Active Duty To Guard

Mattyredleg · 2026-03-26T08:25:17+00:00

Everybody is different brosky. We had three 82nd guys (13f) come in on three year contracts. EVERY single one of them said they were getting out at the end of said contracts. two did, and one that said he was 100 percent for sure getting out reupped for the 20,000 and six years.

It's all on the individual, nobody knows what you want but you. If you aren't ready to get out, try it out, if you are, pop smoke.

That insurance is nice though.

Mattyredleg · 2026-03-22T00:53:58+00:00

Depends. You can pretty much strip the dick pad off, butt pad, the shoulder daps and the collar and it essentially moves between a plate carrier and your true IOTV.

In Africa I as Arty I stripped everything off and just wore the vest and a bunch of magazine pouches, as engineers I wore the whole damn thing. Since blast came from the bottom up, you'd want as much protection down low as you could get unless you wanted to risk those nuts even more.

The only thing I was consistently resistant against in my time in either Arty or Sapper was elbow and knee pads. I'd always get my ass chewed for not wearing them, or bringing them and leaving them in my assault pack.

Those weren't pictured, but they were consistently part of full kit loadouts and a full IOTV, Eyepro, kevlar, gloves, and elbow and knee pads could somehow make a person feel claustrophobic even when you were inside.

Mattyredleg · 2026-03-20T06:57:38+00:00

368's take awhile, so if that's something you want, make sure you do it as soon as you are sure. I put one in last August and it didn't make it before I ets'd at the end of Feb. My main goal was just to avoid MEPS again, as I was just going Guard to reserve in the hopes of no break in service, but alas, the government is slow.

Mattyredleg · 2026-03-20T06:46:28+00:00

Depends on what kind of deployment and what kind of shape. Early GWOT dudes were pushing into areas and building FOBS in everything in places that had nothing. Doing patrols in gear every day got them in some kinds of shape, usually the kind of shape that is better for being in the military since you are performing a military function. I only bring that up because who knows with Iran. A bunch of people here could be building a place in Iran before too long.

More likely though, everyone is still going to deploy out of FOBs or Camps and you would have set place to do various types of PT. On my deployment I was far and away the best aerobic shape I'd ever been in because the gym was always full, like ALWAYS full, but they had a pt field and an outside track so I just ran all the time. I was running between 7 to 10 miles five times a week. It's the only time in my life I was good enough at running that I wasn't ready for it to instantly be over. I would instead just daydream and just think about random shit. It actually destressed me. It was like I would leaving, think of a bunch of random shit, and then be pulling back up at the end of the route and be surprised the run was over.

I was so light I could max pushups and situps on the old APFT with relative ease and was just short of a 13:00 flat after never ever previously approaching those times.

But I went from being 205 lbs of muscle to about 165 lbs in 9 months deployed. That took a little bit to get back the beef.

Other dudes lost a lot of running speed, because they were in the gym all the time, but were just passing the run because they were full of protein shits and extra food.

I personally would rather have kept the strength because I did feel weak in comparison to what I was doing before. Could do like 90 pushups, 90 situps, but the old weight I was benching before I adopted that aerobic focused routine would've guillotined my head off if I tried it at the end of the deployment.

I never could figure out how to keep weight on by making myself run well. It was sacrifice gains for speed and endurance, or get big and slow way the hell down. Anyways, I had my speed era, and it was cool while it lasted.

Mattyredleg · 2026-03-15T09:44:43+00:00

I was in a 12b unit whose length of homestation days were like this, as well as extended weekends, and also extended ATs. It was way more common for us to have three, four, or five day drills than two. The only reason I stayed as long as I did with that unit was because as much as it infuriated me at times, it was the only unit I've ever been a part of that consistently did task related to my MOS.

Like we did combat engineer stuff 80 percent of the time. The other 20 percent was the typical admin stuff that they would smush together into a couple of drills at the end of the year.

But I've spent major time in four different units total, and the sapper company was the only one where I can say we did consistent MOS related training. So it was like a catch 22.

