Joining the Reserve/National Guard 1

[engrme]

I will be graduating soon (May 2008) with mechanical engineering degree. I have already secured full-time position with a DOD agency.

I want to join the military reserve and go through with the training before showing up for work with DOD agency. This will probably delay my plans for part-time masters for few years but that's fine ... I am new graduate and got lot to learn at my new job.

If I am deployed, how will the reserve commitment affect my civilian job? Would that put me at considerable disadvantage with my peers?

If someone has gone through similar experience or knows someone who has, can you please share it here? Appreciate it.

 

[bigTomHanks]

I joined the Army after graduating college with a bachelors degree in Mechanical engineering. If it is your desire to be in the military I would put off working for awhile because being in the military will consume your life. If you join the Army, remember that the Reserve consist of support units(boring and usually lame) and the National Guard has combat arms, so I would go active or guard in combat arms. If you do have a civilian job when you are deployed or have to goto training then you should have your job when you get back. I don't know the exact laws but there are protections in place, especially since you have a job with the government. The main concern is that if you get deployed you will most likely be gone for about 2 years total and everything will change in that time. You still have to do all the training that the regular army does before a deployment but your life will suck more. If you are in the guard or reserves you have to leave home and go to another post and do all your training. Atleast if you are in the active army you do a lot of your training from your duty station post and can atleast get some weekends and holidays at home. I'm currently deployed to Iraq right now and there have been many occassion that I could have been injured or killed. I know people don't think too much about that stuff before they join the military but it is the reality. I don't regret my decision to join after college and I'm not in the least bit worried about getting a job after I get out of the army. If anything I have learned a lot that will make me more valuable and I have the rest of my life to work in an office.

 

[debodine]

First, to bigTomHanks, thank you for serving. I hope you come home safe, you and all your buddies in your outfit.

To engrme, thank you for wanting to serve.

Engrme, perhaps my experience may help you in your decision. I was active duty Air Force for five years, and Air Force Reserve for fifteen and then retired from the AF Reserve. So you need to remember that my experience may not apply to the other branches, and it was also a while ago as I retired in 1994. But if you find information in here that is of value to you, good.

First thing to remember is when you are in the Guard or Reserve, in today's world of conflict there is still a very good chance you will be called to active duty. During my 1973-1994 service my active duty unit was never in an armed conflict and my Reserve unit was only ever put on notice of possible mobilization once, and that was during the first gulf war. Three of us in my unit volunteered rather than wait for the unit callup, and said, "Send us east!". The military, in their infinite wisdom, sent us east to McGuire AFB, New Jersey rather than Saudi Arabia or Kuwait. But we did as we were told.

Now to the info that may matter to you, and keep in mind I am not a lawyer and I have not kept up with changes in the law since I retired.

During my service, the rules were such that if I was mobilized to active duty, upon my return my company was required by law to give me a "similar job". The law did not require them to give me back my original job, nor did it require them to pay me any wages or maintain my vacation/sick time or consider seniority upon my return. Nor did it require them to maintain my health benefits or retirement plan.

Voluntarily my company maintained my retirement plan, my vacation/sick time and my seniority...as well as my original job. They did not pay me any wages or maintain my health benefits. I am no longer with that company (because of other opportunities that arose), but I have always been grateful to them that they went BEYOND the requirements of the law to help me out.

Again, you should consult current experts in military rules and procedures if these issues matter to you, as my information is at least a decade out of date.

Good luck whatever choice you make,

debodine

 

[MadMango]

It sounds like you think a stint in the military will give you some "huge" advantage in your DoD job. I doubt it, but it will give you valuable experience beyond that of your contemporaries that are graduating at the same time. What meager technical advantages (book smarts) non-military co-workers may have over you will be over shadowed by your military leadership and organizational skills (street smarts) to name a few.

Are you going in as Enlisted or Officer?
Are you married?
What military MOS/rate/job are you considering?

These are huge factors to consider. Another benefit, if you are smart, you could pay-off most if not all of your students loans if you have them. Going into the reserves now (involvement with Iraq and Afghanistan) will probably mean active duty, not just the "weekend a month, 2 weeks a year" mantra you may be hearing from a Recruiter. Being on active duty, you can live with zero expenditures if you are frugal and smart. This means your military salary is yours to save/invest or squander away.

I was Army Reserve and went active duty Navy.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[engrme]

Thank you bigTomHanks, debodine, MadMango for your replies.

My student loans are paid off and I am not married. Once I get my job, my only major expense will be some rent money that I will be giving to my parents.

MadMango -- At this point, I am thinking of going in as Enlisted in Army or Marine Corps reserve in some sort of Infantry MOS that is in my area.

