Originally Posted by
hjs1971
Slightly off topic, but don't forget, for every 30 days you do in support of a contingency, you get 180 days free Tricare. As a Guard/Reserve person, just do a 30 day tour to the desert every 6 months (although ONE, Operation Noble Eagle, counts as well so you might be able to swing a CONUS tour) and you will have free Tricare for your career, not too bad a deal. You do have to go to your Tricare/DEERS folks after every deployment to sign up but if you have a family, it's well worth an hour of your time to get them covered for 6 months for free.
That's what we do in my unit. We do ~60 day tours supporting OIF/OEF, but the beauty is they are CONUS tours. So you have active duty tricare while you are on orders, then you get your 6 month TAMP (transitional assistance something or other) tricare after that. The only pain in the butt is re-enrolling in prime every time your status changes (assuming you want prime benefits and not standard)