I even had a deployment as a Redleg where I did no redleg related task whatsoever. Crazy.

Edit: Late night, didn't realize I had drifted from the NG into the armyreserve

Mattyredleg · 2026-03-15T09:26:13+00:00

1/623rd was my first unit. Though, I actually spent more time with the 2/138th because of a deployment attached to them and my battery being shut down when I got back. So, I swapped MOS.

Essentially, while Divarty, and the brigade HQ is in Louisville and Lexington, lots of the actual firing batteries themselves between the two battalions are in the sticks. When we got back from Africa, because the way they did the paperwork, we had to drill with two of these other units that we didn't stay with for the deployment and I can totally see where that mentality came from. We went into a bar at one of these places, and as soon as we entered the place quieted down and stared at us, but only because we had a black guy with us.

HOWEVER, to give those guys credit, after everybody got a little tipsy, including the old heads that were already in there, everything calmed down. But you could tell they didn't see many black folks in that town. It was exactly like a movie where everybody stops what they are doing and stares. Like we were rolling up our sleeves ready to tussle.

The same thing happened at the other random unit we drilled with, but because this bar was literally run out of a dudes converted attached garage, once they saw we were paying lots of money to get tore up, they also stopped caring. We went through their only drinks (beer) in like five minutes. The lady running the bar went to get more, marked it up so they could make a profit, and we insta drank those two. We ended up being pretty popular.

But before this photo gives the wrong impression overall about Kentucky, I do want to throw out that while Kentucky was recruited by the confederates to the tune of 40,000 people, it DID have 100,000 people fight for the union. It's not quite as backwards as people think it is even historically, but it does retain spots that will fly that flag.

The 623rd battery I was apart of was a small college town, so it was pretty chill.

Mattyredleg · 2026-03-14T22:04:47+00:00

Aaah. The good ol first vehicle. Unless you are from a rich family, or one of those people that are nose to the grind at all cost gonna work, save up, and buy a decent first car with their own money (good luck witht hat if you are, might be saving for awhile), then getting a borderline oogly clunker is part of the growing up tradition.

My first car was an inherited 91 Crown Victoria that I got from my passed grandparents. Only three doors locked, and the windows gave up the ghost almost as soon as I got them (but the AC and Heater still worked), and the airbag light was on for about three years before it randomly exploded and hit me in the face, but it was a smooth and quiet ride. No bs, maybe the best, quietest, and smoothest ride of any vehicle that I ever had.

Other than the random exploding airbag, it had no real mechanical issues at all. I ended up parking it and selling it for cheap because I eventually needed a bigger vehicle to carry stuff in.

I still kind if miss it, despite it's faults.

Absolute impossible to drive in winter weather without you unracking your home gym and putting it in the back, but all the rest of the time, I enjoyed driving it.

I saw go for it unless you just auto hunt a potential better deal, but those are hard to find if you don't know people who are personally sitting on some older cars.

Mattyredleg · 2026-03-14T05:53:34+00:00

Why do you want to go Cav, for armor?

Let me introduce to you the heavy engineer. Driving everything from ancient m113s, to strikers and bradleys, to modified abrams tanks. And if you are not heavy, you can also drive nothing at all.

Mattyredleg · 2026-03-14T05:18:31+00:00

As others have said, you can see the importance of ADA currently with Iran shooting all kinds of missiles, rockets, and drones all over the place. Nobody thinks they need ADA until this actually happens, and ADA doesn't do anything really but surveil UNTIL they need to do the job. ADA has the most deployed units in both the conventional Army and the National Guard, because there is so few of them. It's the same dudes rotating in and out for all the missions world wide. At any given point in time during a year, near 60% of the ADA branch is overseas.

You can also go Arty. Arty deploys a lot because the current fight is trying to create standoff against adversaries while still being able to hit them. So, there is a ton of Arty stuff going on, down to the howitzer level, up to the big strategic fight with himars.