I have heard of recent deployments being around 12 months long or they go longer? I don't mind getting deployed, but I wonder how far behind that will put me in training/expertise wise in my job.

 

[BJC]

engrme
There is also this.

"And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

Sometimes you just gotta do whats right.

 

[TheTick]

I would advise you to wait. It's your first year in a new career. You ought to concentrate on that.

Why do you want to join the reserves? What do you hope to gain? Certainly not for the money. If you are not pursuing a commission, the experience likely will not carry the weight you think it might. Reserve units I have seen tend to be top-heavy with NCO's who came from active duty. It could take a long time to gain a position with meaningful responsibility.

I'll bet you your last civilian paycheck that you get deployed.

 

[engrme]

TheTick - I want to join reserve so I can serve. I like the academic challenge engineering offers, but I am also interested in seeing more than just my cubicle. Infantry is dangerous MOS but I want to go in for the challenge.

If I wait longer, it seems to me it will get tougher with time, especially once I have a family to take care of.

 

[TheTick]

I don't want to sound like I'm dogging you. Just trying to see where you're coming from.

You already have the degree. Consider a commission. It's almost certainly the best way to maximize the contribution you will be making. Marine officers are among the finest professionals in any field that you could ever know.

 

[Rjeffery]

A star for TheTick. I agree that officer rather than enlisted is the way to go. Better conditions, more respect and better opportunities. Thank you for wanting to serve.

from a 20 year US Navy enlisted vet, now retired!

 

[zdas04]

When I was an enlisted puke in the Navy I had a really stupid officer (who I still had to salute) say to me "you are IN the Navy, the Officer Corps IS the Navy". And then he told me (I was an E-5, qualified as Engine Room Supervisor in a Nuclear Power Plant at the time) "I just spilt a cup of coffee over by the pot, go clean it up".

The only way that this is going to work to your benefit is to work towards a Reserve Commission.

David

 

[TheTick]

There is no shortage of hair-brained officers. Fortunately for them, there is no shortage of hair-brained grunts & swabbies, either. Plenty of fine people on both sides. Just watch out for "ring knockers".

First time I saw this was at D1G:

"Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." -- Officers Manual, 1894

 

[mshimko]

I'm a retired active duty Navy type, who is now employed by a consulting firm primarily supporting DOD (we're commonly called DOD contractors, or beltway bandits).

I've had government GS folks working for me get called up for active duty (as well as their normal weekends and 2-week stints); I've had engineers in my current firm called up for active duty. Generally, the government itself will be very flexible and supportive of your military career, as will firms that specialize in support to DOD.

Good luck and thanks for your service.

 

[MadMango]

You could be away as long as 18mo+ right out of the gate. Consider going to Boot Camp, AIT, and deployment to the field sequentially as worst case scenario.

Meeting those bad apples (which do exist on both sides of the fence) in the military have been a huge benefit to me in my civilian life and career. I don't think Reserve duty would put you in a considerable disadvantage with your peers, just realize it is an 8yr total commitment.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[msquared48]

engrme:

I went thru a similar process, going into ROTC in college, then going to grad school and doing my four year active commitment, plus two years reserve. I served from 1972 to 1978 - really post Vietnam as there were no more deployments to Vietnam when I entered my tour of duty.

Regarding entering the military prior to going to my engineering career, it was a bad move for me as it did put me four years behind my peers, but it was a path I was legally comitted to pursue. I was put into a combat MOS rather than construction with no real contact with real engineering for four years.

The only thing I got out of the time expended was leadership experience - finding out that I hated ring knockers too, and would have nothing to do with the kiss a** hypocricy I saw to advance in rank. My best friends there were the enlisted men. Needless to say, the system sickened me and I got out as soon as I could.

Mike McCann
McCann Engineering

 

[tripleZ]

Engrme...do some reading on the time commitments before accepting an offer with the DoD firm. I've been chucking around the idea of entering the reserves (USMC) for a year or two now. Basic training for the Corps (reserve & active duty attend the same session) is 13 weeks long. After that, it's something like 10 days of leave before you're required to head off to your school. Your MOS obviously will determine how long your in school. Your recruiter should be able to give you a time frame for that. All in all, it's probably going to be 6 months minimum before you get out of the initial training phases, at least for the Corps. If you're deployed, tack on another year or two minimum. How that affects your job depends on your employer. Were I to try and do that in my current position, it likely wouldn't exist or be open by the time I was finished with training. I'm in a different spot now (29) than you are. Given the options, I wish I would have just finished ROTC in college and taken the commission rather than waiting until now. It's much harder to make work once you've got financial commitments like a mortgage.