Are there any post-military benefits to being a scientist in the military?
Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at
10:48 pm
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Filed under: Retirement Planning
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1st get a college degree in engineering, operations research, or computer science. 2nd get a commission. 3rd, if you are lucky, you will have a very high GPA from college and score very high on Intelligence Testing that you will be given while in the military. By the time you make O-3, there is a chance that you can apply for postgrad school. If you already have a postgrad degree in the technical fields mentioned above, there is a chance that you can request to be assigned to a position that is technically orientated.
Will you be called a scientist – NO. You will be called a military officer with a highly technical background. Will you have a high level security clearance that enables you to do the high tech job, most likely. Linguists and translators are NOT considered high tech nor are they considered scientists. So it that is your focus, you need to reconsider the title of your question.
My background: Marine Corps aviator, went to Navy Postgrad School, received MS in Ops Research, worked as military analyst in modeling and simulation, applied statistics to military operational problems, operational tester of Marine Corps hardware, and Joint test and eval. Many considered me a scientist. Others considered me to be a Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel doing a high tech job. After retirement I ended up in a Pentagon job as a Technical Director for a high tech program.
Good luck. Something tells me that you are going to need it.
Lieutenant Colonel, US Marine Corps-Retired
PS: All four Services need high tech oriented officers, not just the Army.