First off, congrats on making the right choice, to go in the reserves vs Active Duty!

To let you know, it is a long process. I enlisted in the unit and it took me 10 yrs before I made it. So now with over 20 yrs in the reserves, here are a couple things:

1. Apply to many reserve units and do not forget about the Guard. Also do not just limit yourself to a C-17 unit. There are other aircraft out there too like the C-5, C-130, KC-135 and even a C-40 unit. The good place to see who is hiring as Huggy mentioned is on Base Ops.net.

2. Be the squeaky wheel. If you bug them enough they will know you are interested and they might give you the job to shut you up!

3. Go to the UTAs/drills and hang out, let them get to know you and you them.

4. Also it is not uncommon for Guard units to ask you to enlist and be in the unit for a year before they select you. At 26, that might not be an option, but the Air Guard if they like you can seem to get age waivers, even past 30 from some stories I've heard.

5. Finally if you want it, never give up on it. I'm proof of that. Was told by one unit my overall score was too low and I'd never make it through UPT. I got picked up and went to UPT at 29 and to my surprise took home the top 3 trophies. And the thing was, I was not even trying for honor grad, I just wanted to get my wings and get out of there!

Hope that helps a little. Also the pay you spoke of looks like the UTA (one weekend a month). As a flier you will do a lot more than that. In the C-17 at a minimum will be 10 days a month. When you go through OTS, you will be paid as a SSgt. After OTS you will get 2d Lt pay which is $2784 a month before taxes and that does not include flight pay or BAH and BAS. You can also expect to be on orders for a minimum of 2 years to go through all the training and then some units will give you another 6 months to a year for seasoning.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.