Why I want to be an Army Officer

In order to get accepted in OCS (Officer Candidate School) Jordan had to do quite a few things. He had a HUGE packet of paper work in order to get secret clearance. He also had to get letters of recommendation as well as write why he wanted to be an Army Officer. Then he went before a review board in Lansing to see if he would be accepted. Obviously he was. Here is his "Why I want to be" paper.
Why I want to be an Officer in the Army
I have always wanted to serve my country. There is a better way to serve ones country than to be a part of its armed forces. I want to be in the army because of what the army stands for. The army core values are values I try to implement in my life on a daily basis; loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage. These are values I work to instill not only in myself but what I hope to encourage these in others. An Army Officer should be able to demonstrate high moral character and to represent the Armed Forces in way that is without reproach. I believe I can bring this to my job as an Army Officer.
My grandfather served in the Navy and was always proud of his country. He was a strong man of honest and moral character. He would take me up to his wilderness cabin often when I was growing up. There is taught me skills in hunting and fishing. The cabin is in the middle of no where so he showed us survival skills and how to live without the conveniences of modern life. He also taught us to be respectful of others as well as nature. He recently passed away and at his funeral I realized just how much I respected him and how I desired to follow in his footsteps of service.
For the past four years I have worked hard to learn the skills needed to complete my degree in Information Systems. Now that I am finishing up my time at Calvin, I don't want the challenges and learning to end. This is just another reason why I want to be an Army Officer. I want to use the education and training I have to help serve the Army but also to allow me new opportunities for learning and growing. The United States Army offers some the best training available.
While in school I was given opportunities to lead. In my I.T. leadership course we had three different projects going on at once. We worked as a team to complete them. The project was to design and build a web application. As the team leader I had to manage my "staff" by assigning certain parts of the projects to certain people. I also had to figure out who worked well with each other so that we could be efficient. We were able to deliver the application to the customer (our professor) on time and in good working order. Our team was given the highest rating for functionality. I was very proud of my team since we were able to complete our goals even though we were strapped for time.
Hard work is important in the Army. All my life I have worked hard in any ways I can. As a kid moving lawns or as a teenager working in a local retail store. I am not afraid of hard work or getting my hands dirty. All through college I worked as much as I could in whatever jobs were available. In Illinois I worked at my schools information technology department. I was able to get experience in my field and learn new skills. I also worked at Staples and volunteered for the County Sheriff's department. I tried to gain as much experience as possible all while supporting my wife and attending school full time.
Once in Michigan I was able to start working on contracting jobs that offered a wide variety of new skills to be learned. More importantly though, I learned to work independently. I would be given a work order and it was up to me to be in contact with the client and to perform whatever job was necessary. Then report back to the company I was working for and explain how the job went and if any problems arose and how they were solved. I have worked at this type of work for the last three years. I enjoy the responsibility and being able to work on a task through completion. I also worked in several corporate environments. Through my internship and working for CIT. These gave me opportunities to work with colleagues and directly under the supervision of my superiors. In both types of work environments I was able to perform jobs given to me and find ways to help improve the work load of others.
Being an Officer in the Army is a dream of mine. I believe my education as well as diversified work experiences will allow me to be a valuable leader. I would be honored to be considered for Officer Candidate School.