AGR is a very tough nut to crack. I've applied for dozens of AGR jobs and I have yet to even have my package forwarded to the selecting official. Unfortunately, AFRC is highly segmented and by law, if 2 or more current AGRs apply for a job, then the selecting official cannot even look at a non-AGR application. It's a little different at the squadron level, but most of those are fighter and T-6/T-38 jobs.

 

Is it possible to retire from AD at 20 and then join a Guard or reserve unit as an AGR, ART, part time guy, etc?

 

It is on the books to allow a retired person to fly as a TR in both the ANG and the Reserve, but no one is doing it right now. The 340th FTG is not looking at retired AD guys right now and we were the last in AFRC to hire from that pool.

If you go to the ARC as an AGR then you are not retired, you are still on AD, so yes in theory you could get hired as a person with 20 years AD time into one of these positions, but not likely. You would be hurting the other guys in the unit who are trying to get promoted and move up by taking an O-4 or higher slot

You could not retire, then join as a TR, but you would need to work about 10 days a month of active duty or 8 days or so of inactive duty double pay days to get the same money in your pocket as your retirement check would have been. There are some advantages to this, but they are extremely rare. For example, an O-4 in an AGR billet has been selected for O-5, but can't pin on the new rank due to no available AGR spots or an unwillingness to move units or jobs to get the new rank. That O-4 then gets to 20 years of total active duty and could retire and earn an O-4 retirement check. That O-4 elects to revert to TR after getting 20 active years, since TR spots are allowed to overgrade (ie you can be an O-5 in an O-4 spot on the manning doc) they could pin on their new rank. If they got three good years time in grade as an O-5, they could retire as an O-5. But their retirement check would be an active duty O-4's check until age 60 when it would re-gonkulate and convert to an O-5 retirement. If they earned 1095 points of active duty time (3 x 365 days) while serving as a TR, which is hard to do without a lot of deployments and activations, they could retire as an O-5 instantly. There are some other considerations, but that is the simplest way I can think of to explain it.

If someone chose such a course of action, they would then have none of their retirement benefits from their AD/AGR job until they actually retired. So you would not have the healthcare you had on AD/AGR status unless you were on some sort of 31 day order or longer.

As others have said, you have to be a TR in the unit as a condition of ART/Technician employment. So to be an ART after earning an AD retirement, you would once again have to pretty much not retire in order to be hired as a TR, then be hired for an ART/Guard Technician job. A person in that situation would be financially better off to retire and get a GS job as a UPT sim instructor or something else not directly tied to a military reserve position. Then they would be truly double dipping. The GS salary plus the check of the month for brushing your teeth in the morning from all those years of AD service.

Hope that answers your questions.

 

A few years ago, when things were tuff getting ANG personnel, I heard plans were in the works to recruit traditional Guardsmen into hard to fill billets from a pool of AD retires. The deal was you kept your AD retirement, but on drill week ends or any TDY, you would loose that days retirement pay for a day of active duty pay. Some how the accountants would be able to keep up with all this. I never heard if anyone has done this.

 

We had quite a few folks do this. But the program is effectively dead. No more to be hired and we were the last place to take those folks.

 

AFRC will not currently entertain any application from someone who is collecting retirement. Asked that question myself just last week. Gen Stenner himself is very much against it according to AFRC personnel mgmt.

HOWEVER, AFRC will be up against a lot of manning pressure over the next couple of years and others in the command are pushing for it.

 

What's the upcoming pressure about?

 

Well, I've "heard" that the 8 to 10 year commitment change is starting to effect the ANG/AFRC. In addition, a lot of the ANG/AFRC positions are filled with dudes that got F-d the 90'd RIF so they are coming up on retirement. The guard and reserve are about to loose a ton of dudes. Pile this onto the fact that AD isn't letting anyone out (Palace Chase). Here's hoping to my acceptance into the ANG. Word to my Tucson ANG future brethren (I hope).

 

Why? I just got hired into one in the Reserves from the TX ANG. I know of 3 other 11X positions open right now that are unfilled. If you are a LTC, the options are a little more limited but I know of one available right now. You just have to be willing to move. I just noticed at the bottom of your post that you are talking about non SQ jobs. Upper level jobs are definitely a little harder to come by. Same for AD though.

 

Additionally the AD's return to AD board snagged a lot of TR's that are stuck at the bottom of a seniority list somewhere and close enough to chase down an AD retirement.

On top of that, we're reaching the end of the AGR hiring boom. When all those AGR's reach 20 years, they'll be punching out. AFRC under Stenner has a decidedly ART bent to it. I doubt all those AGR positions are going to remain.