I have been in the National Guard for 18 years. Trust me, it isnt a part time job anymore, especially if you are an officer. Ther eare meetings, taining events, and oh yeah, a major war going on wher eguard and reserve forces make up 45% of the total force. Active duty guys used to make fun of guradsmen and reserviss saying we were part tim soldiers. That was theold days. We deploy as much as they do these days.

I should have used the sarcasm star (*) for the last line of my comment.

Don't worry Dutch... You came in lima charlie...

The current commitment is 10 years. I graduated UPT in 2000 as one of the last guys with an 8 year commitment.

Not so much in the Air Guard and AF Reserves. Maybe it will change, but there's a lot of apples and oranges on this thread. Air Guard isn't the same as Army Guard. The committment is 10 years...Part time. I can't even work as much as I'd like to at my unit.

I will say that when I got into this biz the first time in 92 after leaving the AF, I went to work for Eagle and after my years of mil training, the school house was pretty easy. Most of the guys in my class had never been in a full motion sim before and it took them a bit to get use to that.... overall I wouldnt change a thing, ( even my long lay off from aviation ) but I will say this there are BAD military pilots just like there are bad civilian trained pilots.

The hardest thing for me to get use to when i flew for eagle was that senority was everything. Coming from a military flight culture where performance was about 90% of everything....meaning slackers got left behind...upgraded slower..... to AC and IP... etc... the guys who had good hands, passed all their checks, KNEW their **** COLD and could perform... those guys moved ahead.

Here's my experience so far. I've been in the reserves for 4+ years. Finished my bachelor's and master's in that time...spent last summer in the sandbox...and am getting ready to apply to the regionals as well as have an interview this week with the C-130 unit in Minneapolis. My goal here is to get hired on back home with the 130's, fly for a regional until i leave for AMS and flight training (Assuming I get a slot) and then go to training for two years, making LT pay with 4 years prior service. After that...I can either come back and upgrade to captain quickly at the airline, or keep seniority for a few months and get my feet back into the 121 environment. Either way, the military is a great option if you're up to the challenge and want to serve your country too. The military, whether guard/reserve or active duty, is a full time commitment these days with deployments expected every one and half to two years.

I can also be a scheduler's best friend when I get back and try to upgrade to aircraft commander asap before going back to airline flying...which would be a great option.