If your overall goal is AGR, why not just do that directly?
Thank you all so much for the replies.
You cannot just go AGR directly, as far as I have been led to believe. You have to already be a selected reserves DSG/TR drilling weekend warrior pilot,
OR maybe you can slide right into AGR if you are already an Active-Regular-Air-Force-pilot, who is themself about to finish a ~12 year active duty regular-Air-Force contract... although even that is probably competitive for regular Air Force pilots. That's my understanding. The original crux of my question was 'whether prior active naval aviators can slide into AGR, similarly to how active air force pilots can potentially do so.' It sounds like the answer is '
No', which is unsurprising. Perhaps I could've done a much better job phrasing, apologies.
I don’t want to give the impression that the Department of the Navy is a fallback or not my first choice - it isn’t. I could say never-ending good things about every branch of service in the Defense/War Department.
Regardless of my personal feelings, if we wanted to analyze my eligibility as a candidate for the various branches, I am concerned that my history may present more paperwork than average, and I wonder if that could make me less competitive from a hiring standpoint, especially when considering attempting to go directly into the Air Force pipeline, and furthermore, I am just genuinely convinced that the Air Force is more academically competitive, not to mention the DSG/TR hiring genuinely demands a civilian or not aviation-prior service generally already has an FAA rating allegedly...
I am trying to begin the FAA medical process now, both because I’m genuinely interested in aviation, and because I understand having FAA rating(s) can help with selection in
any branch. At the same time, I’m trying to be realistic about the accession side. Based on what I’ve seen so far, it seems like working through a Marine Corps OSO or Navy equivalent may be a more realistic path, though I could easily be wrong.
I did have a dramatic/complicated MEPS experience about a year ago, that turned into more of a process than expected, but I am working to get everything resolved so I can try again.
To be totally transparent, I am an enlisted Marine Corps reservist. I would need to make a ~17 year additional minimum cumulative active duty career.
I an AD USMC to Michigan ANG transition who is a career status AGR in the Mi ANG. I'm also the rated pilot hiring manager for my squadron.
Three things, one is that there is not a squadron out there who is going to hire you directly into an AGR job. They'll hire you as a part-time DSG, and then see how you fit in. AGR jobs are generally boarded, and the requirements are generally written for specific people in mind. It is not uncommon for an AGR spot to be released and to only have a couple of people eligible to apply. For instance, when I applied for my AGR I had been in the unit for a couple years, and the job was written for an O-4 11f (fighter) qualified MQ-9 pilot, with evaluator experience, was a graduate of the USAF or USN Aviation Safety Officer courses, and DSG member of the MiANG. I'm not going to hire you as a DSG if you come in saying that you want an AGR job. "Well, get in line behind the half dozen guys who are already in the squadron who want one." Two is that we really don't hire people we don't know. There is a rush process. We're hiring you for the rest of your (long) career, and we want to make absolutely sure that you'll fit in with us. Three is that I think you have a bit of a misconception of what the AGR program is.
When you start in an AGR job you're probationary for the first 3ish years. Once you're selected for career status (which is largely academic, if you don't screw up you'll be selected for career status), you're in the AGR program until you retire. However, after 20 years, every other year you go to a continuation board, after 24 years it's annual.
You also have "fenced" and "non-fenced" AGRs. A fenced AGR is tied to a specific rank and billet. A non-fenced AGR you take with you to whatever billet you're assigned within the organization that hired you into the AGR program (generally wing level, but can go to state, and wings can trade AGR slots like baseball cards).
The other think about the AGR program is that each field grade officer has to have a control grade for their rank in order to promote to that rank. So just because you might find yourself in an O-5 AGR job, the state is only allowed to have so many O-5 AGRs, so your wing has to fight to get a control grade when they're available for you.
The three year tours you're thinking of may be ADOS or STAT tours- they're AD orders, but they're purely billet based. Many of them are 1-2 year orders that come with an option third year. They're similar to fenced AGR orders, but they have a term limit. A fenced career status AGR can stay in that billet, at that rank, until they retire. Fenced AGRs are a much bigger thing on the enlisted side, but they exist on the officer side as well.
I heard that sometimes a DSG/TR airman might get lucky and get an AGR slot, and then soon after finishing his obligation, he is forced back into DSG/TR and unable to find another AGR slot... If you are a prior active duty Regular-Air-Force or former active duty Marine-Corps/Navy pilot, and you get forced back to DSG/TR, that could seriously shoot you in the foot and keep you from finishing the threshold to get that active duty retirement... Maybe they have safeguards against that if you are close to twenty...
You used a term I have not heard before... "career status' AGR'. I think that settles that topic; That must be like the equivalent of tenure, where they can't force you back into DSG/TR? Cool! Thanks for explaining that. And congratulations, sir! It sounds like you have been a LOT of places and accomplished a LOT.
Plenty plenty of gold wingers in Guard/Reserve and AGR GS positions.
For the record, while I know very little to begin with, most of my puny AGR knowledge comes from the Army side of the house. Although I did bump into an AirNG SSgt who told me she lost her AGR status and is now a dual-status technician. Technicians are something I know very little about. Obviously, I'm from the DoN, we don't have technicians. Until I ran into that dual-status AirNG technician, I always assumed
all technicians only wore their multicam utilities on drill weekends and ATs. So now there is an additional nuance I don't understand. Regardless, even still, isn't technician status in general objectively a worse deal than AGR? I always assumed the DoD/DoW only privatizes things like gate guard policing, chow/mess halls,
and creates technician positions, only to save money on benefits and retirement long-term. Again, I'm not out here for the money, but I thought technician status wasn't as ideal for retirement from the hearsay/impression I got. Until speaking to you now, I didn't even know technicians could be commissioned officers.
Again, I really appreciate the generous men and women who were willing to read my initial posting and lend your expertise, thank you again!
