National Guard experience

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=120825

By the end of fiscal 2014, the Army will have significantly degraded readiness, as 85 percent of active and reserve brigade combat teams will be unprepared for contingency requirements, he said.
From fiscal 2014 to fiscal 2017, as the Army continues to draw down and is restructured into a smaller force, its readiness will continue to degrade and modernization programs will experience extensive shortfalls, the general added.
“We'll be required to end, restructure or delay over 100 acquisition programs, putting at risk the ground combat vehicle program, the armed aerial scout, the production and modernization of our other aviation programs, system upgrades for unmanned aerial vehicles, and the modernization of air defense command-and-control systems, just to name a few,” Odierno told the panel.
Only in fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2023 will the Army begin to rebalance readiness and remodernization, the general said, but this will come at the expense of significant reductions in the Army’s number of soldiers and its force structure.
The Army will be forced to take further cuts from a wartime high of 570,000 soldiers in the active Army, 358,000 in the Army National Guard and 205,000 in the Army Reserve to no more than 420,000 in the active Army, 315,000 in the Army National Guard and 185,000 in the Army Reserve, the general said.
This represents a total Army end-strength reduction of more than 18 percent over seven years, a 26 percent reduction in the active Army, a 12 percent reduction in the Army National Guard and a 9 percent reduction in the Army Reserve, he explained, adding that it also will cause a 45-percent reduction in active Army brigade combat teams.
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That is an ouch, and maybe something to think about when choosing this path.

I would suggest to every candidate in every branch to start googling and understanding how sequestration was not just 1 yr., but 10 yrs in total for the DoD budget.

I would look to see how small of a bump, because according to this article the Army is taking a 26% reduction if the Hill can't come to agreement and fix the DoD shortfall.
 
Just to add some more info,

One SMP cadet is allowed to count our Battalion FFTX as his drill for the month while another is not. It really just depends on your unit.
 
DS was allowed to count his ROTC weekend as his NG drill requirement only if it fell on the same weekend. However, he took 2 classes during the summer before his December graduation and was unable to attend his NG unit's 2 week training because of his school schedule. His NG unit did require him to make up the hours missed before graduating in December.
 
payitforward said:
Hmm, a small kick on the OML, huh? How small?
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Small, a cadet can get the same number of point by many other means, Color Guard, School leadership, Community Service.

Don't enlist, join the NG, and drill each month just for a small number of points that can easily be obtained in many other ways that don't involve enlisting.

Your son will want to make sure he does not get injured during BCT or AIT, Dodmerb is still something that will need to be passed.
 
DS was all gung-ho about joining the NG during his freshman year. He completed BCT and AIT during 2 consecutuve summers. What he failed to take into account, was the time required to meet all of his goals...schoolwork to maintain high GPA (very important with the OML), NG drill weekends, and ROTC responsibilities. It always seemed that his NG drill weekends always occurred the weekend before his final exam week. DS doesn't regret his NG decision, but I agree with the other posts that if he doesn't need to join the NG, why risk jeopardizing ROTC ranking and GPA?
 
Jcleppe said:
Your son will want to make sure he does not get injured during BCT or AIT, Dodmerb is still something that will need to be passed.
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If he makes it through that mountain warfare group he trains with without getting injured it'll be a miracle unto itself.
 
I re-read your original post and saw that your son plans to drop school next semester to attend BCT and AIT.

I hope he thinks hard about that, he is going to miss that second semester in the battalion. While he is gone he will miss quite a bit. Starting again in next fall he will find himself behind those he started with. A lot of guys think that when they attend BCT they will come back with an advantage over others, not the case. BCT teaches enlisted, ROTC teaches officers, the two don't mix that much. What advantage he would have is done by the end of the freshman year.

There is one more risk to think about. I have seen a few leave school to attend BCT and AIT, then decide that they want to stay enlisted. The peer pressure from other enlisted can be quite effective. He will hear "Enlisted work for a living" while he's there. There is nothing wrong with going enlisted at all, the issue would be that he is enlisted NG and the chance of switching to Active later is almost nil.

Gung Ho is not a bad thing, but make sure he really thinks this over, I'm sure his recruiter has painted a very Rosey picture, Reality is often very different.
 
Jcleppe said:
I hope he thinks hard about that, he is going to miss that second semester in the battalion. While he is gone he will miss quite a bit. Starting again in next fall he will find himself behind those he started with. A lot of guys think that when they attend BCT they will come back with an advantage over others, not the case. BCT teaches enlisted, ROTC teaches officers, the two don't mix that much. What advantage he would have is done by the end of the freshman year.
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I have been wondering about that, but I do think because so many cadets leave in the spring semester for basics that maybe this isn't so shocking? I don't really know though. Wish we could talk to an upperclassman about this -- about whether leaving in spring semester affects your standing in the corps. It seems like a no-brainer to me, but I'm not there, so I wouldn't know. And maybe someone who's really passionate could get back up to speed within a semester or so, especially if he starts back up with the mountain group. Still -- the time constraints of all of this almost sounds impossible... to do all he wants to do, PLUS get decent grades -- I don't see that happening. He's smart, but he has to work to get excellent grades; they don't come easily.

Jcleppe said:
There is one more risk to think about. I have seen a few leave school to attend BCT and AIT, then decide that they want to stay enlisted. The peer pressure from other enlisted can be quite effective. He will hear "Enlisted work for a living" while he's there. There is nothing wrong with going enlisted at all, the issue would be that he is enlisted NG and the chance of switching to Active later is almost nil.

