MAJOR IRR Policy Change...

[Hair Warrior]

Anyone have any recent MEPS experiences? I’ve browsed through several other threads and good info out there—much of it is dated. But if anyone recently went from IRR to VTU/SELRES, I’m interested to hear how that went. It sounds like there might be differences in the MEPS process depending on if you’re going DCO, flight physical, initial enlistment, or IRR to SELRES.

I went not too long ago.

No discernible difference to me, although you obviously don't swear-in, don't take the ASVAB, and don't eat lunch there because you're not spending all day there. Not sure on flight physical/NAMI aspect. However, all the paperwork, height/weight(/tape), blood work, piss test, walk like a duck, psych interview, eyesight test, hearing test, etc. is identical to what the gaggle of 17 year olds have to do.

 

[lostSeaBee]

@lostSeaBee I spoke with the recruiter this week and he’s swamped with a surge of folks like us trying to get back in. Your recruiter is probably just slammed as well. I’d just keep following up, politely pester with a phone call, was the advice i received.

Regarding MTF, is that just a normal military hospital? The recruiter said he looked into sending me to a military hospital but he learned that the rules changed and that we can’t use them anymore and MEPS is the only option.

Anyway, the recruiter has all my paperwork. Sounds like the next step is that he needs to submit it all to MEPS to get that medical process started.

Regarding NETC course, I just completed one and sent it in (a GENTRA). I’ll followup with them later to see if it gets approved.

Anyone have any recent MEPS experiences? I’ve browsed through several other threads and good info out there—much of it is dated. But if anyone recently went from IRR to VTU/SELRES, I’m interested to hear how that went. It sounds like there might be differences in the MEPS process depending on if you’re going DCO, flight physical, initial enlistment, or IRR to SELRES.

My understanding is that a MTF is a military hospital, but I don't know for sure. I'm going to check back with my recruiter and see if that option is still available.

How long did the process take you to get where you are now?

GENTRA courses should be approved. There is no notes that say that these courses are not for officers. NETC guidance should correspond with the information given for E-Learning courses.

 

[reservist22]

I went not too long ago.

No discernible difference to me, although you obviously don't swear-in, don't take the ASVAB, and don't eat lunch there because you're not spending all day there. Not sure on flight physical/NAMI aspect. However, all the paperwork, height/weight(/tape), blood work, piss test, walk like a duck, psych interview, eyesight test, hearing test, etc. is identical to what the gaggle of 17 year olds have to do.

@Hair Warrior Thank you! A few follow-up questions...
after sending your recruiter all your paperwork, about how long did it take to get a MEPS appointment scheduled?

After getting it scheduled, how far out was it?

How long until you started drilling again?

For example, i just submitted the package to my recruiter (Blueprint form, DD-2808, 2807-1, letter from the VA, etc...) this week. I believe the process is that the recruiter submits all that to MEPS, they review the package and decide whether or not to see you (sounds like MEPS denies even scheduling folks an appointment if something is wrong with medically on those forms). Based on your experience/timeline and assuming no hold ups on medical, when would you estimate I’d be back drilling?

 

[reservist22]

My understanding is that a MTF is a military hospital, but I don't know for sure. I'm going to check back with my recruiter and see if that option is still available.

How long did the process take you to get where you are now?

GENTRA courses should be approved. There is no notes that say that these courses are not for officers. NETC guidance should correspond with the information given for E-Learning courses.

@lostSeaBee Its been about a month. My initial call to the recruiter was mid-October. I got him my fitreps, DD214, and IRR orders sometine in the latter half of Oct. He asked for the DD 2808 and 2807-1 last week and the blueprint and VA letters describing status of disability this week. I just got him all those docs in the last few days. the VA letter wasn’t to painful to get. You can log into your VA profile and download them or call and they’ll fax it to you near real-time. Sounds like if you have no VA disability you still need a letter saying so and if you have disability you need a letter that lists it all out.

 

[Flash]

...Sounds like if you have no VA disability you still need a letter saying so and if you have disability you need a letter that lists it all out.

I'm pretty sure that there still is no Navy Reserve policy on how much disability is 'disqualifies' you from being in the SELRES but individual NOSC's have processed folks out of the SELRES if their disability is 30% or more. We had an OS1 who had ~50% VA disability drill with us through the VTU for 5 or so years to qualify for retirement after being kicked out of the SELRES by the Norfolk NOSC. At the same time however we had an OSC with 80% disability attached to our unit as a SELRES. It didn't make sense to us but that was the NOSC for you.

Just as an FYI for those who have 30% or over VA disability.

 

[reservist22]

I'm pretty sure that there still is no Navy Reserve policy on how much disability is 'disqualifies' you from being in the SELRES but individual NOSC's have processed folks out of the SELRES if their disability is 30% or more. We had an OS1 who had ~50% VA disability drill with us through the VTU for 5 or so years to qualify for retirement after being kicked out of the SELRES by the Norfolk NOSC. At the same time however we had an OSC with 80% disability attached to our unit as a SELRES. It didn't make sense to us but that was the NOSC for you.

Just as an FYI for those who have 30% or over VA disability.

@Flash from what I’ve researched and heard from my recruiter, if you go from IRR to VTU/SELRES, that process will force you thru MEPS along with 18 year olds getting examined prior to swearing in. (Unfortunately we can’t roll into our local NOSC for this medical exam). let’s say someone is 20% and is sitting in IRR. That may cause issues with the MEPS process to get into VTU/SELRES and require a waiver even though being 20% while in SELRES may not be an issue. Recruiter and MEPS asks for the VA letter of disability.

