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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 6684893" data-attributes="member: 6779310">USA War College was required for my dad to make major. Hence why I know about the correspondence course. (He was a reservist.)And the US has 4 methods of officer creation:Academy: attend as college, but includes many service related skills, and counts as initial entry trainingOfficer Candidate School: start as enlisted, go to OCS.ROTC: attend a college, and get the same skills as an academy grad (but at different levels, most likely), while having a more normal college experience.Direct Commission: go to college, get a degree in something the military needs, and go direct to a "conversion course" that is equivalent to OCS... in the US, it's mostly chaplains, lawyers, doctors, and nurses. Of these, only nurses aren't typically  bachelors + graduate school.Some countries services historically had direct NCO's as well. The US, for a while (about 2 years) made enlistees to the Army Air Corps Flight Sergeants right off if they already had a pilot's license and could pass the checkride. (Congressional meddling resulted in most of them becoming Flight Officers {Warrant Officer 1} and barring sergeants from flying combat missions.)The Germans and Russians both had junior college academies that turned out direct NCO's, and their top few percent went to officer academies, at various times. So an Unteroffizier might be a veteran private promoted, or a junior college graduate with under a year  in the army... while his classmate who did better went on to an academy and became an officer.A surprising number of militaries historically had direct commissions to colonel and general. You paid for your rank, so if you could afford it, you could be it. A few still do (but they're typically backwaters).Also worth mentioning - not a few nations don't have their own militaries, or have only ground forces, and rely upon a patron nation for military presence or naval presence.  (EG: Federated States of Micronesia - the FSM has, per capita, more people in US military service than any US State! The US provides their Army and Navy presence, when needed, and their nationals are allowed to join and serve in the US military - but not above O-6 (Army Colonel, Navy Captain).</blockquote>

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