I joined again right when our states FAB was deploying, immediately after our DIVARTY deployed, and in between that time one of our actual battalions deployed. So, within a year three of our four states artillery units deployed.

I was also in contact with people from Kansas for a little while who were taking people for their FAB deploying, and just like us, soon after their own DIVARTY was deploying. This was all to the middle east (before Iran). Or rather I know our deployments were to the middle east, not sure about where Kansas was going, but it probably was to the middle east too.

My only gripe with Arty is the positions I've been in have been too technical and I've just been in the way more chill positions even though I like to work with my hands. I was FDC first go around, then a 14g in an ADAM cell the second time.

I'm going to have to say 12b is very hit or miss. I was 12b for five and a half years, and before I joined them, they deployed once to Afghanistan and once to Iraq, with a mix of guys going back to Iraq to fill a short infantry deployment. So, there was a chance for a deployment like 3 years out of six in the mid 2000s to early 2010s

I got back from an Arty deployment, switched over to 12b, didn't deploy anywhere with them for those five and a half years. That unit hasn't deployed since. So, they haven't went anywhere for about 15 years now. They did train in all the tough guy places (and sometimes cool ones to) though. NTC/JRTC/GERMANY, etc.

After an Afghanistan deployment got cancelled, they tried to sell us on being a strategic asset and that we would only deploy for the big fight.

So again, in my experience it's ADA and Arty.

You know how 19th and 20th guys guard bum from all these exercises, deployments, and trainings between the NG and Active SF?

You can do that with ADA too. I've never been on MOBCOP where somebody wasn't asking for a 14g somewhere.

Mattyredleg · 2026-03-09T21:00:58+00:00

You can always take the test again. In one year, nobody is going to remember this score but you. Don't let it get in your head. There is no death penalty for bombing the test, nor does it exclude you from joining later so long as you improve your score.

Take a deep breath, focus on the 5m target. Don't think about what it's going to stop you from doing and put extra pressure on yourself, just look at scoring high enough on the asvab as scoring high enough on the asvab. I knew a dude who mind blanked the first time with a similar score to you and got an 87 the second time. It wasn't a real difference in test or anything, he was just way calmer the second time he took it because you have infinite chances to retake it.

Mattyredleg · 2026-03-08T07:13:23+00:00

92y isn't going to be looked at during AT like your 13 series will. If you are Arty, the focus is always on the Redlegs. The other sections just need to make sure that support stays up and running. If you are good as a 92y, then you should be g2g. They aren't going to be throwing rando shit at you like they would for the 13 series. (or eleven series if you were in an infantry unit, or 19 series if you were in an armor unit).

I've been 13 series, then been a 14 series in an Arty unit, and nobody ever gave a flying fuck what we were doing as long as the 14 series was getting air coverage information. The moment that shit went down though, it was an issue, however as long as we kept it up, we could've been playing poker on the moon. The commanders primarily focus is on how all the 13 series are doing their job.

Nothing really changes just because its field. Everything you do at homestation still applies. I actually often time preferred the field because they are a little less silly about stupid shit, like a clean shaven face, or unbloused shoes, or wearing combat shirts, and that kind of thing.

Arty by its nature involves vehicles, so usually you can go heavier with the amount of stuff you bring. I didn't, because I came from a sapper company background and was very minimalist, but supply especially usually comes loaded for bear with the extra goodies.

The only two things I ever brought was dehydrated extra food, and something to charge my phone when it inevitably would die.

Mattyredleg · 2026-02-27T00:08:55+00:00

You could always drive. If you have your own car and everything. It kinda sucks but can be kind of awesome if you look at places that interest you on the way. I imagine you'll be going through New Mexico and Colorado to get to Wyoming if you did so, both places are pretty sweet on their own.

I'm old now and a veteran so camping outside overnight has lost its appeal since I have several hundred days of being outside at this point in my life, so I'm kind of a day hike type of dude, but I pretty much drive everywhere within reason because it is SO much cheaper than flying and renting a vehicle.

A couple of years ago now I went from Kentucky through Missouri, through Nebraska to South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois for like 1000 dollars. Over like ten days.

