I was a Navy E-2 and 60B guy.

11 years active . 1800 hours. Not a lot. Never did a no flying tour.

If you're going to go USAF/ANG, go reserve right out of the box.

For the Navy, it's not an option to go reserve first.

 

I am now advising everyone I know to avoid active duty at all costs. Go Guard. The Reserves have quickly become active duty light, and the tools down at AFRC like it that way.

 

Not really.

 

TRs do!

 

Another reason is the ANG (and the ARNG where I retired) is a state-controlled asset. The states promote their own NG personnel. As an example, if you're an O-3 (captain) eligible for promotion to O-4 (major), you compete against all other captains in your state for an O-4 slot. Once you get the slot and are promoted, the state applies for federal recognition of your state promotion. Once granted, you pin on the new rank and receive the higher pay. You, and your family, stay in that state.

Someone correct me if this has changed but in the Reserves, the same captain competes against all other eligible captains nation-wide. You might be promoted to a major's slot in another area of the country. As a reservist not on AD orders, you may have to move at your own expense. If you have an airline job and commute to it but are in a reserve unit in your hometown you might be facing a double commute after promotion and QOL takes a big hit.

 

Receiving retirement pay immediately after 20 years of active duty is great! Waiting till I'm 60 after retiring from the ANG or reserves kinda sucks.

Do people not take this into consideration when working guard or reserve simply because they might already be hired with an airline?


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Don't get sucked in by the hype. The retirement pay can be nice, but isn't really that great, it will be like maybe a couple of grand per month at most. It isn't worth being miserable for 8-10 years IMO while you do some monotonous staff duty.

The earlier you join an airline, the sooner you can build seniority and you have the opportunity to make more money than you would if you stayed all the way to military retirement. Plus, you will be free, and not subject to the UCMJ and silly haircut rules.

Have you extensively looked into the military? Make sure that you understand that it can suck a lot of the time, and that you will get told to do silly things from time to time and will experience some weird things that you would otherwise tell everyone to **** off in the civilian world. Go visit a base if you can and see what it is like first.

 

Everybody in ANG and AFRES gets promoted to O-3 as long as you aren't a dip-wad.

pretty sure that with ROPMA both ANG and AFRES meet a federal promotion board, at least for O-4 and O-5.

They both have unit vacancy promotion, but I know that AFRES still has to meet a board for O-5, not sure if ANG does.

Never heard of anyone in the Reserves at the O-5 or below level having to move (find another unit) to accept a promotion, at least as a flyer.

Typically this is done if you accept a promotion to O-6.

 

A couple grand a month (or more) plus (almost) free healthcare is nothing to sneeze at, even if you have to wait to age 60.

The other huge advantage is the "furlough insurance."

You can always find a CAT E reserve (points only) to finish out your 20.

 

The value you gain by getting hired by a major airline sooner outweighs the value lost waiting to cash in on your retirement checks. And if you earn enough points you can get a retirement check prior to 60.

As a reservist you can do about 75-90% of what the active duty guy does. You just get to pick and choose if you want to do it. He can't do 1% of your airline career for 20 years. At that point you're 15+ years into your airline career and he's getting a retirement check. His pay, including his retirement check, is less than you're pulling in. He should close the gap but will never match your pay. With his retirement check he might, but probably won't, exceed your airline pay. Add the money up over the entire career and you'll be ahead.