Quote:
Originally Posted by swimr235
There are certain issues that are exclusive to reserves/national guard special operations selection courses. Work issues, family issues, financial hang ups and what not. Active duty guys are not without their own obstacles but those of us that are choosing this route, I believe in my opinion, have a certain set of issues that are exclusive to us...lets say...part timers. My question is, are there any members or admins of this forum that are or know of anyone, prior service or otherwise, that has gone through the National Guard SF pipeline, start to finish? I'd like to get their view on how things went, ins and outs, how these extrinsic situations factored into the experience and how it was handled. To clarify, I am not trying to get a "tips & strategies" outline, I'm asking due to the nature of my own current track and to compare and contrast. Thanks.
- nick
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The biggest issue with being in the guard and being in the school house from what I've found is the coordination between your home unit and the school. Being in the Guard, every fiscal year you'll have to get new orders cut. This means you'll have to get your wife a new ID and make sure everything is still working within Tricare/DEERS every time you get your new orders. This may not sound like a big issue but without fail, your orders will stop while you're supposed to be in the field or gone for one reason or another and you'll have to get a hold of order extensions and all that before hand. The people in the Guard Liaison office are very helpful and should get things taken care of in a timely manner. My orders were going to cut out while I'll be at Robin Sage here in a couple weeks but they got them extended and even got my wife's contact info in the event that the orders didn't make it down before I headed out. Another downside is that your state has to update your ERB. What this has meant for me is that I've had an incorrect one for the last nearly two years. It'll get updated once you reach your unit. As for being treated as a 'part timer', I haven't come across any of that other than friendly ribbing every once in a while. You're treated according to your rank and how you present yourself.
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