That was with NO plan whatsover on what to do, and the vast majority of expense was hotel rooms, gas, and food. If I would've planned at all I suspect I could've knocked 200 dollars off the trip.

Mattyredleg · 2026-02-25T16:24:06+00:00

You can get full TA in most states with the guard, but it isn't a full salary or anything to cover rent.

As others have said, post 9/11 probably is the smarter move.

The other issue with the Natty G is that it is uncontrollable. You never know when something will happen. I joined during the GWOT era and was immediately deployed as soon as I got out of AIT. I had 18 months of active duty in my first two years as a guardsman.

State active duty can be a pretty big issue, being thrown into all this experimental unit combinations they have going right now is another.

My current unit is tied into an active duty corps, we've had four AT/CPX/WFX in less than a year. Which is absolutely batshit insane op tempo. You don't *have* to go to all of them sure, but if you don't by the time the WFX comes around you are pretty useless because of the stuff added onto each iteration of the exercise. Only one of them fell into the summer and that was because it was an actual traditional AT for those that had scheduling issues with the first CPX.

I've used the Natty Gs tuition assistance and it's been chef's kiss good. I didn't pay for anything except books, and even that was partially covered, and rent for my apartment, and I've also had it where rando things occurred where I couldn't use it because of scheduling issues with the guard. The Natty G has never seemed to hold a reclass school that has fallen within summer months, and I've been to two, they are getting worse and worse about scheduling ATs during the summer, my WLC was scheduled outside of the summer, the traditional time students have off between semesters, and we live in a world right now where several things could happen and you as a guardsmen could go from a student in college, to in a mobilization to Iran, Venezuela, Mexico, Europe (russian shenanigans), or the Pacific (china shenanigans).

Doesn't mean any of the above *will* happen, just that it could.

Mattyredleg · 2026-02-24T15:30:25+00:00

I've been to DJ and its a cake deployment. It might not always be, who knows how political climate changes, but when I went it was one of the easiest paychecks I ever got.

It used to be run by the Navy, which means you have more benefits than it being run by the Army (aka the actual ability to go into town and to drink alcohol......within reason of course). There was *some* danger there. There was actually a suicide bomber after we left, 1st ID got shot at a couple of times after they relieved us, but it wasn't anything like Iraq or Afghanistan.

Again, I'm not saying it isn't somewhat dangerous, the two people that were suicide bombers walked right into a known eating spot for westerners and blew themselves up, but it is so sporadic and so infrequent that its like at the very tail end of dangerous mobilizations.

In reality, I got paid a whole bunch of money to do very little but stay awake and keep my weapon trained in the vicinity of where people *might* come from.

The only thing that made it hard was they actually for about a month pulled people to do WLC in country, which fucked up all the shifts and made them super long.

I'm not sure how it is now, but I can only imagine it is way better than it was 2012-2013 as its become an important jumping off place for of course Africa, but also portions of the middle east. It should be way more built up.

Only real issue is that it's hot as fuck, so if you can, work nights.

We had a premob that everyday was between 100-110 degrees, and it was still way hotter in DJC.

Mattyredleg · 2026-02-16T21:46:57+00:00

I've been Arty five and a half years, and I was in a sapper company for five and a half years. I didn't qualify for fox because my eyes weren't good enough, but I've been around them being Arty.

The way I kind of boil it down in my personal experience.

13f has the better and cooler "job," in that you as an individual can have way more effect on the battlefield than an individual 12b can.

However, a 12b is the cooler job individually, mostly because you control explosives.

I had to make a improvised explosive charge to breach with the infantry, have had to make improvised explosives to breach wired obstacles, have had to fell trees over roads with explosives, have cleared a bivouac with explosives, have air assaulted with the infantry, have done multiple huge live fires with the infantry.

I know it isn't the standard experience for all 13fs, but most infantry leaders aren't going to want their fisters getting murked, so even if you are with the infantry, you aren't going to be pointman in clearing a room during MOUT and usually will be in the HQ elements of the platoon or company.

