A Military Career…?
I plan to become an officer in the military (not sure which branch yet) and eventually retire from it. i was wondering if i could choose a certain mos, and then change it later in my career. also would that continue to work towards retirement or would the 20 years (or what ever it is) be reset if i were to change my mos
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Hello Hillenbrand,
NO. All total time spend in the military COUNTS towards retirement.
The military records a persons TFMSD: Total Federal Military Service Date. Beginning with Day 1.
Many officers do change their career fields during their time in the service. Sometimes a job is deleted and people in that skill are retrained into a new job.
Officers are expected to obtain a wide breadth of experience. Officers are managed by an officer career management team to make sure that their assignments are varied and diverse in duty location. Many officers only remain at one place maybe 2 years or 3 years at the most before being reassigned to overseas duty locations and Pentagon locations and Headquarters locations.
MOS (Military Occupation Specialty) is the code name for Army and Marine jobs/career fields. Air Force people have AFSCs (Air Force Specialty Codes.) Navy people have Naval Ratings.
At my own 16 year point in the Air Force my job was downsized and I was retrained into another career field.
I hope you have a great military career.
Best wishes,
Larry Smith
SMSgt. USAF (Ret.)
First Sergeant
Officers can attempt to change Branch’s after around 4 years of service.
Then your pretty much gonna stay.
Officer don’t have mos’s, they have branch’s.
But they are not gonna let say a supply officer, decide he wants to be an infantry officer as a Captain.
And alot of officers, just do not have a choice, they have to change branch’s if they want to stay in.
Officers don’t get to choose their branch (the don’t have MOSs), ie. Infantry branch, Armor branch, Artillery branch, etc… It all depends on your school (West Point) and where you rank in your class when you graduate. There is a certain percentage of grads who get to choose their branch, but if you aren’t part of that you are chosen one of your top 3 choices.
Good luck, and listen to your NCOs
these guys are all kinda right the only thing i have to add is that you dont get to pick your job and the military decides it for you isnt necessarily true. in the marines yes they decide your fate, but in the navy you can pick what you want to do as long as you meet those requirements