Question on WOFT Letters of recomendation

[Gideon]

Hello,

 

I am currently in the process of building my WOFT packet, I am applying from civilian, and I have just finished my enlistment paperwork. My recruiter told me one of the next steps I need to take is nailing down my letters of recommendation, I currently have 4 people I am working on getting letters from, a CW3 and CW4 as well as an active CW5, all aviators. My final letter of recommendation is from the president of the Christian College I graduated from, and he wanted to know more about the formatting and content that he should focus on for the letter. I have tried to do research online, many times leading back to this website, but I have been unable to find any sort of specifics for the letters of recommendation from the Army when applying from the civilian side. The best I was able to find was USAREC Form 3.3. However that still seems directed at people applying from within the Army. I also did find an old post from this forum that gave a little bit of detail on what should go into a letter of recommendation as well as a reddit post.

 

So I was wondering if there is a form or an example that I have been unable to find, or if anyone had a recommendation or guidelines that could help me as I work on securing letters of recommendation. Like length and formatting. And wanted to confirm what I already found. Right now it appears to me that as a civilian a general letter format for my letters of recommendation is acceptable, and that for the 3 who know me personally they should focus on my character, morals, leadership abilities, and overall personality.

 

Thank you in advance for any advice you guys and gals are able to give! (Sorry for the long post)

[DocHolliday316]

I've been told that form 3.3 is to be used by all current service members that are writing you a LOR. Any retired service members or civilians should write a formal letter and don't need to use form 3.3. Just make sure every letter has a signature.

[Dmurray]

A formal letter is all you need. All mine were in letter or memo format. I was selected last month.

[Gideon]

Thank you guys for your insights!

[stearmann4]

Gideon,

 

You will do yourself a favor by providing your letter writer "bullet points" in descending precedence of what you want your LOR to highlight. Make sure your most significant accomplishments are up front, and tie the letter up with a strong, impressionable conclusion/last paragraph, or statement. Board members have 2-3 minutes to read your entire packet. If it's 7 paragraphs, all I can do is skim and look for key words, or read the first and last paragraphs before I have to move on to something else.

 

Remember, bigger is not always better, and filling a page with rambling fluff can be detrimental. Clear, concise, and easy to read.

 

Also, if you're a civilian, more letters is not better, it doesn't necessarily hurt you, but if you have 5 different letters and I can only skim 2 or 3, I may not pick your best ones. In service applicants have no choice, it's specified which letters will be included. On that note, LORs from people who actually know you generally hold more credibility when determining the "whole person" evaluation than one from a senior elected official, college president, etc that writes a generic recommendation.

 

We're looking for demonstrated maturity, leadership potential, and aeronautical adaptability. Are you technically capable of operating complex, advanced aircraft, and are there indicators you will develop into a career Army officer and leader?

 

As a self test, when you're done with your whole packet, your resume, LORs, essay, etc. Sit down start a 3 minute timer and read all of them to see which ones are fluff and bog you down. This will help you streamline what you include in your application.

 

The advice is worth what you paid for it, but I'm currently 10-0 on applicants for selection that I've written letters for and mentored.

 

Mike-

[Gideon]

Mike,

 

Thank you for your insights! That information does help me a lot when asking for letter of recommendation. I had been thinking about trying to acquire more LORs since the mentality is generally "the more the merrier" but Ill take your advice and not do that. Would it be better to get a more LORs than I need and only submit the top three? And I did try to provide both of my current LOR writers a general idea of the traits that the board will be looking for. But I didn't want to basically write the letters for them.

 

Again thank you for your insights!

 

Gideon

[Insights_STG]

Again thank you for your insights!

 

You are MOST welcome!

 

 

[stearmann4]

Gideon,

 

Writing a clear and concise resume with important items in bold, and the bullets you want repeated up front, you're in effect writing the LOR you want, especilly for a letter writier that doesn't know you personally. He/she will usually take what you've already written and just connect the dots in a letter.

 

Mike-