land navigation exam
10. obstacle course
11. APFT
12. CWST (combat water survival test)
13. M16 qualification
(there’s a few other little things as well, but off the top of my head that’s all I can remember)

Now, in the packet are the scores for all of the evaluation criteria leaving the cadet with a grade of ___ out of a possible 100.
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Rico
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Post by Rico »

Here is how the score is broken down:

Academic (40):
40 pts for GPA (for example a kid with a 4.0 would get 40 pts, a kid with a 2.2 would get 22, and so on and so on)

What’s bad about this system is that it’s completely non-subjective. A kid who goes to Princeton and get’s a hard earned 3.5 in middle eastern studies is ranked the same as a kid going to Texas State that got a 3.5 in theater arts.

Leadership (45):
This is split in half by how you perform in leadership position on campus during the academic year, and how you perform at Warrior Forge. They operate on an “E/S/Nâ€
WEBCO 2/75 1997 - 1998
HHC 2/75 Mortars 1998 - 2005
Ranger Class 7-99

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Rico
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Post by Rico »

Using the 16 leadership dimensions to evaluate a cadet on each task/mission they perform, here’s the breakdown:

Warrior Forge:
Squad/Platoon leadership performance (E/S/N) - 6.75 pts
-they get 6 leadership evaluations
2 garrison (Squad leader and PL/PSG or higher)
1 FLRC
2 squad STX lanes (Squad leader)
1 Patrolling (Plt level leadership with a Plt -)

Warrior Forge PLT TAC Evaluation (E/S/N) – 11.25 pts
-each platoon has a field grade officer (PLT TAC OFFICER), senior NCO (PLT TAC NCO), and newly commissioned and not yet school trained 2LT acting as the cadre leadership for their platoon. At the end of the cycle, the PLT TAC’s write an overall cadet evaluation report giving them an overall E,S, or N, and ranking them in their platoon. The cadets also fill out peer evaluations which the TAC’s can use to further help them rank the cadets.

Warrior Forge Land Navigation (1st Score) – 4.5 pts
-Day/Night land nav and 20 question written exam determine your score. You must pass land nav to complete Warrior Forge, so retests are given, but only your first score is taken for point value and recorded for you overall score for accessions.

PMS (Professor of Military Science or each school’s Battalion Commander) Experienced Based Observations:
PMS MSIII CER (cadet evaluation report) OML – 6.75 pts
-the MSIII instructors (CPT or MAJ and SFC) along with the PMS write the CER’s for each MSIII cadet and rank them in their class

PMS Accessions OML – 4.5 pts
-the PMS ranks all cadets accessing from his school (sometimes you have a few straphangers who couldn’t attend Warrior Forge the previous summer for medical reasons, family problems, academic problems, etc. this is where they get fit in to the picture since they were already ranked in their class the previous year)

PMS Accessions Potential Comments – 4.5 pts
-this is where the PMS can say whether the cadet is a shitbag, or a very worthwhile cadet

Cadet Training/Extracurricular Activities – 6.75
-If a cadet has participated in the ROTC color guard, Ranger Challenge, Intramural sports, is a part of a campus based organization, community outreach program, coaches soccer, etc.

Physical (15):

APFT:
APFT Fall Semester – 1.28 pts
APFT Spring Semester – 1.91 pts
Warrior Forge APFT – 9.56 pts

Swimming:
Campus Swim Test - 0.375 pts
-this is treading water for five minutes and swimming constantly for 15 minutes all in a swimsuit

Warrior Forge CWST (Combat Water Survival Test) - 0.375 pts
-this is a 15 meter swim with LCE and Weapon, a 3 meter blind drop with LCE and Weapon, and equipment “ditch and donâ€
WEBCO 2/75 1997 - 1998
HHC 2/75 Mortars 1998 - 2005
Ranger Class 7-99

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Rico
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Post by Rico »

OK, now I know that all of that is a little hard to swallow, but after it’s all said and done the points are tallied up and each cadet in the country is given a score out of 100. For simplicity sake, let’s say that there are 4,000 cadets attending Warrior Forge and accessing this year. Now, of that 4,000, 500 are GRFD cadets as I explained earlier. So right off the bat, those cadets are taken out of the mix. That leaves us with 3,500 cadets competing for the branch they most desire.

Now picture if you will, a filing cabinet with 16 drawers and a stack of papers about 30 feet high. Each drawer represents one of the 16 branches and each of the papers represents a cadet. After each cadet’s score is tallied he/she is placed on a national OML. As I said earlier, each cadet ranks in order the branches that they want (the Army really on recognizes the top three). Now is where the filing cabinet drawers open and we begin to file the papers, so to speak.

The top 10 percent in the national OML automatically get their first branch choice guaranteed. That means that of the 3,500 cadets accessing, 350 get exactly what they want from the start. Here’s where it gets tricky:

Each “drawerâ€
WEBCO 2/75 1997 - 1998
HHC 2/75 Mortars 1998 - 2005
Ranger Class 7-99

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I have brought you to the ring, dance if you can...

-William Wallace
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