• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

USN So... I'm in the IRR. Now what?

Sam I am

Average looking, not a farmer.
pilot
Contributor
I'll echo the others: take some courses on line. Also, from what you're describing, you don't want SEL-RES, you want the IRR. Read the Correspondence Course thread...all 40+ pages as there's good info in there. I left AD with 9 years, took a 6 month break in service, went Sel-Res via a recruiter, did Sel-Res for 5 years...and then went IRR and have never regretted it. I've completed 4 good years in the IRR with the following point tallies: 130, 130, 114, 58 (the game changed in the 4th year). Less than 2 years and I'm done. You can do it...
 

pdx

HSM Pilot
I just went through this whole process ... left active in July 2016, went IRR for a short while, then transitioned back to SELRES in 2017.

TAPS was nearly worthless in my experience, finding information as an IRR member with no CAC was not easy, and the CTO did the standard recruiter bait and switch. Anyway, I figured things out in the end, so if anyone else is in a similar situation, PM me. I'm happy to share whatever I know.

Two things I will mention for everyone:
FIRST: there is a 6 month IRR window for easy transition to SELRES. Much like Purdue, I wanted to take some time off after AD to get settled in to my new civilian life, so I talked about IRR with my CTO. At the time, he said it was "no problem" to go IRR for a little while, then switch to SELRES when the time was right for me. After being IRR for about 9 months, I contacted the CTO to begin that transition. My original CTO had moved on, and the new guy said he couldn't do anything for me after the 6 month window closed. I had to contact a Reserve officer recruiter, and that process was quite a hassle. The biggest part of the hassle is that you have to do a complete MEPS physical. Waiting for the physical appointment takes forever, and any "yes" answers on the health history require intense scrutiny by Big Navy medicine. I have some really f'ed up stories about this, but I'm not going to share them here. If I had everything to do over again, I would have just affiliated SELRES before my 6 months ran out.

SECOND: you do NOT have to get a billet or pick a drill location in order to switch from IRR to SELRES. I was trying to get access to JO APPLY and figure out available billets while I was still IRR, which was just a waste of my time. The correct sequence is to go through the recruiter and get all the paperwork done to be selected (SELRES). They will assign you to a temporary unit at a NOSC of your choosing. You can choose any NOSC and there is no concern for open billets or anything else. In my case (as for many), my temporary unit was an OSU (Operational Support Unit) at my local NOSC. The purpose of an OSU is to serve as a holding pen for random people who are in transition. I drilled there for several months while I was waiting to get my CAC access restored and complete other affiliation paperwork and (of course), the required GMTs. Eventually, I was able to access JO APPLY and start looking for a regular billet.
 

lostSeaBee

SeaBee Memorial
I just went through this whole process ... left active in July 2016, went IRR for a short while, then transitioned back to SELRES in 2017.

TAPS was nearly worthless in my experience, finding information as an IRR member with no CAC was not easy, and the CTO did the standard recruiter bait and switch. Anyway, I figured things out in the end, so if anyone else is in a similar situation, PM me. I'm happy to share whatever I know.

Two things I will mention for everyone:
FIRST: there is a 6 month IRR window for easy transition to SELRES. Much like Purdue, I wanted to take some time off after AD to get settled in to my new civilian life, so I talked about IRR with my CTO. At the time, he said it was "no problem" to go IRR for a little while, then switch to SELRES when the time was right for me. After being IRR for about 9 months, I contacted the CTO to begin that transition. My original CTO had moved on, and the new guy said he couldn't do anything for me after the 6 month window closed. I had to contact a Reserve officer recruiter, and that process was quite a hassle. The biggest part of the hassle is that you have to do a complete MEPS physical. Waiting for the physical appointment takes forever, and any "yes" answers on the health history require intense scrutiny by Big Navy medicine. I have some really f'ed up stories about this, but I'm not going to share them here. If I had everything to do over again, I would have just affiliated SELRES before my 6 months ran out.

SECOND: you do NOT have to get a billet or pick a drill location in order to switch from IRR to SELRES. I was trying to get access to JO APPLY and figure out available billets while I was still IRR, which was just a waste of my time. The correct sequence is to go through the recruiter and get all the paperwork done to be selected (SELRES). They will assign you to a temporary unit at a NOSC of your choosing. You can choose any NOSC and there is no concern for open billets or anything else. In my case (as for many), my temporary unit was an OSU (Operational Support Unit) at my local NOSC. The purpose of an OSU is to serve as a holding pen for random people who are in transition. I drilled there for several months while I was waiting to get my CAC access restored and complete other affiliation paperwork and (of course), the required GMTs. Eventually, I was able to access JO APPLY and start looking for a regular billet.

pdx, Thanks for sharing. After several iterations and redirecting I was told that TAPS is the way to transition from the IRR-ASP to the IRR-VTU or SELRES. I have left several emails, voice mails and texts with my TAPS contact with no response. I am getting frustrated with the process. I could use some help in navigating the process, I will send you a PM.
 
Top