Marketing. If they make the qualifications absurd they will gain more applicants who think the programs are more prestigious.
Why is someone who speaks multiple languages a more desired Intel DCO applicant even though they will never use these language skills?
I respectfully disagree. I don’t think the marketing is very good, to be honest - Big Reserves isn’t out their buying web ads or tv commercials.
I think it’s still supply and demand. The Navy Reserve has BY FAR the greatest number of officer designators available for direct commission (IWC, CEC, Supply, PAO, HR, AEDO/AMDO, EDO, Strat Sealift), and BY FAR the oldest age limit without a waiver (42). Go ask the Air Force if they’ll give you a direct commission at age 41.5 to be a Strategic Airlift Officer and they’ll laugh you out the door.
There is a perception (not entirely wrong) that - if you have the right connections - you can just waltz in the door to whatever “cool” military job sounds good on a resume, get a commission, breeze through DCO (now ODS), and moonlight for one weekend a month. That’s a false perception of what the Navy truly needs in its reserve officer corps, but I didn’t come up with that perception and it’s been there for years. There are plenty of famous political names. George P Bush. Pete Buttigieg. Reince Priebus. Sean Spicer. Hunter Biden. Jimmy Panetta. There are others I’m sure. (If we’re keeping count: they are 2 PAOs, 1 HR, 3 Intel, 3 Democrats, 3 Republicans). Maybe “foreign language” is just a way of weeding out the Beltway bandits, or at least making sure some DCO Intel selects have cultural experience outside the United States.
Look, I’m a non-prior-service DCO too, so I am standing squarely in this glass house with stone in hand. But compared to the Army, Air Force, and Marines, that perception combo of 1) easy to get in, 2) no 10+ week OCS where you have to start as a CANDIO and possibly not make it, 3) better “MOS”/designator selection for DCO than just JAG and Medical, and 4) age limit 42, and the demand for joining is going to be through the roof bc people either aren’t eligible or don’t want to go reserve officer in the Army, Air Force, or Marines.