Quote: (01-05-2015 09:24 AM)lskdfjldsf Wrote:
4 years in, 11bangbang. National Guard = ate up pogues who wear cologne and hair gel with their ACU's. For the most part, poor leadership, poor equipment, and shit QRF jobs while on deployment. The former Actives do a good job shaping up the units - be a sponge near those guys, soak up as much knowledge, training, and experience as possible, because it's probably all you'll get.
If you're looking to repay student loans, it's a good option (usually it's a 6-year contract attached, though). If you're after a legit military experience, probably not your thing.
Feel free to PM for more details.
Spoken like a true sham shield. Let me guess, four years in, one duty station, one unit, one deployment. Your wet behind the ears when it comes to your military experience. let me know if you can find the obvious contradiction in your first paragraph.
When it comes to the Student loan repayment program, make sure you read the details of the contract. It helps but it's not like they just pay off your entire loan all at once.
The biggest advantage in my opinion is the like health insurance and education benefits.
Health - A single soldier will pay something like $70 A month for a great medical plan. No need for obamacare.
Education - the GI bill for guard sucks. Until you've done a certain amount of title 10 (active duty, such as a deployment) time, you won't get the full GI bill. But a lot of state universities waive tuition for guard members. Thst includes graduate programs. This is huge. Not a huge factor for you, but it's an insane deal
As far as the guard experience:
You will be assigned to a unit in a state of your choosing. You can swap states as needed, such as if you move. You can swap units as needed, but it does get a little more difficult.
You will normally only work the one weekend a month, two weeks a year. However there are additional military training programs (professional military development, job training, etc) that you can go to. These schools are almost 100% voluntary, but your chain of command will try to strong arm you into going.
The deployment cycle for the guard is normally every 5 years. More if you're in a high demand unit (Aviation for example). Deployments are now normally 9 month with anywhere from a 1-3 month train-up period. These train up periods are pretty much complete bullshit and more about checking all the stupid blocks the active military needs. You get some active duty cats, most of whom are banished to the training station because real units didn't want them, who try to pretend like their omnipotent and you're incompetent.
Outside of deployments and schools, you may also go on small rotations (weeks to a few months) to other parts of the world to take place in humanitarian aid missions. Most states (maybe all?) Have a "partner" country they work with. There's some regular aid missions that go on in central/south America and Africa.
As far your service to the citizens of the state, you may get called in to assist in state emergencies. Some units are more active in state duties, such as aviation which will get called in search and rescues of hikers.
The retirement sucks. You put in 20 years, but can't collect until 60 (subtract one year from that for every one year you've deployed). It's a shitty deal in my opinion. They just changed the retirement program too, so if you're thinking about staying that long you should read up on it.
Yes you can hold a white collar civilian job and be in the guard. Most companies are very supportive and understanding. You mostly only miss two weeks a year from your job due to military stuff anyways. When it comes to state emergencies, I've never heard of a single company give a soldier problems about being called up to help. If your unit asks you for more of your personal time, say a two week school, you almost always have the right to refuse it.
Some companies will continue to pay you a salary while you take time to do military stuff. This "double dipping" can mean you collect both military and civilian pay for a bit, it's a sweet deal if your company does it.
Overall, if you're in IT for money/retirement the guard is NOT worth it in my opinion. The retirement program sucks. If you're in it for an experience, think about what you really want that experience to be. The bnormal guard life is very boring (one weekend a month, 2 weeks a year) where you do the same stuff over and over again. But there are some really cool state missions and humanitarian aid that pops up.
It's like any other job. Sometimes it's awesome. Sometimes it sucks. It will put some extra money in your pocket every month and give you a few cool stories you can tell later on in life. That comes with the cost of a contract, possible deployment, and possibly your life.
