• 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

Joining the Reserves

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

kabttu

Registered User
Well, I've been doing the math and according to my calculations, I will be about 26 when I'm all through with Grad school and ready to apply for SNA. The dilemna is that I'm thinking of joining the reserves for 3 reasons:

1. The prior service age waiver so when i do apply gives me a little more time.

2. Help with tuition for school.

3. Get some Navy experience in, never been in the navy or any military so want to make sure I'm going to be able to handle it (i'm pretty confident that i can, but you never know)

Just wondering if anyone has any advice, any warnings or anything. I should be talking with a recruiter on wednesday or so. Any info will be greatly appreciated!

Kevin
 
W

WFU2USN

Registered User
kabttu,

1. The USNR will not help you with the prior service waiver. It only counts for active duty time and you get the waiver on a month by month basis.

2. The USNR can help you with the Reserve GI Bill (Different from the Active Duty GI Bill), which you do not have to pay for. For Current Benefits see www.va.gov under the education section.

3. In all honesty, I don't know if the Naval Reserve is going to give youa true picture of what the Navy is really like. They're similar, but the Reserve is def. a different animal!

If you have any questions, please let me know - I've done both the active and reserve thing now for 9 years. Also, applying to OCS as a SELRES (drilling reservist) is different than civilian candidates - you can submit everything through your chain of command rather than an officer recruiter if you want.

Good luck!

Robin
IS2(SCW)
 
K

kabttu

Registered User
WFU2USN,

Thanks for the reply.
I'm still confused about this whole age waiver thing, so no time in the reserves counts or only time when I might be considered active duty? I figured that the reserves and active duty navy would be quite different, figured it might help getting me prepared for OCS and being in the active fleet, could be wrong with that I suppose. How were your experiences with the reserves? Enjoyable? Thanks!

Kevin
 
W

WFU2USN

Registered User
Kevin,

Your time for an age waiver would count only if you were only on an active duty contract. i.e. If you spent 12 mos. in the Reserves they would not grant you a 12 mo. age waiver. But if you were on active duty for 12 mos, you would be eligible for an age waiver up to 12 mos.

As far as the Reserves, it can be a good deal and it was an adjustment when I first came off of active duty, as the mentality is much different. Not bad, simply different. I'm at work now, so I'll have to expand further later.

Good luck!

Robin
 
K

kabttu

Registered User
Robin,

Thanks for the info again, that's definitely clearer about the whole age waiver thing.

Would definitely love to hear more about what drilling is like and the Annual training stuff and all that.
Should be talking with the reserve recruiter tomorrow, so should be able to get some good info from him hopefully.

thanks again!

kevin
 
S

sailorgloom

Registered User
Kevin:

I enlisted in the APG (now NPSAC) program when I was 26. I got some time in the reserves and put in for DCO. It all depends on what you want to do. If you already have your degrees, you can do OCS on the Active side. Not all designators are available on the SELRES side of the house. What is it you want to do as an Officer? Will one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer be enough?

-SG

Originally posted by kabttu

Just wondering if anyone has any advice, any warnings or anything. I should be talking with a recruiter on wednesday or so. Any info will be greatly appreciated!

Kevin
Click to expand...
 
K

kabttu

Registered User
sailorgloom,
Well, i started the reserves last weekend, went through Indoc and started the NPSAC class. I enlisted as an Intellegence Specialist. I'm still in college and will graduate in december or may. I do plan on applying for OCS once my fiance and I are finished with school. I figured joining the reserves would show my commitement to the navy and also provide me with the oppurtunity to meet officers and get good LOR's from officers who've actually worked with me. I want to try and go for SNA but who knows, may get involved with the intellegence side and decide that is what i want to do. main thing is that I just want to be a naval officer.

kevin
Originally posted by sailorgloom
Kevin:

I enlisted in the APG (now NPSAC) program when I was 26. I got some time in the reserves and put in for DCO. It all depends on what you want to do. If you already have your degrees, you can do OCS on the Active side. Not all designators are available on the SELRES side of the house. What is it you want to do as an Officer? Will one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer be enough?

-SG
Click to expand...
 
W

WFU2USN

Registered User
kabttu,

Another thing to keep in mind now that you're in the USNR is that you can apply for OCS through your chain of command and not a USN Officer Recruiter if you like.

IS2(SCW)

http://www.geocities.com/califchick1175/USN/navy.html
 
K

kabttu

Registered User
WFU2USN,

That's good to hear. I've met most of my chain of command and they all seem very nice and are definitely supportive of my desire to apply for OCS once I'm finished with school.

kevin

Originally posted by WFU2USN
kabttu,

Another thing to keep in mind now that you're in the USNR is that you can apply for OCS through your chain of command and not a USN Officer Recruiter if you like.

IS2(SCW)

http://www.geocities.com/califchick1175/USN/navy.html
Click to expand...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top