To those who have been selected, congratulations and welcome to the Information Dominance Corps. Now you're wondering about the next steps.
- The "Scroll". This is a document signed by the Secretary of Defense that appoints you as an Officer in the Navy Reserve...this is the longest wait, and could take 2-3 months.
- Final Select (FINSEL). This is a letter you'll get, probably electronically via your recruiter, pretty soon after the scroll is released, and pending successful medical clearance.
- Commissioning Documents (COMDOCS). These are the official documents that you sign and end up making you officially an Officer in the Navy: this is when you raise your right hand.
Then you will get hooked up with your nearest NOSC (Navy Operational Support Center), which provides administrative support to you and your unit. You'll arrange your first drill weekends, the first 1 1/2 or 2 of which will likely be indoctrination drills (INDOC)...think of it as "new employee orientation", except for the Navy Reserve. You have an 8 year commitment. 3 years of that must be in active drilling (Selected Reserve, or SELRES, status). The rest may be in Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR) status, but given all the work you put in to get here, you'll probably want to serve as long as you're able. These programs enable you to get 20 "good years", which is eligible for reserve retirement.
You will most likely be assigned to the nearest appropriate unit with an available billet in your community.
For those without active TS/SCI clearances, your TS/SCI should begin moving forward as soon as you get FINSEL. This could take around a year or longer...it depends on a lot of factors. There are some other milestones, depending on your community. They'll generally come up in this order:
- DCOIC - This two-week course needs to be completed within one year of commissioning.
- Applicable community-specific course (NIOBC, IPBC, IWBC) - For INTEL, NIOBC is available in an 18-month-long drill weekend format. Reservists can take the Active Component version, but a limited number of slots are available. IPBC and IWBC are 4 and 8 weeks, respectively, and must be taken along with the Active Component in Pensacola. There are 1 or 2 reserve slots available each course, and you only commence training once your clearance is final.
- Applicable community Personnel Qualification Standard (PQS) - usually should be done within 3 years of commissioning, and is tied to the training in the previous item.
- IDC (IDWO) PQS - should be done within 4-5 years of commissioning, depending on community. There may be changes to this for Reserve members...we'll see.
Until you're qualified in at least your own community, you most likely won't be mobilized or deployed. However, after you're qualified, it's not a matter of "if", but "when". Obviously we're all subject to mobilization at any time within the existing framework, but the Navy wants us to be useful before we're mobilized, too.
Again, congratulations to those who were selected. To those who weren't, keep pushing forward!!
- The "Scroll". This is a document signed by the Secretary of Defense that appoints you as an Officer in the Navy Reserve...this is the longest wait, and could take 2-3 months.
- Final Select (FINSEL). This is a letter you'll get, probably electronically via your recruiter, pretty soon after the scroll is released, and pending successful medical clearance.
- Commissioning Documents (COMDOCS). These are the official documents that you sign and end up making you officially an Officer in the Navy: this is when you raise your right hand.
Then you will get hooked up with your nearest NOSC (Navy Operational Support Center), which provides administrative support to you and your unit. You'll arrange your first drill weekends, the first 1 1/2 or 2 of which will likely be indoctrination drills (INDOC)...think of it as "new employee orientation", except for the Navy Reserve. You have an 8 year commitment. 3 years of that must be in active drilling (Selected Reserve, or SELRES, status). The rest may be in Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR) status, but given all the work you put in to get here, you'll probably want to serve as long as you're able. These programs enable you to get 20 "good years", which is eligible for reserve retirement.
You will most likely be assigned to the nearest appropriate unit with an available billet in your community.
For those without active TS/SCI clearances, your TS/SCI should begin moving forward as soon as you get FINSEL. This could take around a year or longer...it depends on a lot of factors. There are some other milestones, depending on your community. They'll generally come up in this order:
- DCOIC - This two-week course needs to be completed within one year of commissioning.
- Applicable community-specific course (NIOBC, IPBC, IWBC) - For INTEL, NIOBC is available in an 18-month-long drill weekend format. Reservists can take the Active Component version, but a limited number of slots are available. IPBC and IWBC are 4 and 8 weeks, respectively, and must be taken along with the Active Component in Pensacola. There are 1 or 2 reserve slots available each course, and you only commence training once your clearance is final.
- Applicable community Personnel Qualification Standard (PQS) - usually should be done within 3 years of commissioning, and is tied to the training in the previous item.
- IDC (IDWO) PQS - should be done within 4-5 years of commissioning, depending on community. There may be changes to this for Reserve members...we'll see.
Until you're qualified in at least your own community, you most likely won't be mobilized or deployed. However, after you're qualified, it's not a matter of "if", but "when". Obviously we're all subject to mobilization at any time within the existing framework, but the Navy wants us to be useful before we're mobilized, too.
Again, congratulations to those who were selected. To those who weren't, keep pushing forward!!