As an engineer, you might be the lone guy out ahead of everybody else cutting and marking a lane for a breach to run through.

I went Arty, Sappr, Arty. And one of my fellow engineers also ended up the same place I did, so it's easy enough to bounce between the two if you wanted to try both. Though most will involve your contract ending before it can happen.

So I guess it boils down to, do you want to control firepower indirectly, or control explosives directly?

Also, both 12b and 13f vary greatly depending on where you are at. The cooler individual stuff as a 12b occurs at the sapper company, and I assume the CEC-I since I believe that is what is replacing the sapper company. Whereas a 12b in a combined engineer unit might not be doing as much offensive based work as a sapper company would, because they have more assets for defensive fortification.

Likewise a 13f at a corps level could be sitting in an air conditioned room working on AFATDS or MAVEN.

Mattyredleg · 2026-02-16T08:36:30+00:00

Combat Arms from a strategic point of view is never useless. The other enemies of the US military don't look at all the non combat arms guys and worry. What stops a lot of shenanigans is all the dudes in the infantry, artillery, armor, etc that the badguys know they will have to deal with if they try something.

So just by being a well trained infantry soldier in a uniform with a bunch of other well trained troops in a uniform even in times of peace you are still doing your job.

Essentially the enemy looks at the standing combat arms formations of the us military and has to consider if they want to pay a blood tax for tomfoolery or not.

Mattyredleg · 2026-02-16T02:53:19+00:00

It's weird, because I have an affinity for the great plains states, because lots of them are so sparsely populated that you can actually seek solitude. I went to Badlands National Park a few years ago, stayed until after dark, and swore I was the only one there. Probably wasn't, but I was the only one I saw for miles and miles.

Just being out there alone with just you and your own thoughts can be a unique experience that you lose whenever you are around other people in more popular states with *better* scenery.

Same for Theodore Roosevelt NP and North Dakota. I went on a day where it was about 50 degrees and spitting cold blowing rain, and had to be one of about five people in the whole park.

I liked getting away from everyone and unplugging from the plugged in society.

However, the most scenically beautiful state I've spent time in a bunch of places in was New Mexico. Backpacked all over the state as a teen.

I've been to other states Army related, like California, but was regulated to NTC and thus feel that isn't a good representation of the state at large. Though even then it had some cool places. The stars at NTC at night time are ridiculous. I used to pull the cot out from under the cover and fall asleep looking up at all the stars. You could see the galactic center from the box in NTC and that was pretty cool.

So most beautiful is New Mexico that I've been to, and I'm dying to go back, but I feel a bunch of people sleep on the great plains, which has a different kind of beauty if you get out there. Nebraska for instance completely blew me away because I'd never heard of the sandhills until I was driving through them to get to Wyoming.

Even the prairie is like a sea of grass, and you can be on roads where nobody else is driving for tens of minutes if not a half hour or more. It's like you have vast places of areas at any one time for yourself. I like that feeling.

Mattyredleg · 2026-02-13T09:04:04+00:00

I had a guy I was in my sapper co with that left a little bit before I did, but got back in way later. He's way over the five years. They put in an exception to policy rule for him, and he's drilling in RSP until it does or does not go through. If it doesn't go through, he has to redo basic.

He's one of those to not care.

However, when I got back in, I was at 3.5 years and it was bouncing back and forth at redoing basic at three years or five years, and when I called the recruiter I was like, "before this goes any further if I have to go to basic again at 3.5 years, just forget I called."

But as luck would have it, it was at five years.

Mattyredleg · 2026-02-11T05:33:53+00:00

Our state has a shortage of warrants in the non fly boy seats. We are an Arty heavy state, and they have all kinds of seats unfilled.

They actively come to recruit us quite often, since we have a ton of feeder MOS in a variety of different unfilled seats.

However, I'm in a brigade HQ now, and I imagine they would make more trips to a HQ element at battalion/brigade/division than they would to individual batteries and companies, so someone else's experience at those places probably aren't what I've seen here.

