Units that flex drill?

[vxc961]

Anybody know of units that offer "flex drill"? I might be using the wrong term here. I'm looking to move from IRR to SELRES, so I can do four years and transfer my post 9/11 GI Bill to my kids. The idea of drilling four times a year (as I understand flex drills to be) is much more appealing to me than once a month. So far, I've found OPNAV in the WDC area, and PACOM in Honolulu (with dets in Seattle and elsewhere) that do it.

In working with the reserve recruiter, it seems to work better if I suggest the billets I want, rather than her finding ones that flex drill (again, if I'm using that term right--looking for units that bunch up IDT so I only drill four times a year...or less!).

Thanks,
VXC

 

[Flash]

Lots of units flex drill, both of my first two units did and while my current unit doesn't make a big practice of it we are officially and some folks from far away do it regularly. A good place to start would be a 'watch' unit, a unit that supports a watch center. My first unit supported a 24/7 watch and most folks wrote their own schedule with some 'drilling' as little as 2 or 3 times a year standing watch for 2 weeks at a time to knock out their drills and AT. While we were in DC we had folks from all over CONUS and even Europe because of the flexibility and it was a very large unit. The catch is that most unit that support watch centers also require high security clearances and won't put you in for one if you don't have one already though I think though there are a few that require just a basic one (I saw a posting once for a NAVSEA watch in DC that didn't specify a clearance, usually meaning you didn't need a high one).

A lot of other units have moved to the flex drill model too though, like I said my current unit isn't a full flex drill unit but does have a lot of flexibility since folks come in from across the country. I have been in three fairly large units and that may help too, at least 20 officers or more in each with pretty good post-command aviators in charge of all three. When your CO is an airline pilot who flex drills out of half the DWE's that doesn't hurt.

Go ahead and keep checking around to see who does it and who would be willing to have you, find the best fit for you. In my somewhat limited experience I have seen it becoming more than norm than the exception, especially in the bigger areas like DC and Norfolk.

 

[Gatordev]

If you have an in at a specific NOSC area you're looking at, they can tell you which units under that NOSC Flex. To be designated as a Flex Drill unit, the unit has to notify the NOSC (which also makes the unit generate PG 13s for it's members saying they understand it's a Flex unit). Otherwise, like you're doing, you'll just have to ask the individual units you're interested in.

Also, not all units Flex the same. Some may do quarterly, some just do one day quarterly (although that's rare...ours is switching back to two days a quarter). There are also units that will not authorize reskeds, and others that will still have mandatory drill weekends (usually quarterly), but will allow reskeds, however they're not actual Flex units (kind of like Flash's unit). I've seen this with squadrons quite a bit.

One last caveat...just because you plan to only drill a couple of times a year in blocks doesn't mean the unit may still need you to come in more often to meet requirements. In FY13, I think we had to initiate mandatory drills and pull in people 3 different times for all the training shenanigans that went down (SAPR, SAPR, the sequel, and one other thing I've forgotten).