[dessaml]

I am in the process of joining the AF reserves and I want to know if you can serve every weekend? :confused:

[tickle]

You are required to attend one weekend a month, two 8 hour shifts. Isn't this information detailed in pamphlets you received when joining?

Tick

[jamoecw]

If you look at the pay, it is assuming one weekend a month, however is there a way to serve more than one weekend a month in order to earn more money? And it is quite clear that you are only required to serve one weekend a month, that is pretty much everywhere.

[jaime90]

When you go into the reserves, you should've expected not to have it as your ONLY source of income. You should get another job. If you'd like, ask someone from your base about this. There may be a job available for you to work full time there.

[jamoecw]

And if the reason why that person wants to serve more than one weekend is because they want to be that much more proficient when they inevitably get called overseas? Or maybe they are looking for a part time job and want to help out their country in the process (as most part time jobs with large companies will allow some extra hours just in case you need the extra money for what ever reason)?

This is why the army has such poor recruitment rates, they act like it is a rough equivalent of a civy job (ever see the advertisements that say that one can build the skills they need while serving their country doing civy stuff like vehicle repair?), and when someone asks a simple question to that effect their spokesmen get tight lipped and angry. So people start looking for answers somewhere else and find that maybe the information that is given isn't completely accurate, such as the reserves only being deployed for at most 12 months of active duty at a time.

[jaime90]

My fiancé is in the Marine Corps reserves and hates it. He does his drill one weekend a month, and he does his AT two weeks a year. His unit is essentially non-deployable, and the reserves for him are basically volunteer deployment, so he's never deployed. We waited for months for him to augment into active duty, and then found out that his paper work came back expired. It's been over a year since he's tried to go active. It seems like nothing is guaranteed in the military. My fiancé is a waitor at a restaurant and was unemployed for 4 months because of the terrible job market. He is a mech. In the military and has much experience in mechanical work on diesel vehicals like hmv's and lvs. It's ridiculous that the military cannot give an unemployed man who is trying to support himself, a job. They have proven to me, unreliable as far as money, and jobs goes.

[jamoecw]

You, most of what I know about the reserves comes from the army reserves, I have cousins in the army, and my parents own a small business in which a few 'retired' officers and army reservists frequented. During the second iraq war the 50 year old officers were called on to go to iraq along with the reservists. The officers were able to go home after 6-12 months, while the reservists stayed for 2-3. the officers had been able to transition back much better than the reservists, as the officers were nearly retired anyway, so their bosses were already looking at replacements for them. The reservists were younger and gone longer so the had a much harder time keeping their job as they were out of the loop when they were expected to jump back in.
The air force reserves advertise full time job options to their reservists, and the army spokespeople that have talked to seem to have a chip on their shoulder about reservists being at home (though they do have respect for the reservists that have been called to active duty).

[excon]

Hello j:

If his heart isn't set on the marine corp, I'll bet one of the other branches would LOVE to have him... I believe he can trade in his commitment to the Marines for active duty somewhere else..

I certainly could be wrong. But, I don't think so.

excon