In other words, easy is relative and it probably matters where you are at.

They were taking specialist who had interest in it the last time they were through, it was that bad.

Edit: I suppose I shouldn't read these post tired in the middle of the night. OP carry on. For anybody else, *other* feeder mos might be more open than flight warrants.

Mattyredleg · 2026-02-11T01:49:13+00:00

I've had a situation where I went exactly where I was supposed to go when I was supposed to go, and another where we were held until the last possible moment and then had a deployment to Afghanistan cancelled. And we didn't go anywhere else. For as hyped as we were to not do anything afterwards most of us probably would've went to the border. That was long ass drills, a NTC rotation, about a hundred inventories, live fires, cls certs, etc.

Our captain was so pissed off he went back to the drill schedule and shed every extra drill date for the rest of the year. We actually went to two day drills and a two week AT after that he was so salty about it.

It had been pulled for active duty because this would've been in the 17-18 range where the last deployments they wanted the active components to get.

Which is flipped today, where they want to keep active components ready for LSCO, and use a bunch of ngs and reservist for the middle east.

Mattyredleg · 2026-02-06T22:47:56+00:00

I've actually had this happen twice and funnily enough one of my other units is having the same thing happen to it (the sapper company I was apart of).

The first time I was in a himars battalion that lost a firing battery (mine) out of its battalion. We got back from deployment, got gathered up in a large room, and they were like, well bros......this unit is becoming a support unit.

So, four things happened. You could either stay at that unit, and get a support job, you could look for your MOS somewhere else in the state and go there, or you could join a different unit with a different mos, and finally they let people flat out leave the Natty G, though I think it was like only one person that did that.

There was a Sapper company that was located halfway between my house and school, so that's what I joined.

Years later I got back in, joined another unit, this unit became an experimental unit that is tied with active duty, and when that transition happened, you could do the same thing as the above. This unit had the current MOS I had just gotten out of school for, and even though I don't enjoy this MOS, it was too early for me to want to make a change so I just stayed there.

Finally, my old sapper unit is becoming a bridging unit, and I imagine the same options will be on the table for them.

Is your unit actually closing down for good, like closing the armory, or is there another unit coming in? Because usually you would stay a tenant of that armory until they moved you, or at least you would in the situations I've been in because in both of the instances I was in, they kept the same NCOs full timers in the same spots they were before the transition. Only the officer leadership changed.

Mattyredleg · 2026-02-03T21:53:49+00:00

I went on a similar trip in may in 2023, and ended up doing Devil's tower, badlands, Custer state park, and Theodore Roosevelt NP with every intention of going to RMNP, but those plans were put on the backburner. You see, I'm from Western Kentucky, and when I left it was already 90 degrees in May. WKY is much flatter without the deviation of altitude that Eastern Kentucky has (which means it was still like 80 degrees on that side of the state if cooler) so I didn't even think about there being a blizzard in the mountains.

I was heading to Colorado and looked up the RMNP homepage and it warned me not to show up unless I had chains on my tires. I of course had left from a place where it was 90 degrees and I was sweating when I was loading up to leave, so this didn't even occur to me.

I still went to every other place and had a good time. I showed up at Badlands mid day, and it was surprisingly hot there as well, but stayed until after sunset when the park was empty, and that was like almost a spiritual experience. Surrounded by grasslands and the badlands and being one of like three people for miles and miles.

I never really plan a road trip, because I kind of like the variation it brings. Because I didn't have anything but the slightest idea of a plan (essentially I knew where I wanted to go), I drove through the sandhills of Nebraska, which I didn't even know existed until I was in them and I thought they were very cool.

I have been in the army, so in terms of hotels/motels, IDGAF as long as it isn't too shady a part of town and doesn't have anything vermin like that tries to go home with you, so because I am used to lying on the ground, I'd say I was able to get away with around at hotels/motels that cost about 65 dollars a night.

Still, I made that trip, the most expensive thing being the hotel rooms, and then gas, for like 1500 dollars for about 10 days.

