Army National Guard....

[Lydia]

Is anyone in the National Guard or have any insight/advice to share? I've been seriously thinking about this, after I obtain my BS degree (this month, YAY!). I just want to hear a few experienes or opinions--negative or positive.

Thanks

[Lindagerr]

I do not have any personal advice, but my son-in-law's father was retired from the guard. He always talked of his time in the guard with love for the service. When he passed away some af his best friends from the guard got him full honors. He had a member at attendance with his coffin, and a ceremony on the changing of the guard. THey even got a real person to play a bugle at hi sgraveside(I hear the usual is a recording now). It just seemed to me these men had a lot of love and repect for a former comrad in arms. You don't see that kind of loyalty much anymore.

I guess this isn't really what you were looking for, but I think it speaks to the quality of people in that service.

[radeonator2048]

Loredia,

I'm in the TN Army National Guard. I enlisted in March of 2007 and have finished all my training last summer. With a degree you can be an officer which makes more money. The Guard will pay for most of your school and they offer student loan repayment programs. The guard works for the federal and state government. So, you could help out the state with tornadoes or go on federal missions. My overall opinion is good. I enjoy the Guard. I have made some good friends and learned quite a bit. They also have some pretty good benefits and bonuses. You typically drill one weekend a month and 2 weeks in the summer.

Feel free to ask me more about it,

Aaron

www.1-800-GO-GUARD.com | College Graduate

you also may find the Guard's website helpful

[ShotoJuku]

Are you looking to advance via OCS with your Bachelors degree?

[Lydia]

Are you looking to advance via OCS with your Bachelors degree?

Yes that's what I was leaning towards.... Also, I know they have this school first program where you cannot be deployed for the first 2 years, while you're in school. In August I'm going to law school (an accellerated 2yr program). So i figured it would be perfect....maybe.


On a side note: When I go to law school, I'll be moving to Michigan, so should I wait until I move, or does it even matter?

[Lydia]

Loredia,

I'm in the TN Army National Guard. I enlisted in March of 2007 and have finished all my training last summer. With a degree you can be an officer which makes more money. The Guard will pay for most of your school and they offer student loan repayment programs. The guard works for the federal and state government. So, you could help out the state with tornadoes or go on federal missions. My overall opinion is good. I enjoy the Guard. I have made some good friends and learned quite a bit. They also have some pretty good benefits and bonuses. You typically drill one weekend a month and 2 weeks in the summer.

Feel free to ask me more about it,

Aaron

www.1-800-GO-GUARD.com | College Graduate

you also may find the Guard's website helpful

Can you tell me a little bit more about the process you went through: Like from when you applied, to various training schedules, etc. Also, did you go in as an officer?

[originalbigjim]

maybe I can provide a little incite in to military life, I am active duty navy so i do not know first hand what the other services are like but i have worked with some of these guys on JTF missions and I can tell you this much, If you want to go guard be sure you are ready to go to Iraq, Afghanistan and/or Djibouti. You will be (not maybe) mobilized over and over again. I went to a training seminar with a NG Sargent who said since 9/11 he has been activated something like 9 times. Luckily in his civilian he works for a government contractor so they being activated does not affect his employment. He told me many of his brothers in arms have lost their jobs or were pass up for promotions or demoted because they are gone so much and they have become "guard bums" now seeking orders to anything just to pay the rent. National public radio did a piece on this not to long ago and they said not only jobs are being lost but also marriages are being ended and houses are being foreclosed. I am not saying to not join, in fact I am seriously considering joining after I get out of the Navy, All I am saying dont be surprised one month after OCS or boot you are getting called up.
Military service is great whether active or reserve but I personally think that the national guard has no business overseas. I signed up to fight all wars both foreign and domestic, the national guards mission is to defend our nation on our soil, aid in disaster relief and in declared states of emergency (IE large scale riots.)
PLEASE remember everything the recruiter tells you is a lie unless you see it in writing in your contract. Sometimes even in your non-mobilization agreement they may try to slip in something about it is not applicable if they need you to meet the needs of the army or in a time of war. If anything wait until 2009 when we get a new president, which will most likely be a democrat, the odds of activation of the depleted reserve and guard will be very slim.

[Lydia]

.....If you want to go guard be sure you are ready to go to Iraq, Afghanistan and/or Djibouti. You will be (not maybe) mobilized over and over again. I went to a training seminar with a NG Sargent who said since 9/11 he has been activated something like 9 times......All I am saying dont be surprised one month after OCS or boot you are getting called up....PLEASE remember everything the recruiter tells you is a lie unless you see it in writing in your contract. Sometimes even in your non-mobilization agreement they may try to slip in something about it is not applicable if they need you to meet the needs of the army or in a time of war......

Thanks for your honest reply. You made many interesting points...I'm glad you brought some of these things up. I'm going to search for the NPR broadcast online. From what I understand, after basic training, I would go to OCS. OCS is once a month for 18 months (during which they cannot activate you). I planned on doing trhe "School First" option, where they say that if you meet the requirements (stay enrolled full-time, etc) they will not activate you for the first 2 years of your schooling. I figured that this would give me time to finish law school.

I've heard many people talk about the tricky contracts. So, do you know if the same deployments apply to officers? Is it any different?

[originalbigjim]

when it comes to the guard I think (and I could be wrong) you only get activated as a unit as where the army reserve the can activate only certain MOSs or individual soldiers. Officers do tend to get activated for training missions more than enlisted but they usually last and where from 2 to 7 days usually (this is from what I hear and not for sure.)
Make sure the college 1st program applies to officers as well, you also can be activated before you complete OCS and have to wait until you return from deployment to get your commission, this happened to a guy in one of my grad school classes. When in state OCS his unit was activated so now he is in Iraq.
In the military everything is subject to change and it is usually for the worse, when i came in the navy i was promised that I would never wind up fighting on the ground in iraq because that isnt what we do but since then we have instated the IA (individual augmentee) program, where they remove you from your unit and send you to the army for anywhere from 6 to 18 months. This is just an example of how things work. I love serving my country and I love the navy (sometimes ) but there is a lot of sacrifice involved so just be ready to do that.

[HawkGuy]

I've been in the Army just about 8 years, with 4 being in the Guard. So here's my 2 cents....

If you join the guard and go OCS, they CANNOT deploy you while you are in the OCS program unless they commission you first, and I've never seen that happen. I was considering going through the program and talked with a bunch of officers who had gone through the State OCS program and they all told me the same thing. The reason they can't deploy you is when you first go into the program, they promote you to the rank of Cadet and pay you as an E5 or E6, I forget which. Well, no unit can take a Cadet to Iraq.

As far as the Guard on the whole, it greatly depends on the state. I'm in the Colorado guard, and have had nothing but trouble with them. Getting Tuition Assistance is obscenely hard, and mine never got approved. I rarely get paid on time. The full time staff has a 4 day workweek, and the joke is the workweek starts after lunch on Tuesday and ends around lunchtime on Friday.

On the flipside, I deployed with members of the Minnesota guard, and they had nothing but praise for their state. They get paid on time, they have good equipment, good leadership, etc. In addition to the normal army education programs, they have tuition reimbursement, which is purely a state thing.

Another thing you want to look at is the type of unit you want to join. Infantry is very different than Aviation and so on. It really depends on the type of job you want to do. I would talk to people in the unit you want to go into before you join and get the real deal.

And remember, everything the recruiter tells you is a lie unless it's in writing. Mine told me that guard aviation never deployed, but when I reported in, they asked me if I wanted to go to Afghanistan as half the unit was there already