Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Questions about the army reserves
I've never posted here before - I'm a regular on MM.
I got something in the mail today about joining the army reserves. I have never, ever considered this before but my curiosity is making me wonder about more.
I'm 29, I have an MS and about 50k in student loans. I'm not sure I'm in the right career path and feeling pretty lost about where to go next and how to get there. I also have a strong interest in helping professions/volunteering and want to do something more with my life.
I don't have any family or friends who have been in the service. DH's dad was in the Air Force many years ago but that is about the limit of my experience with the service.
If I hypothetically was to join the army reserves, what would that mean? It appears it is 2 weeks a year and 1 weekend a month....but what about the rest of the time? I found the army website confusing because it talks about jobs for the reserves but I don't imagine those jobs are accomplished in those short time periods? And if not, what do you do during the 1 weekend a month/2 weeks a year?
If you are in the reserves, do you have to live somewhere in particular? I am not at a point in my life where I could relocate - we own a house and DH is in school right now so we can't just move.
I would love to do some of the things mentioned on the website - like helping with disaster relief - but I am not interested in going overseas/going to war... I know there is no way to know if the reserves would be sent to war.
Any information or advice you might have would help my curiosity! Thanks!
Re: Questions about the army reserves
If you're not at all interested in going overseas or going to war, even if the likelihood is low (and no one can know if the likelihood will be low for your entire contract, as no one can really foresee the global security climate for very long), I would look into some other way to help with loans, i.e. Americorps or some such.
If the whole going to war thing is a deal breaker, don't join.
You will also still have to do 9 weeks of basic training. In the reserves you are usually able to do your drill weekends close to home.
If you join, you'll be sent to basic training and then to AIT. Where you'll go for these will depend upon what your MOS, aka your job will be in the reserves. I can't recall how long basic training is but AIT depends again, on your MOS. The more specialized, the longer it will be.
After that, you will be attached to a unit nearby where you live. It might not be the closest unit because it depends on availability for someone with your MOS and at your rank. However, if you're assigned somewhere outside of a certain mile radius of your home, you will be paid a travel allowance and may be provided lodging for the weekend. On your one weekend a month, you'll basically be getting additional training for your job skills and army life. Weapons training, combat readiness, lifesaver classes, pt tests, etc. From what I understand, these weekends will take place at your unit. But don't quote me on that.
For your annual training, you will report likely to a nearby military post where you will stay for two weeks. There you're do a more detailed version of what you usually do on your one weekend a month. Add in some alcohol awareness classes, sexual assault briefings, definately a PT test in addition to PT every morning, uniform and equipment inspections, etc. You'll probably go down to the range and requalify on your weapon, spend some time out in the field doing exercising, night fire training, and basically play army.
The rest of your time is your own. If you're needed for disaster relief, they'll let you know, tell you what to bring, etc. But honestly, depending on where you life, you're probably more likely to get deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq than called up to build levies. It's really not a question of if you'll be sent there but when. So if I were you, I'd look at it as a very real possibility instead of an unknown.
If you are called up for a deployment, you'll spend about a month or so beforehand training to go. So it's not like they call you up on Monday and send you out on Wednesday. During that month or so, you'll attend briefings that will explain to you what to expect and what benefits you and your family will qualify for while you are gone. You will be issued any equipment you need as well as undergoing health assessments, pt daily, pt tests, and other readiness courses. You will repeat all of this for a few weeks when you return from a deployment.
While in the guard/reserves, what you do between your weekends is all you. You will be able to pay into tricare to receive healthcare for your family while you are in the reserves. You'll also have access to the commissary and many of the services offered by military posts.
The difference between the guard and the reserves is that the guard is underneath the state government while the reserves are under the federal government, although someone can feel free to correct me on that one. However, you deploy under the federal government when you to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Another word about the guard/reserves is that they do have openings for full time members if you're interested/have the skill set they are looking for. If they give you orders for this, you'll be paid and eligible for pretty much all the benefits afforded to active duty members. These are hard to secure though and depend heavily on the funding available. There are also short term jobs they ask for volunteers for. For instance, my husband once did 45 days transporting weapons and such from one post to another.
Whether you qualify for student loan repayment and how much depends on a variety of factors so you'll want to talk to someone directly who can get that information for you. Also, your degree might change things for you as well so keep that in mind.
Also, it's my H who is in the guard, not me. So I might be mistaken about some of the things I listed above.
Click me, click me!