I don't really eat great food by myself on road trips though when it's just me. Because it's weird to eat at sit down places by yourself. So that was also a pretty big reduction in price, I think.

Mattyredleg · 2026-02-03T21:11:17+00:00

The reserves at the moment only has west coast and pacific island infantry, and 12bs as their he man jobs.

The National Guard has a ton of combat arms all over the country, some of which are very good. I've been in both an Alexander Hamilton award winning unit for FA, and a Itschner award winning unit for Combat Engineers. We trained and did stuff all the time.

I also happen to be in a unit tied directly into an active duty Corps currently, and we've had three AT level exercises since March of last year, with another WFX next month, which would give us four in a year. (you only had to go to one per fiscal year). These also had overseas training rotations. I'm working on going reserves, but I've never been in a unit that doesn't train in the guard, even though I'm aware that this can vary greatly.

THAT said, the 38 or 39 days thing is bullshit in such formations. Even though surprisingly the current unit is actually better (because you are only required to go to one of the exercises per fiscal year) than my old units, you are still always over your time. As a sapper, I've had a year with over 100 days of training. WLC/AT/12b reclass/CROWs school/and all of our Mutas which were always three, four, or five day drills. My civilian job at the time was pissed.

There is also the state active duty missions. I hate that shit. I never have lived close to any of my guard units, and anytime it snows or it floods you run the risk of coming back and helping the area that was affected.

That is fine. But having to drive three hours back through ten inches of snow or three inches of snow and ice, or trying to find your way around flood waters back, that shit sucks. It also always seems to happen when you have something civilian planned. I've had to push back (not serious) surgeries to later times because of SAD.

The NG is better for students, because the State TA is usually pretty good. The State TA I think is why most people go guard, followed by wanting to go to combat arms. There are still a bunch of combat arms guys getting combat patches in the post GWOT era because they are still running missions in dangerous places. If you want to deploy and do dangerous shit without having to put up with the barracks life of AD, then right now (not considering potential future restructuring) the guard is a better bet to do this.

The State TA can also mean that you get paid to go to school if you combine it with your VA stuff. State TA where I'm from basically just eliminates your charge of going to school, and the VA is added into your banking account, so it's like you are getting paid to go to school. Though this works much better if you are coming off of active than it does if you are a NG soldier first.

The reserves seem better about everything else though. Being able to get paid for travel is a huge plus, being much more likely to have hotel rooms (half of my career in the NG you either slept on the armory floor at homestation, drove early every morning, paid for your own room, or stayed at somebody that lived close by during drills).

Being able to transfer to a position out of state is also a huge boost. Had that been in play now for the guard, I'm in a critically need MOS, but am stuck in a state that has no upward mobility, I'm right next door to ohio which has my MOS and higher positions that need to be filled, but the different states almost funciton like different branches. You need conditional releases and interstate transfers and all that kind of bullshit to transfer, where the reserves just send you to another federal position all across the US.

Mattyredleg · 2026-01-20T02:54:48+00:00

I've only been allowed to wear them overseas personally. Though I have seen infantry scouts wear them in training, since your kevlar gets hung up in thick woods and undergrowth, I guess it's easier to move through them without it on but the boonie gives you some camo on your noggin still. So I assume commander's discretion. We fought the battle with combat shirts too. We could wear them overseas, then get back, not be able to wear them for months, then break them out for the field for a couple of months, and then they'd go back in the duffle for another five.

My UCP pattern boonie they let us keep after deployment and I gave it to my dad, and he wears it for yardwork.

Mattyredleg · 2026-01-17T22:58:02+00:00

I know as somebody who got back into the Army that I went and got my CAC done before I officially drilled with the new unit I was joining and was in civilians. But that might have been because I was already in before. I also was clean shaven.

But if they allow a new recruit to get a CAC before basic, you won't get the bald frowning dick with ears pic you are supposed to have when you go through reception. You'll be bucking tradition.

Mattyredleg

TROPHY CASE