• 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

VTU Gouge

snake020

Contributor
Been talking with BUPERS about transitioning from IRR to SELRES next year after I finish grad school. Looks like in the current retention climate it's all but impossible to make the switch. Thinking about VTU to build up some credibility to work towards SELRES and am looking for some gouge from anyone that's done VTU. Is it worth trying, or is it going to be absolutely skull dragging and I'm better off sticking with correspondence courses?
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Been talking with BUPERS about transitioning from IRR to SELRES next year after I finish grad school. Looks like in the current retention climate it's all but impossible to make the switch. Thinking about VTU to build up some credibility to work towards SELRES and am looking for some gouge from anyone that's done VTU. Is it worth trying, or is it going to be absolutely skull dragging and I'm better off sticking with correspondence courses?

What retention climate? When the reserves is allowing officers to go over HYT I would say it might be the opposite to what you think it is.

As for the VTU I would say it is a good way to go to get back in the SELRES if you put the time in. We have an OS1 who has drilled with us for 2 years and was offered a chance to do SELRES again mainly because he had become an asset to the command but he declined for several good personal reasons.
 
Last edited:

snake020

Contributor
What retention climate? We are having trouble in my unit filling billets

It must be overall community manning vice actual billets being filled. I was told by the respective OCMs that IDC and PAO are full, and my parent community which I'm trying to get out of anyway of SC is also.
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
It must be overall community manning vice actual billets being filled. I was told by the respective OCMs that IDC and PAO are full, and my parent community which I'm trying to get out of anyway of SC is also.

Okay, that is a different story. If I were you then I might want to get in with a VTU that www affiliated with an Intel command and explore whether they would be willing to give you a shot at redesignating if you out the time with the unit.
 
Last edited:

snake020

Contributor
Okay, that is a different story. If I were you then I might want to get in with a VTU that www affiliated with an Intel command and explore whether they would be willing to give you a shot at redesign sting if you out the time with the unit.

So I'm a bit stupid on finding Reserve units. What's a good starting point?
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
So I'm a bit stupid on finding Reserve units. What's a good starting point?

Contacting your local NOSC's would be the best place to start, where are you nowadays? They can also point you to the IDC folks at the NOSC, they tend to run things as a community better than most and they can start steering you in the right direction with VTU's supporting IDC commands and redesignating. If you are still having issues drop me a PM.
 

wink

War Hoover NFO.
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
It has been a while, but my experience with VTUs is mixed from mind numbing boredom to being a pool for every shitty job, and you don't get paid for the fruits of your labor. Fortunatley, I never spent more than 3 or 4 months at a time in one.
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
It has been a while, but my experience with VTUs is mixed from mind numbing boredom to being a pool for every shitty job, and you don't get paid for the fruits of your labor. Fortunatley, I never spent more than 3 or 4 months at a time in one.

It is a different story if you are in a VTU assigned to a specific unit.
 

Randy Daytona

Cold War Relic
pilot
Super Moderator
Been talking with BUPERS about transitioning from IRR to SELRES next year after I finish grad school. Looks like in the current retention climate it's all but impossible to make the switch. Thinking about VTU to build up some credibility to work towards SELRES and am looking for some gouge from anyone that's done VTU. Is it worth trying, or is it going to be absolutely skull dragging and I'm better off sticking with correspondence courses?

A lot depends on how close you are to retirement. IRR has recently become more difficult to points so if you are more than 3 years out, by all means go VTU. Also in the VTU, you will have the chance to go on exercises, perhaps some schools - you will not get those in the IRR.
 

subreservist

Well-Known Member
What retention climate? When the reserves is allowing officers to go over HYT I would say it might be the opposite to what you think it is.

As for the VTU I would say it is a good way to go to get back in the SELRES if you put the time in. We have an OS1 who has drilled with us for 2 years and was offered a chance to do SELRES again mainly because he had become an asset to the command but he declined for several good personal reasons.

Flash, can you elaborate more on the bold?? I thought that only applied to enlisted??
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Flash, can you elaborate more on the bold?? I thought that only applied to enlisted??

The Navy Reserve is offering 'continuation' to some officers in certain designators past their mandatory retirement/separation dates. I know two folks who were 'continued' and two more that have put in for it. As far as I know this has only started happening in the past year. The obvious implication is the reserves is short of some folks, backed up to me by some units having trouble filling billets.
 
Last edited:

subreservist

Well-Known Member
The Navy Reserve is offering 'continuation' to some officers in certain designators past their mandatory retirement/separation dates. I know two folks who were 'continued' and two more that have put in for it. As far as I know this has only started happening in the past year. The obvious implication is the reserves is short of some folks, backed up to me by some units having trouble filling billets.

Interesting...willing to continue the member at their current rank but not promote them to the next (in the separation case).
 
Talk to a recruiter, but I think you'll have an uphill battle.
-I tried to go from IRR to VTU, and the recruiter wouldn't do it; I ended up going SELRES for a few years.
-For SWO at least, SELRES is filling up within a few months of the FY. From the CTO: "As of 12 November 2015, 148 of 175 FY16 billets are filled or in-processing"
-I'd imagine other URLs are similar, but I do believe that active duty SWOs were encouraged to affiliate with the VTU until the following FY (when it was full).

From my experience: You can be in the VTU, and either (a) drill with the VTU, or (b) get assigned to a unit (Wink, that's been the preferred thing for a while I believe). If you're assigned to a unit, you'll do everything a regular unit member in your position would do...but not get paid (including the off-DWE stuff). If you're assigned to the VTU, you'll spend your time tracking down all the dirtbags who have been assigned to the VTU because they're medically broken, have gone UA and don't care about the Navy, have stabbed people..whatever. All these people get kicked to the VTU for various reasons, and then suddenly are on the VTU's "hit lists" for flu shots, security clearances, or whatever. I did some time assigned to the VTU, and each DWE was a ton of work...but I didn't have to do anything in between. The next CO offered to let me flex drill or whatever, but I was done at that point.
 

gaj29

New Member
Question, I'm a bit confused---is VTU the same as IRR? If I travel overseas for my civilian job for 1-2 years and can't travel back to the US to drill because it's too expensive, would I have to be in a VTU then go back to a select reserve unit when I come back to the US?
 
Top