Army/Air National Guard questions

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Justin76

Justin76

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Joined
Dec 13, 2017
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497
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Hong Kong wishing I was in Michigan
Are there any members here who are or were in the Air/Army Guardsmen?
If so would you be able to answer a few questions?

Since I will be moving back stateside in the next few ~6 months or so I have been considering joining one of the above.
I have already spoke to a few recruiters and with my past time in service of 11.5 years and age (42), health etc...etc... I am still eligible to join.

My wife (while supportive) and father think I gave enough of my life already with past deployments and I should focus on being there after we move back and not off deployed again afterwards...My fathers exact words were. "You don't owe them anything, you gave enough already" (he's a very blunt but honest man)
Also, we dont need the money from it, a little extra pocket money is nice but, we will be fine either way.

Myself, well, prior service guys would understand that you miss it after you been out and well, there are benefits for the family, tricare being one of them. and im only 9 years away from a retirement at 60 anyways. (again not a money issue) The thought of paid for training in a different trade is nice though, something different once a month...
These are all things my wife and I have been going over the last few days.

Would anyone out there be willing to answer a few questions via pm with me? Mostly about if it is worth it, deployment and drill times, tricare, schools etc...typical military bs...

Thanks,
 
I was in the US Army National Guard, but that was a number of years ago and my knowledge is far from current. What I can tell you is that I have several employees who are in the NG and the general rule seems to be get promoted or get out as soon as your enlistment is up. As in the NG is not the place to be if you are going to sit at E5 or E6. But if you can get some bars or leafs or eagles, then it is a far better situation to be in. They also talk about the Air guard as being far more cushy and comfortable than the Army guard.
 
My National Guard experience was long ago; things have changed. Back then the Guard wasn't 'deployed' regularly & frequently by the Feds. The armories weren't consolidated and shared by several companies. We were, in function though not in fact, much closer to the state militia of 'yesteryear'. I agree with your father's sentiment - you have given enough - but 'how much is enough' is not my call, or even his. Whatever you decide, I wish you well.
 
Sentry18 said:
I was in the US Army National Guard, but that was a number of years ago and my knowledge is far from current. What I can tell you is that I have several employees who are in the NG and the general rule seems to be get promoted or get out as soon as your enlistment is up. As in the NG is not the place to be if you are going to sit at E5 or E6. But if you can get some bars or leafs or eagles, then it is a far better situation to be in. They also talk about the Air guard as being far more cushy and comfortable than the Army guard.
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Yea the Air Guard is where im leaning to. Army I would have to repeat basic again and while I dont mind. Im not to fond of 18year old kids and dont think my sanity would be worth it.
The bonus is, in both I would keep my Navy rank.
 
Justin76 said:
Yea the Air Guard is where im leaning to. Army I would have to repeat basic again and while I dont mind. Im not to fond of 18year old kids and dont think my sanity would be worth it.
The bonus is, in both I would keep my Navy rank.
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Bro. You Speak Mandarin? You know Chinese Culture? You are so GOLD! DOODE! ARE YOU SHITTING ME??????? Companies will ROMANCE YOU. GOOGLE. USA JOBS. IF you don't get anywhere. PLEASE PM me when get Satesside.
 
You want my Advise? Go to MI. Hunt. Settle down. Love your Fam. REST. You have nothing to make up for or prove. Many like me will handle this. WE Love this **** and we Love you.. Relax Bro , God Loves You. You are such a Good Man. That's why I do what I do. You owe me nothing but to do it for all of us. Its your place. If you need anything, call me. 928-357-7449.
 
Too much going on and ' father knows best ' wife and child deserves to have more time with you and like VThiklman said " this ain't your old time 'National Guard '.
It is wrapped up with NATO,UN etc,etc,etc, Go to work for CEO that needs a good translator or something. JUST MY OPINION .
America is dangerous now and your family needs you here . And it is not getting any safer.
 
Resto said:
You want my Advise? Go to MI. Hunt. Settle down. Love your Fam. REST. You have nothing to make up for or prove. Many like me will handle this. WE Love this **** and we Love you.. Relax Bro , God Loves You. You are such a Good Man. That's why I do what I do. You owe me nothing but to do it for all of us. Its your place. If you need anything, call me. 928-357-7449.
Click to expand...

Be careful bless your heart you got those boots permanently attached, huh? Good advice to Justin.:thumbs up:
 
When I finished training & return to Camden SCANG, I quickly moved to E-4.
We had a E-5 who had held that rank for (9)nine years & no one would get to by pass him.
E-5 cook was still an E-5 when I left six years later.
The only thing good about it is a part time job & a little retirement at 20 years.
Contract work will pay better.
 
My wife and son come first, and I do agree with most of the opinions here ready. Why move 10,000 miles back to be deployed away in the future?
I am still going to talk to the Air Guard just to see what is on offer.

But...
My father does know best in this issue I think. I did give the military close to 12 years already, I dont owe them anything.
Best to just work on our little homestead and raise our son in the country like we planned.
 