 

[Flash]

@Flash from what I’ve researched and heard from my recruiter, if you go from IRR to VTU/SELRES, that process will force you thru MEPS along with 18 year olds getting examined prior to swearing in. (Unfortunately we can’t roll into our local NOSC for this medical exam). let’s say someone is 20% and is sitting in IRR. That may cause issues with the MEPS process to get into VTU/SELRES and require a waiver even though being 20% while in SELRES may not be an issue. Recruiter and MEPS asks for the VA letter of disability.

You could be right, either way if you have a VA disability just be prepared for some extra paperwork unfortunately.

 

[Hair Warrior]

@Hair Warrior Thank you! A few follow-up questions...
after sending your recruiter all your paperwork, about how long did it take to get a MEPS appointment scheduled?

After getting it scheduled, how far out was it?

How long until you started drilling again?

For example, i just submitted the package to my recruiter (Blueprint form, DD-2808, 2807-1, letter from the VA, etc...) this week. I believe the process is that the recruiter submits all that to MEPS, they review the package and decide whether or not to see you (sounds like MEPS denies even scheduling folks an appointment if something is wrong with medically on those forms). Based on your experience/timeline and assuming no hold ups on medical, when would you estimate I’d be back drilling?

I am a DCO so I am not in the same boat. However, once my recruiter started trying to schedule MEPS for me, I was in the door at a MEPS facility within 3 weeks. YMMV. I told my recruiter I could basically go any day on short notice. I ended up having about 6 days' notice.

MEPS muster is at 0600. Be prepared to be treated like a 19 year old. Bring paper copies of all medical paperwork. Bring your own pen (by my calculation, 80% of 19 year olds don't own a writing implement). I even had doctor's notes from the 1990s showing a high school varsity sport broken bone, and another note from the same doctor a few months later attesting to x-rays showing the bone had completely healed and was good to go. That didn't stop the doc from investigating that particular body part to excruciating detail to ensure range of motion, but I passed MEPS easily. The N3M approval got turned around within a day. N3M is quick once MEPS is done.

Funny story, the eyesight tester person was like "Congratulations, you have good enough eyesight to be a Navy pilot!" and I'm like "well I'm about 10 years too old for that, but thanks for the vote of confidence."

 

[Jim123]

My understanding is that a MTF is a military hospital,

It's a big building with patients.

MTF = "Military Treatment Facility" aka military hospital (Bethesda, Porstmouth, Pensacola, etc.)


Movie clip for all the millenials who didn't get the reference:

 

[nittany03]

It's a big building with patients.

But that's not important right now . . .

 

[lostSeaBee]

Excited to hear that I am accepted as a BGO Affiliate. Should I notify PERS and/or IRR Counselor. I'm hoping that they don't kick me out of the IRR. What do you think my best course of action would be?

 

[lostSeaBee]

Just got this today, not completely sure what this means but it appears to be good news for BGIOs. Does this mean BGIOs will be considered quasi- SELRES if already in the program?

All Reservists -


First if you are retired or not a reservist - please update your BGO information page on BGIS (or your A/C may have updated it recently - so in the future you don't receive notes when we pull reservists for a distribution)


We were informed of the bottom e-mail on Thursday afternoon and we had a conference call with PERS-93 on Friday and now we were just informed that Blue and Gold participants will not be affected by the new Reserve policy change!


This is per CIV Charles L Freeman, Pers-9 Pers-93 and decision made by CAPT Howell that USNA "Blue and Gold participants will not be affected by the new policy change."

Attempting to get that added in the new instruction as well for posterity.


Thanks for all your efforts to the BGO program! (Even if you are in the IRR and less than 16 years!)


Thanks!

I was just accepted into the BGO program last week. I let the IRR Counselor know that I was part of the BGO program yesterday, hoping for an exemption. This was the response: "Capt. Swift will be providing a list of Officers in the NAIP program for exemption from the new IRR policy change." I'm guessing that he will make the cutoff list based on September 30, 2017, but who knows. Is there anything that I can do to ensure that I get on Capt. Swift's list? Who is Capt. Swift?

 

[Beans]

@lostSeaBee, in case it's not clear, you're the one blazing the trail here...

 

[lostSeaBee]

@lostSeaBee, in case it's not clear, you're the one blazing the trail here...

Thanks Beans. I am hoping that someone in the BGO program on this and other threads knows who CAPT Swift is and how to contact him so that I can beg to stay in the IRR.

 

[NAVYJOEGUY]

I'm pretty sure that there still is no Navy Reserve policy on how much disability is 'disqualifies' you from being in the SELRES but individual NOSC's have processed folks out of the SELRES if their disability is 30% or more. We had an OS1 who had ~50% VA disability drill with us through the VTU for 5 or so years to qualify for retirement after being kicked out of the SELRES by the Norfolk NOSC. At the same time however we had an OSC with 80% disability attached to our unit as a SELRES. It didn't make sense to us but that was the NOSC for you.

Just as an FYI for those who have 30% or over VA disability.

As a 5yr prior service recruiter, recruiting manual states over 30% is a no go. The chief mentioned with 80% put in for va after enlisting and while drilling. In this situation when the NOSC finds out during annual PHA, they will start Med board. If it is deemed the Med conditions related don’t interfere with his job or duty, he can stay in. Just can’t collect va and drill pay at same time.