Gung Ho is not a bad thing, but make sure he really thinks this over, I'm sure his recruiter has painted a very Rosey picture, Reality is often very different.
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When DS was 15 he had made up his mind that he was enlisting at age 18. But he's smart, and he's a natural leader, communicates VERY effectively in spoken commands and in writing, and he's exceptionally talented at listening (like, when someone's giving a lecture or critical instructions). It seemed to everyone that knows him that he should take the road toward becoming an officer. It took 3 years of resource-gathering and arranging meetings with influential military personnel to get him to see the value of taking the leadership road instead. It seems a totally valid concern that once he's in basics, the road might seem easier and less complicated to just stay put. So yeah, he definitely needs to understand that he'd be setting himself up for NG but not AD if he did that. I'm almost certain he gets that though.
 
DS is an ECP cadet so he is doing SMP.

On top of DODMERB, you must go thru MEPS also. I had to provide more paperwork for MEPS than for DODMERB.

There are some cadets in his battallion that went thru BCT before school started. Some of them did not pass their first APFT at school. He commented too that as far as leadership skills, they are at or below the level of cadets that went to LTC or traditional MSIII's.

Of course each cadet has their own reason for choosing the path they did.
 
payitforward said:
He was only ever looking at it as a way to make money and gain some "reputation points" and experience for that day that he eventually goes AD. He has always only ever wanted AD. It seems to me the wrong thing to do is LEAVE for a semester to go do NG basics. I could be wrong, but of all the people I've asked about this, I haven't heard very much support for going guard.
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If he is looking for "reputation points" by joining the guard, he's probably going to be quite disappointed. Joining the guard does not give you much advantage over people who show up to ROTC with a scholarship. You may know how to march, customs and courtesies, and understand basic structure, but you won't be ahead of other MS1's by the end of the first semester or year. A MUTA 6 just doesn't equate to a month of AD experience, so unless he wants to join the guard to be in the guard or needs the money, I would suggest he waits it out and doesn't mess up his degree plan.
 
Payitforward,

Just returned from visiting DS (MSIII SMP OH/NG). How much sleep does your DS need? Does eating/sleeping on an non-traditional schedule cause him problems? Would drill schedules right in the middle of exam weeks throw his GPA to the wind? This is reality - I agree with the other parents that have posted about crazy schedules, chasing down waivers for obligations and the various other headaches NG/RS can bring.

BCT/AIT is a whole issue to itself. Nothing DS learned at BCT really benefited his personal development into becoming an officer(although he does have a huge repects for Drill Sgt and NCO). His NG unit is the only positive so far - they are accustomed to having SMPs and the officers he is working under have been great. Luckily his unit works reasonably well with ROTC.

Try to pull the brake on DS's enthusiam - his goals sound much more suited to traditional ROTC. It sounds like you're already leaning this way, just wanted to add a little more parental support:thumb:
 
DS says one of the reasons he wants to join is to be in a position to respond to local emergencies. (He was a firefighter and EMS cadet in NJ. Being called upon to help during Hurricane Sandy meant the world to him.)

And then today, there's this FB album from a recon NG unit. DS is chomping at the bit, of course.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.461016084012062.1073741869.190379657742374&type=1

So, it's not like this is really an easy thing to list the pros and cons for.
 
You can always suggest he join the Dahlonega Volunteer Fire Dept. instead.
 
payitforward said:
DS says one of the reasons he wants to join is to be in a position to respond to local emergencies. (He was a firefighter and EMS cadet in NJ. Being called upon to help during Hurricane Sandy meant the world to him.)

And then today, there's this FB album from a recon NG unit. DS is chomping at the bit, of course.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.461016084012062.1073741869.190379657742374&type=1

So, it's not like this is really an easy thing to list the pros and cons for.
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How often does that really happen though? Once every 5-10 years? If he wants to join the guard let him but what happens if something goes wrong with ROTC and hes forced into the guard?

International affairs with Arabic and no experience isn't really going to have employers chomping at the bit...

I don't think he is grasping the big picture.
 
payitforward said:
DS says one of the reasons he wants to join is to be in a position to respond to local emergencies. (He was a firefighter and EMS cadet in NJ. Being called upon to help during Hurricane Sandy meant the world to him.)

And then today, there's this FB album from a recon NG unit. DS is chomping at the bit, of course.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.461016084012062.1073741869.190379657742374&type=1

So, it's not like this is really an easy thing to list the pros and cons for.
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He will need to realize that if he enlists and does SMP ROTC, once he contracts with ROTC he will no longer be deployable. Should a disaster occur, he would not be called up with his unit.

The flip side of that is if he does finish both BCT and AIT, he will be deployable for such things until he contracts. If his unit is mobilized before he contracts he would have to leave school during that time, this can be a real hassle if it's in the middle of the semester.

Joining the Guard and doing SMP can be a great experience, and I'm sure not trying to talk anyone out of it. Just make sure he understands the risks and extra commitment in can involve. It's not as easy as recruiters spell out to be.

Make sure he understands that if he wants to do the things shown in those pictures as an Active Duty Officer, he will need to be close to the top of the ROTC OML nationwide. That does not come easy, adding more load to an already busy college schedule will just make it harder.

Now if he decides to go Guard, he will have to find out if that unit has any openings for Infantry 2LT's, if not he'll have to choose something else or find another NG unit that has an opening.
 
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@payitforward - Have you had your son just sit down and read this thread? Lot's of wisdom here and perhaps if it wasn't coming through you it might carry more weight? People with years of experience in the military, or kids in ROTC and even NG have been posting to this thread. One might hope he would recognize that. Don't know what he would decide even if he does this, but it certainly can't hurt and he'll be doing it with eyes wide open. :thumb:
 
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