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A direct commission officer (DCO) is a United States uniformed officer who has received a commission without the typical prerequisites for achieving a commission, such as a four year service academy, a four year or two year college ROTC program, or one of the officer candidate school or officer training school programs, the latter typically slightly over three months in length. Civilians who have special skills that are critical to sustaining military operations, supporting troops, health and scientific study may receive what are called "direct commissions." These officers usually occupy leadership positions in the following areas: law, science, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, nurse corps, intelligence, supply-logistics-transportation, engineering, public affairs, chaplain corps, oceanography, merchant marine affairs, and others. The U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Coast Guard have more extensive active and reserve component DCO programs than the other two U.S. armed services. The U.S. Marine Corps does not offer a DCO program. The Marines, however, do have a substantial population of "Mustang" Officers, who are commissioned officers who have served as enlisted personnel before earning their commissions. The Marines also have a robust Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) and Limited Duty Officer (LDO) program. CWOs can attain the rank of LDO Captain and can not rise higher than Lieutenant Colonel. CWOs and LDOs are utilized as experts within their occupational field only. The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps exclusively use a DCO program to commission their officers. Depending on the specialization and duty-status of the officer, "DCOs" as they're called, will attend either Officer Indoctrination School (OIS), Officer Development School (ODS), or Direct Commission Officer School (DCO School) which vary from two weeks duration for certain Reserve DCOs to five weeks duration for Active Duty DCOs. ==U.S. Army Active and Reserve Direct Commission Officers== Active United States Army direct commissions are available in the medical, legal and chaplain corps. Each branch will rank the officer candidate upon completion of Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC). The United States Army Reserve uses the DCO program to bring specialized skills and backgrounds, and to fill critical shortages in the Army Reserve commissioned officer corps. A majority of the people obtaining direct commissions in the Army Reserve are prior-enlisted personnel. However, there have been instances when qualified civilians were directly commissioned as well. The general requirements for a direct commission in the Army Reserve are: 60 semester hours of college credit; the ability to get and maintain a "secret" clearance; be physically qualified (obtain and pass a medical evaluation); an open slot or "billet" in an Army Reserve unit; three recommendation letters from commissioned field-grade officers; and a recommendation from a direct commissioning board. Once selected, the applicant signs the oath and is sworn in by another commissioned officer. At that point the newly commissioned officer will then need to attend the Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC) in their assigned area of concentration (AOC) before becoming fully qualified. Direct commission officers in the Army Reserve can serve in the same specialities and hold billets as ROTC, OCS, and USMA graduates. Direct commission officers may be promoted to flag officer rank and hold command within their specialty of work. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Direct commission officer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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