Hi and welcome. I spent 6 years in the Reserves as an enlisted MP.
They tell you 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks a year. Some of those weekends are only Saturday and Sunday durring the day. Some of those weekends start Thursday or Friday night and continue over nights until Sunday afternoon.
The two weeks a year are usually just that. However, there are times when those Annual Training weeks will be 3 or 4 weeks long. This past year, about half of our unit spent 3 weeks in Italy.
You said you have an MS. I would consider joining as an officer. You will have to complete several months of initial training. After that, you will have your regular weekend training and then any schools they decide to send you to. Most of those schools fall into the 2 weeks a year, but they can send you to more than one school a year. Durring that time, you receive pay.
You do not have to relocate to be a Reservist. You will serve in a unit with in your community. However, the closest unit I could serve in was 3 hours away from my home. The Army paid for my hotel and one meal a day.
You will face deployments in the Reserves. Deployment length and place will depend on your job with in the Reserves. I have a friend who is a Dental Tech. She is currently deployed to a West African country on a humanitarian mission. I also have several friends who are in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you do not want to deal with deployments, the Reserves is not for you.
Yep. Within a year of joining H was overseas for 14 months.
You don't have to relocate, but to keep where you are, you'll have to find a unit around where you live and work with what they do. For example, in our old town we lived 45 min. from the unit, but they were a supply company, so H got MOSQ'd for with a supply spot. Then they closed that unit and he was put in one 2 hours and 45 min. away. He's trying to get on with CID now and the closest unit is 2.5 hours away so on drill weekends/AT, he has to drive 2.5 hours there and 2.5 hours back when he's done. They're in the process of moving to a different city, and for a while one of the ideas they had was a city over 8 hours away, so if he wanted to stay with them, he'd have to travel 8 hours just to get to the unit.
This isn't always true. One year DH had to drive down to New Mexico. We are nowhere near New Mexico. Often times it is close by, but not always. This last one DH was able to come home every night. Otherwise, spot on.
If you don't want to deploy, don't enlist.
Thanks for the information guys!
You all are right about the deployment thing... this is probably not a good idea for me since I don't want to deploy overseas. Although that sounds like it could be an amazing experience, I hope to have kids in the next few years and I can't imagine how I (personally) could do that. I have a lot of respect for those who do because I don't think I could handle it.
I do want to do more for others here in the US, though. I guess I'm going to have to keep exploring options.
Thanks again!
I'm sure hindsight has covered everything (I only skimmed the long post) but if you decide to commission, I have a few points to pass along from when H was looking at transitioning to reserves.
There are some jobs that allow you to do your entire weekends/2 weeks in one block. Most of those are for people who have extensive AD experience (like H), but it is a possibility, which is probably some of the confusing stuff you're seeing about time commitment.
Also, people can be in a full time reserve position. Basically, they're AD, but they're filling a reserve spot (which might be filled by 4 reservists throughout a year on the previous block schedule I mentioned). Again, this is mostly for people who have previous AD experience.
The difference with deployments, as I understand it, is that a reserve deployment can be split between people whereas AD you go the whole time (in general). So, a deployment for 6 months might come to your office, but if 3 people want to go, they technically can all split it.
That's really all I know since ultimately H stayed AD, but I hope it helps a bit.
Are you in the medical field? That might change deployments. Quite a few of the medical reserve deployments are to backfill stateside slots when AD deploy.
This wasn't for drill. They convoyed to NM for AT. I was saying that you won't always just be right down the road for AT.
With budget issues, don't hold your breath for transportation pay when you don't qualify. They are kicking people out left and right because thet are over staffed and denying a lot of those trying to get in (here anyway. It can vary between states, but the budget issue is likely country wide).
Huh? WTF? That would be fvcking stupid given they have to issue gear and go through a mob station.
Does the reserve actually do stupid shiit like this? National Guard sure as hell doesn't. If you go, you go for the whole thing.
28/100
LittleL 8/10/07
Baby E 11/27/10
Check out my makeup and reading blog:
Books and Beauty
In my expirience, no they don't do that. That would be a huge waste of resources. We had people in my unit deploy to Haiti for 3 months, but that is the shortest deployment any of us had seen. On average, deployments have been 12 months to include pre-mob training.
Not medical, although my undergrad degree is in psych. My top choice of job would be something to do with mental health.... but my graduate degree is more in a human resources type field. So I guess it would depend on where I was needed.