Thank you Das for your continued willingness to share insight and information for the rest of us. I can certainly say I have benefited immensely from your postings. Can you give me some insight into what my first drill/ indoctrination weekend will look like, or point me to a thread that may have current info?
Your first drill weekend is probably INDOC at your NOSC. Think of it as "new employee orientation" for the Navy Reserve. They just go through the basics of how things work, and the specifics of how things are handled at that NOSC. It will be a mix of prior and non-prior service, former active duty, reservists transferring to that NOSC, etc.
Make an effort to reach out to the CO, XO, and SEL of your unit to introduce yourself, which you can find once you get your CAC at
https://private.navyreserve.navy.mil or via your NOSC.
You can figure out when you are eligible for a CAC by trying to log in to
http://www.mynavyexchange.com or
https://uniforms.nexweb.org...once it "works", you know that you're "in the system", and you can actually go to any CAC (DEERS/RAPIDS) site, anywhere (usually by appointment), and get your CAC:
http://www.dmdc.osd.mil/rsl/ (I had my first CAC picture in a business suit, since I had no uniforms yet.)
Recommend you also review the information in this Welcome Aboard package put together by another IDC JO...
http://www.valentino-tech.com/download/Welcome-Aboard-2012-12-08.zip