Service commitment question.

G

GulfCoastalGuy

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Jan 26, 2022
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Is it 5 years active duty plus 3 years Individual Ready Reserve? Or is the 3 year reserve requirement drilling/reporting reserves?
 
5 years Active Duty followed by 3 years in IRR status. Understand that you have virtually zero activity requirements while in IRR. You are out.... but not TOTALLY out. If WWIII broke out, the IRR would be tapped first and be recalled to Active Duty.

IRR does not equal "reservist" in the sense you hear in TV ads like "Serve 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks per year."

While on IRR, I am the only one in my sphere that I am aware of who was asked to do anything. There was a recall drill at a nearby base and I was requested to attend to help their personnel team practice what it would be like if the IRR needed to be tapped. It was a few hours on one saturday AND they paid you for your time and travel expenses.
 
shiner said:
5 years Active Duty followed by 3 years in IRR status. Understand that you have virtually zero activity requirements while in IRR. You are out.... but not TOTALLY out. If WWIII broke out, the IRR would be tapped first and be recalled to Active Duty.

IRR does not equal "reservist" in the sense you hear in TV ads like "Serve 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks per year."

While on IRR, I am the only one in my sphere that I am aware of who was asked to do anything. There was a recall drill at a nearby base and I was requested to attend to help their personnel team practice what it would be like if the IRR needed to be tapped. It was a few hours on one saturday AND they paid you for your time and travel expenses.
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Is their an option to serve in the “normal” reserves where you drill once a month instead of IRR so you still get paid and will eventually get a pension after 20 years? Also if you are active duty for 5 years and then switch to “normal” reserves do you just owe 15 years in the reserves to get retirement or does the active duty not count?
 
Justin HELPmomStocksPosts said:
Is their an option to serve in the “normal” reserves where you drill once a month instead of IRR so you still get paid and will eventually get a pension after 20 years? Also if you are active duty for 5 years and then switch to “normal” reserves do you just owe 15 years in the reserves to get retirement or does the active duty not count?
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Understand that no matter what you do, you will always have a period in IRR. You are a valuable commodity to Uncle Sam and fresh out of the machine means you are easy to get back up to speed to hop back in the fight.

Having said that - YES you can go from Active Duty to Reservist and it is quite interchangeable. Some Reservists return to Active Duty. Some on Active Duty exit to Reserves but there are some FULL TIME reserve slots that are virtually the same as Active Duty BUT you don't get reassigned and asked to move around every 3 years. I know an '01 USAFA grad test pilot who just wanted to do the one job - just be a test pilot. He found a full time reservist gig in that role and he was in that role for quite a while until just now retiring from the AF. If you think about the athletes who graduate and "go pro"... they often serve less time on Active Duty but switch into a recruiting Reservist role to serve out the remainder of their service commitment.

Understand the standard service commitment is 5 years if you do not fly. 10 years of service if you do fly. THEN there are lesser known variations on that depending on your individual circumstances. Beyond your minimum commitment, it gets even crazier depending on what you want to do. You can be a USAFA ALO and get reservist credit. Some guys do that until they can retire. I was a civilian volunteer ALO and could call the shots on what events and schools I would support. The reservists.... well they had a ton of schools and events dumped on them. You still need performance reports worthy of promotion in the reserves, so you cannot mail it in and as an officer, you still have to show growing leadership responsibilities worthy of the higher rank. To achieve this as an ALO, you become an Area Director and then a Regional.
 
shiner said:
Understand that no matter what you do, you will always have a period in IRR. You are a valuable commodity to Uncle Sam and fresh out of the machine means you are easy to get back up to speed to hop back in the fight.

Having said that - YES you can go from Active Duty to Reservist and it is quite interchangeable. Some Reservists return to Active Duty. Some on Active Duty exit to Reserves but there are some FULL TIME reserve slots that are virtually the same as Active Duty BUT you don't get reassigned and asked to move around every 3 years. I know an '01 USAFA grad test pilot who just wanted to do the one job - just be a test pilot. He found a full time reservist gig in that role and he was in that role for quite a while until just now retiring from the AF. If you think about the athletes who graduate and "go pro"... they often serve less time on Active Duty but switch into a recruiting Reservist role to serve out the remainder of their service commitment.

Understand the standard service commitment is 5 years if you do not fly. 10 years of service if you do fly. THEN there are lesser known variations on that depending on your individual circumstances. Beyond your minimum commitment, it gets even crazier depending on what you want to do. You can be a USAFA ALO and get reservist credit. Some guys do that until they can retire. I was a civilian volunteer ALO and could call the shots on what events and schools I would support. The reservists.... well they had a ton of schools and events dumped on them. You still need performance reports worthy of promotion in the reserves, so you cannot mail it in and as an officer, you still have to show growing leadership responsibilities worthy of the higher rank. To achieve this as an ALO, you become an Area Director and then a Regional.
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I’m confused. So if you go 5 years of active duty then go 15 years of “normal” reserves, will you still owe 3 years of IRR after?
 
shiner said:
5 years Active Duty followed by 3 years in IRR status. Understand that you have virtually zero activity requirements while in IRR. You are out.... but not TOTALLY out. If WWIII broke out, the IRR would be tapped first and be recalled to Active Duty.

IRR does not equal "reservist" in the sense you hear in TV ads like "Serve 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks per year."

While on IRR, I am the only one in my sphere that I am aware of who was asked to do anything. There was a recall drill at a nearby base and I was requested to attend to help their personnel team practice what it would be like if the IRR needed to be tapped. It was a few hours on one saturday AND they paid you for your time and travel expenses.
Click to expand...
Very helpful.
 
shiner said:
Understand the standard service commitment is 5 years if you do not fly. 10 years of service if you do fly.
Click to expand...
For the Coast Guard, service commitment will be 13 years if you fly, just as a side note.
 
Five years service commitment and three additional years active duty to qualify for GI bill educational benefits.
 
At 18 years old these service commitments sound scary and infinite. In reality, they are over in a blink of an eye and will be overcome by other life-changing events. Not to poo-poo your concerns, but IRR commitments, at this point in your budding career, are about as inconsequential as they come.
 
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