I spent lots of time in NG, and USAR and Active component.
Sounds like when you join you are off the bat, only 8.5 yrs away from a reserve NOBE letter (Notice of basic eligibility)!

So if u join thats not just money per month due to drill check (and if u have some rank and seniority it really ads up to a nice monthly check) but for ever year deployed (even some certain active duty years not in combat zone count, tho not all) after 2008 you get to draw your reserve retirement one year early!
For each year!
And then there is the medical coverage after retirement starts.

Also as a prepper think of the incredible free skills you get trained on.
For example if you want it, Medic, or Combat Engineer!

I am currently entering the process making that happen for myself I am right on the edge with having enough years or not so I may go back in and have researched it hard and this is some of the most current scoop.

With the time you have already served and also coming in with some rank its a no brainer!
Remember, even if you DO get deployed.. for every year of deployment you draw your reserve retirement one year early!
Thats serious $$.
12 months of early draw is 12 times the monthly retirement check .. so in a sense if you get deployed you are not just making the points for a bigger monthly check for every year, or your monthly check but you are getting an early ( and therefore extra! ) 12 months of retirement checks!

And in some states military retirement is not Taxed!

So depending on your deployment history after 2008 your NOBE letter might come pretty quickly once you have joined the reserve component.

PS: As a prepper Army reserves or Army Guard offers way more relevant specialties than USAF reserve or Air Guard.
 
Justin76 said:
My wife and son come first, and I do agree with most of the opinions here ready. Why move 10,000 miles back to be deployed away in the future?
I am still going to talk to the Air Guard just to see what is on offer.

But...
My father does know best in this issue I think. I did give the military close to 12 years already, I dont owe them anything.
Best to just work on our little homestead and raise our son in the country like we planned.
Click to expand...

My son was promised the moon, but found out they all are. Said the most famous saying in boot camp is my recruiter lied to me. LOL. Plus things change and so do plans. I know enlistment is not same as recruiter but.........
 
Army guard I would have to go through basic again.
The Air guard no need to go. Prior service Navy boot camp counts to them. (bonus)
Plus the new skills you could learn could be usefull. Im not looking to be Mr. High Speed lo drag, but with my time in already it just seems like a no brainer.

I know how recruiters work... Mine put me in as a non rate and said, my first ship will send me to AW school once I get there. All I need to do is ask...
Ended up as a hanger bay rat for two years.
 
My info is not based on talking to recruiters but a buddy of mine (who I was on the phone with about, uh, 15 times in the past week)..he was a G1 before and actually made phonecalls on my behalf to key personnel in the human resources system.

(In Navy speak an Army G1 might be the equivalent of a numbered Fleet's Chief of personnel)

PS: I get the not wanting to go back to basic thing... (even though if one is overweight it would be a great weight loss program) and as a prior service Navy what, E6 ish?, you will be treated less beastly than the average trainee.
 
Well after much deliberation with my wife, we decided that maybe its a better idea to have a quite life like we planned. Whats the point of saving and working our butts off for 12 years in this place we just bought and then have to get shipped off again in the future.
Wouldn't be fair to my wife, she suffered through my last two deployments before we got married and I dont want to do that to her and my son. All the while she is in a new place.

Guess i'll have to find my little adventures someplace else.
 
I was active duty with a 17 year break in service and returned as a National Guard Infantry at age 39 and athletic! I have 24 good years and 26 years total and am ging to get a pension soon. I am retired because I "aged out" at age 60.

I had three overseas deployments, four schools not counting M.O.S. school and went from E-4 Specialist to Staff Sergeant and passed on a promotion to E-7 Sergeant First Class because of travel distance and moving to another State.

With only 9 years you may be rejected as there is a draw down and even if all war breaks out, they may only need young and dumb and full of hoo'ah!
 
VoorTrekker said:
I was active duty with a 17 year break in service and returned as a National Guard Infantry at age 39 and athletic! I have 24 good years and 26 years total and am ging to get a pension soon. I am retired because I "aged out" at age 60.

I had three overseas deployments, four schools not counting M.O.S. school and went from E-4 Specialist to Staff Sergeant and passed on a promotion to E-7 Sergeant First Class because of travel distance and moving to another State.

With only 9 years you may be rejected as there is a draw down and even if all war breaks out, they may only need young and dumb and full of hoo'ah!
Click to expand...


We have been at war constantly for past several decades now and with Justin speaking manderin or whatever he may be one of the first sent on dangerous mission too. We are now picking fights with China, Russia who are allies.
We have never had bombs dropped here and if that happens we need a few men left with military backgrounds. That won't be following orders to leave. Not to speak of all the crime being imported.
 
BlueZ said:
I spent lots of time in NG, and USAR and Active component.
Sounds like when you join you are off the bat, only 8.5 yrs away from a reserve NOBE letter (Notice of basic eligibility)!

