Navy IRR
 

Greetings,

With the IA drum beating louder and louder, and a new policy that freezes moves to the IRR while a involuntary mob billet is attempting to be filled by the Wing I'm contemplating a jump from the VR community to the IRR.

Questions:

1. Is it even legal to freeze a SELRES in his current position and not allow a move to the IRR WITHOUT orders naming that person to a mob'd billet?

2. Is anyone finding it harder to get enough points to qualify for a "good year" now the NKO and NCET correspondence courses are limited?

3. Can you renew and/or obtain a CAC ID once in the IRR? Mine is set to expire before I'll be able to get the 4 additional "good years."

4. Is there any defined or practical limit to IRR dwell length? I'm looking to get from 4-5 years in the IRR to get to my 20.

Thanks in advance for all replies!

1. You DONT need orders to have been identified for MOB. Once you're status code in NSIPS and on your RUAD has been changed(R##) you're in the MOB with a ready load date; Orders will follow. CNRFC guidance is pretty clear that you will not be permitted to go IRR once you have been identified for mobilization

2. I am SELRES and have not gone IRR but I have heard it is very difficult to continue to get the points you need and painful at best.

3. Check with your NOSC, but I don't think you can get an ID in the IRR.

4. No length limit for IRR, but the answer to #2 would keep me from doing it.

FWIW, I mob'd from RMP 2012(last year of RMP) to Afghanistan from a SELRES flying unit. You have to do what is right for you and your family, but I had a great experience with my mobilization as painful as it was to leave family much less leaving the jet. I'm not sure how the VR squadrons are treating folks post MOB but we put our returning MOBs into O-5 billets (no OGW) required. That guidance has been supported by 3 CAGs now. It's a tough decision bro, best of luck.

Yes. See above. You're in the military, they can always stall for six months or so before releasing you.

With everything requiring a CAC, I imagine it's very hard.

Pretty sure you'll have to exchange the CaC for an old-skool reserve ID card...so no IT systems access.

If you're retirement-eligible, then in order to stay in the IRR you must get 50 points/year, or they'll simply retire you. Otherwise everyone would stay in to max out highest year-in-grade.

Otherwise you're legally limited by HYT in grade. But as you noted, it's hard to get 50 points with correspondence courses since you need a CAC for NKO.

The fairly obvious answer to your dilemma is VTU...you get the points and have a CAC so you can rack up even more points on NKO and they can't MOB a VTU person any more readily than IRR so odds are you're safe (unless you're some super-rare commodity like an SDV seal or something.

No pay but those points are worth something in retirement and as long as there's a NOSC in your town, it's not too hard on the family.

I think you can also do funerals...you get pay and a point, even if VTU/IRR, and the greatest generation needs a lot of ceremonial support these days.

They are also making it harder to get points for NETC and NKO courses.

Now if you are SELRES in a pay or non pay billet (VTU) you have to run a request chit to get points for NKO or NETC, not the old "just don't do it on a day we're paying you" it has been..

I used to be the zen master of getting 125+ points a year in the IRR. Had no problem maxing out as SELRES augmenting points that way.

Now? Maybe 80, if I'm lucky, as SELRES depending on how generous the OSO is with RMPs and ATPs.

Thanks for the replies. Hopefully some more chime in.

@BDGERJMN
I remember reading your posts a few years ago. I believe you were the one notified of your IA with only a few days left in December while on the RMP list? And possibly notified by a voicemail left by an E-5?

Glad you had a positive experience.

I always understood that one can't leave to the IRR once identified for a MOB (as an individual). My current Wing policy is no one can leave for the IRR if the Wing is trying to fill an IA billet. <--That's the part I question the legality of...without being individually identified, I thought I would be free to move to the IRR at my discretion?

@rickair

Do you know where I can find guidance on the process/chances of being involuntarily mobilized in the VTU? You're right, it does look the obvious answer, although I would like to see how easy it is to be involuntarily mobilized from the VTU (like SELRES?) or is it a WWIII-type option?

Can anyone answer how easy it is to earn points as a Blue & Gold Officer? Not sure if it takes 4 hours of documented work or if it's a set number of points per applicant etc.?

I heard back from the IRR_Counselor and unfortunately CAC IDs are not renewed in the IRR.

Thanks again for all the information!

Cubdrick,

Indeed, I was notified third week of December just before Christmas in 2012. In defense of the notification process, the poor E-5 was just doing his job. The guidance from CNRFC for the NOSCs to notify members bypasses the operational chain of command, that has since been fixed(at least in TSW) so CAGs and COs notify their members in conjunction with the NOSCs. Winning.

You can find all the guidance you need regarding mobilization here.

https://private.navyreserve.navy.mil/cnrfc/N-Codes/N3/Shared%20Documents/N35.aspx

There is a TON of information out there, but the N35 site is really a one stop shop.

Below the sign up/volunteer banners you will see a few links under "mobilization policy". There you can find info on involuntary mobilization from IRR/VTU.

I don't know that your wing can prevent you from going IRR if your MAS code hasn't been changed, I'd be interested to see what instruction says they can do that. If they have ID'd you as their nomination to CNRFC your MAS code will change within hours to R## until you're notified then I believe it goes to RC1. I think the rub will be if you're in the mix and you drop your IRR paperwork they will most likely notify CNRFC that you've been picked and bam, there you go. With the RMP going away along with the RMP business rules, the wings have been forced to develop their own rules and play the IA shell game internally. My take is that they are doing what they can at their level to not let folks game the system as they develop the batting order.

Good luck!

Just remember that in VR, it you get poked with the IA branding iron it will at least be a 13XX billet. It'll be something aviation related. You drop into IRR you're eligible for whatever turd they want to give you, and I wouldn't put it past them to do it for retribution. If I was one of the VR guys that just did that to dodge the bullet, I'd be very nervous right now.

BDGR do you know if the 5 year sanctuary still applies if one transfers from AD to FTS/SELRES? Are they still protected?

While it is true that the current sourcing solutions only put SELRES 131X/132X officers into those requirements, there is zero guarantee that you will be doing anything aviation related. I could go on for hours about how broken this system is but suffice it to say there is a better than avg chance that you will do nothing aviation related even though the requirement is for an aviation designator. Example: My original orders were to be the chief, air operations at a CJIATF HQ in Kabul. I ended up being an LNO to ISAF for all things detentions.

AD to FTS, to my knowledge do not receive a deferment, but I could be wrong. AD to SELRES is 2 yr deferment. You will receive 5:1 deferment if you mobilize (e.g. MOB for 1 yr, you get 5 yrs before being IN LAR to MOB again).

I believe the sanctuary going from AD to FTS/SELRES is 2 years.

It's murky. Your chain of command needs to approve a member-requested IRR transfer via a special-request chit. At the very least that will give them time to tag you for an IA before routing the chit (with the disapproval box checked). The military can do stop-loss on SELRES-to-IRR although it's hard to enforce if the guy just stops drilling (you can ADSEP him, but there's no legal basis to recall someone for NJP for skipping drill if they are not under contract).

Essentially zero. There was a big public/congressional outcry after OIF-I when soccer moms who had been in the AD army years ago but were still in the IRR (eight years total service) got recalled when they hadn't participated in the reserves, or even known they were still in the IRR. You would have to have some super-special long-lead combat skillset. I think the SECDEF has to approve, or at least the service secretaries. Idea being that SELRES are the pool that is in play, and the services need to manage that pool to provide what they need.

That's another avenue, but you'd have to some research, ie is there a limit to the number of B&Gs in a geographic area, limits to how many points you can earn, etc.