Reserve Jobs in Wyoming?

[MasterBates]

I'm moving to Casper, Wyoming in 2 weeks.

Since I've been getting hounded by USNR recruiters.. The only reserve sites I have found remotely close are NOSC Cheyenne and NOSC Billings.

Are there any FLYING jobs closer than Dallas that I have not thought about? Also, from what I can determine, it seems that the NOSC jobs are mostly death by NKO/Paperwork (aka, the number 2 thing I hate about active duty, NMCI is number 1)

The official descriptions of NOSCs sounds way too like recruitment sunshine and rainbows BS for me to believe what goes on there.

 

[Gatordev]

NOSCs are the holding grounds for the Prairie Navy and the admin support the various deployable units (CB, Medical, etc). You're only going to need to do 48 drills a year and 12-ish days a year and you'll have a sat year. It won't be all that rewarding, compared to a hardware unit. But for now, you might as well affiliate and get your foot in the door and get the clock running. Then you can continue to work the flying jobs as time goes on.

 

[JD81]

NOSC = not much fun. I drill at one, if you want specifics shoot me a PM. As Gatordev said, if you have to take it as a stepping stone to a flying gig its not that bad, and thats what I did/am doing.

 

[HooverPilot]

Look into the E-2's @ Fallon? Last I heard, they were hurting for pilots. S-Jay was a 3P for them to gap fill.

 

[zippy]

MB, you've gone through the IUT- you look into VT Selres?

 

[KBayDog]

Also, from what I can determine, it seems that the NOSC jobs are mostly death by NKO/Paperwork (aka, the number 2 thing I hate about active duty, NMCI is number 1)

1. The difference is, you get paid to come in and do your Death by NKO/annual lectures/etc. It's not something you have to squeeze in sometime during your already jam-packed day.

2. Are you 100% sure you still want to be affiliated with the Navy after your AD career?

 

[phrogpilot73]

1. The difference is, you get paid to come in and do your Death by NKO/annual lectures/etc. It's not something you have to squeeze in sometime during your already jam-packed day.

2. Are you 100% sure you still want to be affiliated with the Navy after your AD career?

1A. Not to mention you get paid two days pay for one days work while doing NKO/annual lectures, etc...

2A. He has to go IRR at a minimum since he's taking the seps money. Might as well get paid a little extra on the side, right??

 

[KBayDog]

2A. He has to go IRR at a minimum since he's taking the seps money. Might as well get paid a little extra on the side, right??

True.

I'll admit that I don't know jack squat about the Reserves, especially with the blood money. Hell, in his case, I'd take one of those cheesy NOSC jobs and get paid to come in and knock out a NKO course every few weeks.

 

[MasterBates]

MB, you've gone through the IUT- you look into VT Selres?

The commuting is what is keeping me from looking at VTs seriously. A fly in Friday, fly out Monday ticket, bought 5 months out is $640ish to either Pensacola or Corpus. And I have to take Monday and Friday off from work because it's a 12-14 hour trip out, and 8-9 hours back.

I'd burn all the money I made on the drill, and then some just commuting. And burn all my vacation time by May at my "real job", which then tacks another $500 to the "cost" of going to the drill.

Sadly, it's $300 cheaper and 4 hours "Faster" to go to Norfolk than Corpus or Pcola.

 

[eas7888]

The commuting is what is keeping me from looking at VTs seriously. A fly in Friday, fly out Monday ticket, bought 5 months out is $640ish to either Pensacola or Corpus. And I have to take Monday and Friday off from work because it's a 12-14 hour trip out, and 8-9 hours back.

I'd burn all the money I made on the drill, and then some just commuting. And burn all my vacation time by May at my "real job", which then tacks another $500 to the "cost" of going to the drill.

Sadly, it's $300 cheaper and 4 hours "Faster" to go to Norfolk than Corpus or Pcola.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when I was in the reserves on the Army side of the house, you weren't required to do your 'drills' on the weekend. You could do your 48 drill days all in a row, if the command would let you, meaning you could lump your time in to one or two week trips to help make the flying in the VTs worth the cost. I don't know how well your new job would like that, but the beauty of USERRA is that they can't really make a fuss about it.

Just something to consider.

 

[MasterBates]

I've looked at that, but I'm going to have to be at the job a while to get a feel for how well that will play there.

Yes, USERRA/ESGR would "protect" me, but when I'm one of two engineers (or one of one after the training/supervision program is over) on a project, it may be hard to disappear for that long. With more time on the job, I'll have a better feel for it. I seem to remember most of our SELRES guys were Airline pilots or guys with similar work schedules.