So if u join thats not just money per month due to drill check (and if u have some rank and seniority it really ads up to a nice monthly check) but for ever year deployed (even some certain active duty years not in combat zone count, tho not all) after 2008 you get to draw your reserve retirement one year early!
For each year!
And then there is the medical coverage after retirement starts.

Also as a prepper think of the incredible free skills you get trained on.
For example if you want it, Medic, or Combat Engineer!

I am currently entering the process making that happen for myself I am right on the edge with having enough years or not so I may go back in and have researched it hard and this is some of the most current scoop.

With the time you have already served and also coming in with some rank its a no brainer!
Remember, even if you DO get deployed.. for every year of deployment you draw your reserve retirement one year early!
Thats serious $$.
12 months of early draw is 12 times the monthly retirement check .. so in a sense if you get deployed you are not just making the points for a bigger monthly check for every year, or your monthly check but you are getting an early ( and therefore extra! ) 12 months of retirement checks!

And in some states military retirement is not Taxed!

So depending on your deployment history after 2008 your NOBE letter might come pretty quickly once you have joined the reserve component.

PS: As a prepper Army reserves or Army Guard offers way more relevant specialties than USAF reserve or Air Guard.
Click to expand...

This right here - Don't be dumb. Get yourself a retirement calculator and do the math. You've already earned more than most - with just your 8.5 years of drill dates MTUAs you'll be well over 4300 points which will be ~ thousands per month depending on your terminal rank. Some states are more active than others in terms of deployments. Most have a stability clause of no deployments for X years when transitioning from active duty. You'll also promote faster having AD time as well as combat and over seas duty. My guess is that you'll spend your last 8 years gaining rank, training those that never did AD time, maybe...maybe...deploy one more time if that. Most good states limit you to one tour every 5 years.
 
PS: He will not get rejected because of only 9 yrs to retirement. I am getting close to my NOBE point (=20 "good" years) and they are taking me back since the rule is "must be able to finish his 20 by 60" for being taken back into the Guard or reserves..
There is no prohibition against going over 20 by 60.

I also reiterate my recommendation for Army Reserve component as Prepper relevant skills ( Combat Engineers, Infantry, many many Medic slots) reside there to a great degree vs AF and Navy (the USMC has only extremely tiny res component).

One rule that is affecting me negatively is "no reclass to another specialty if you have more than 15 yrs" but that does not apply to you.

The extra income is not trivial as weekends are paid at what works out to a 1.5 rate compared to active component (no BAH and no subsistence pay , but you do get double the base pay per day which works out to about 1.5 rate vs an active duty day).
If your slot is close to home then networking with men of some stature in your community also can't be overestimated.
Plus reserves/national guard offer super good medical/dental plans heavily subsidized compared to civ sector. (its not altruistic , they just want to keep the troops healthy ;)

There are 650,000 reserve and National guard slots in the army.
One of them will be a great fit!

Everyone on this board who has just a little bit of machoness in him should go and enlist in the reserves or guard !
As a prepper especially its a no brainer.

Advantages of Guard: Better sense of community and net working since everyone, except officers often stay in the same regiment his entire career and some states have addtional education benefits such as student loan repayment.
Some of the finest junior and mid range enlisted and finest Company grade Officers are in the Guard.
Advantage of USAR: Greater access to slots and specialties over a much larger system. If you want it promotion may come a bit quicker . Easier to control one's specialty. Some of the finest Senior NCOs and Senior Officers are in the reserves.
 
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See, now i'm rethinking everything....
Positives and negatives... I know things are unit to unit dependent, but my wife is thinking of the insurance aspect of it now for her and my son, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than what people are paying now.

Air Guard, im interested in as I don't need to do basic over again. Plus, I want to fly, boom operator, load, engineer don't matter. The Navy roadblocked me pretty much every step of the way, on any rate I wanted to cross rate over into and was one of the reasons I got out. (not the Navy...the commands I was at)
Army Guard, would have to do basic over again....basic at 42ish? I can do it, I can still pass a run and my push ups and sit ups no problem.
It's the 18 - 19 year olds I don't know if I can handle anymore....
I'll have to sit and have a chat this trip and the trip in August to sort things out.
Thank you all for the advice and comments. I'll have to really have a sit down and think it over again with my wife.

The best part of us moving back is we will have no house payments or car payments over our heads. House is bought and paid in full, vehicles will always be 2nd hand paid in cash. So it's insurance and basic bills that need to be paid for. Have a wood boiler at the property, so just need to get wood and propane for heat and cooking, Food, electric, phone/internet, insurance and savings is all we really need to work for.

Insurance and hospital bills are what scare the hell out of me...The best thing about over here is the health care system, we get sick and go to the doctor its $24USD in a basic clinic. Emergencies, are covered with my work insurance or what I piggybacked by paying extra for my family.
Even without it's a socialist system if you want public healthcare and don't mind waiting, but emergencies will still be covered.
From the horror stories I read about with Obooba care and the costs of insurance....im actually terrified...
 
So what was the outcome of this?
 
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