only 17, and I know that I want to join army for sure
but I am sort of lost on which way I need to go...

my problem is that I can get into Westpoint for my
g-pa knows a congressmen, but I dunno if I should go to
basic training first before I get in, or wait/or if it even works
that way

if any of you can help that'd be great.. thanks!

Oh so we have yet another person that wants to be saluted lol.

Dont get me wrong Officers are great I have an Awsome BC = Battery Commander and XO = BC's Right Hand

I think it is and its not a good Idea to go for your butter bar without prior enlisted time if you want a carrier as an officer you should start out enlisted and you need to be smart im not saying good grades but smart

my GT score is 124 which isnt like a 130 but its pretty close I've been recomended to westpoint OCS but I haven't decided if I want the army to me my life career yet so Its still on the table it can stay there till the time comes where I want to make that decision.

and you have to go basic regaurdless lol at westpoint its basic or and Fort Sill- for Us Arty Guys - Fort Benning for those Gun Runners - Fort Lenordwood for well I dont evan know what they do there lol!

do you have to have a congress nomination? this is whats making an application for west poinjt so hard, just good grades arnt enough, you have to have connections which i think is bull...

not that I want to be saluted, I could care less right now about an equal saluting me. and I love everything about getting dirty, and adventure no doubt all of us do, but If I want to make a career out of it, I want the westpoint education.. to maybe one day be a general of some sort. ( i'm very good at strategy ) mainly why I want to go that way, if not it's something like combat engineering.

When you say you're good at strategy, do you mean you're good at Starcraft?

Listen kiddo, what you think the military is, forget it.
How do you know you're good at strategy when you haven't even attended a single class on it?
Yeah, the best officers tend to have served some time as enlistedmen. I'd go that route.

even if u graduate from west point.. u dont have to make army as ur career.. my friend's brother went to west point.. his getting out after his contract ends.. he doesn't like it and such.. different from his expectations i guess... and when u graduate from there, u can get a lot of hook ups from alumni and they want to hire WP grads.. and this thread is pretty old hah!

I had to "look after" a similar kid to yourself on work experience whilst I was training up some particularly bright diggers a couple of years ago. Each one of these diggers had the smarts and the ability to be a very good officer. This kid said much the same sort of thing as you, said he liked to tell people what to do….. He then got a quick lesson on how to earn respect and how quickly the blokes playing basketball at the time would make his life a misery if he continued his current approach and attitude. I also told him there could be a very real possibility he would have to send people into harms way and then pick up the pieces afterwards, writing letters to parents if it all went wrong. Its not all beer and skittles
If you do go the Dark Side, listen to your SNCO’s, learn from them, follow their lead and one day in the far distant future you MAY be a good officer.

If I ever went officer I'd be doing it for the money. I'd still be wearing stripes in my heart.

I know many officers who wished they had been enlisted prior to receiving their commission... I don't know a single officer who was enlisted who regretted going enlisted first. That should speak volumes for you.