 

[phrogpilot73]

The commuting is what is keeping me from looking at VTs seriously.

After having commuted to a reserve unit, and being local - I don't recommend a long commute. It should be someplace you can drive to if need be. Here's the thing - for any flying job, expect that you're going to have to average ~4 days a month to hit your mins. Drill weekends are sometimes full of the bullshit annual training requirements. For us, most guys that commute come in and fly Thursday night and Friday (day or night) the two days before the drill weekend. We also generally knock off our drill weekends around 1400-ish on Sunday so everyone can get home in time to get to work on Monday.

In the USMCR, they pay for 11 plane tickets a year for O-4 and below. Don't know if the Navy does... Norfolk is probably the BEST place to commute to, since there's an airport 20 minutes away, and you could probably get the duty to pick you up (or another dude in the squadron, I know my way around ORF's parking lot better than most now, as I give rides to/from the airport probably 4 times a month). Other places? Rental car might be involved...

If it was me, I'd take the NOSC job, maybe sometime in the future look at flying jobs once your civilian job has stabilized...

 

[Gatordev]

Phrog is giving you good advice about commuting, so the following is just general info and not necessarily something specific to the TRACOM...

You can't necessarily think of the Reserves as a second income, at least not right away. If it's a stable second income for you, great, but it's not abnormal for guys to commute to a hardware unit and have their pay offset the travel expense. Remember, you're not just getting paid for now, you're setting yourself up for pay later.

Guys like Jim will know more about the money available to the TRACOM right now, but generally on the Navy side, not all your trips are going to have to be subsidized by you. If you're going to an off-site drill location, you can use a different pot of money to get you there and back while still using your drills (called IDTT). Depending on availability, you can also go on temp active duty orders and it doesn't have to be for a long time (called ADT). No matter where you go, if it's to a flying job, you're going to have to go on ADT at some point in order to meet your mins. 48 drills and 12 days a year isn't going to cut it for you, no matter where you go.

I'd be curious to see if you were "eligible" for going to the TRACOM. Of course EVERYONE is eligible, but historically only IPs were really only "eligible" (wink, wink...nudge, nudge). I was under the impression when you went through, it was only through the NA and a couple of DCON events. But I may be wrong about their needs.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when I was in the reserves on the Army side of the house, you weren't required to do your 'drills' on the weekend. You could do your 48 drill days all in a row, if the command would let you, meaning you could lump your time in to one or two week trips to help make the flying in the VTs worth the cost. I don't know how well your new job would like that, but the beauty of USERRA is that they can't really make a fuss about it.

You may have been at a Flex-Drill site. Generally they're a rarer option for pilots. I'm currently at a Flex-drill unit and it has the potential to cause participation issues for SELRES. As it turns out, we're using that to our advantage, but generally, units don't like to do that.

 

[MasterBates]

@ Gator, I'd actually have to pull out my ATJ and figure out what the hell I actually did. I was on a standardish IUT syllabus, but they did leave a few flights out. Regardless, it's been almost 5 years since I touched a 34, and pushing 10 since I flew a 57, I'd have to do buku requal anyways.

 

[phrogpilot73]

You may have been at a Flex-Drill site. Generally they're a rarer option for pilots. I'm currently at a Flex-drill unit and it has the potential to cause participation issues for SELRES. As it turns out, we're using that to our advantage, but generally, units don't like to do that.

For us, we can do the occasional RIDT (reschedule of drill, I used it every Saturday drill when I was in Culinary school) but the expectation is that you're there for drill weekend. The only guys they let do the "all of your year's drills at once" are guys that took some sort of shit job that was deployed for a year (one guy just came back from Afghanistan, 1 year with MCLL). Things will change (timelines, COs, etc) but I plan on pre-drilling all of my Q2 FY 16 drills. Why? We decomission as a Phrog squadron (as of right now) Q1 FY16, and I'll be too senior to transition because I retire Q2 FY16. I'd rather have my last Phrog flight as my retirement flight...

The guys who fly the UC-35/C-12 are flex-drill sites. Requires a lot more planning/coordination with civilian job.

MB - the payoff from the reserves is Medical you don't need to worry about come age 60 (when everything is breaking anyway), and getting a payoff for the 10 years of your life you dedicated to the Navy earlier. The other payoff of a flying job, is that it can fill your desire/love to fly, without you paying for it. A lot of guys in our unit break even, it's pretty much only the local guys that actually pocket money. They're here because they love to fly, and miss the Marines (not the Marine Corps mind you). The way it's looking with PSW's orders and my reserve stuff is that I could possibly be commuting (breaking even) for 2-3 years prior to retirement.