Army National Guard
 

I just got back from the Army National Guard armory to meet with my recruiter and it went pretty well.
Anyone here planning on joining the military or are in the military/ have been?

Twice in my life now, I've thought about going to OCS. The first time was my senior year of high school, the second time was last year. So far, I've wound up not doing it, even though it's something I've wanted to do since I was 12.

If I don't have a real job when I finish my M.A., I'm going to apply to OCS for sure, though.

Well if your not sure on what you want to do you should consider the National Guard.
You only show up one weekend a month and 2 weeks a year and its illegal for you employer to not hire you, fire you, or deny changes in salary because of activities related to the national guard.

I've been a Canadian army reservist for 3 years - I've been on active duty since January and I'm going to Afghanistan in September. Quite frankly I wouldn't join the National Guard - I've worked with them and the ones I've met are fairly switched on troops (some of them were pumps but thats true of any unit), but if you want to be in the military and go overseas join the regular army.

Join the Guard and you may find yourself being forced to deploy at a time which is going to completely fuck up your real life. If you're in the regular army then that just plain is your life, but as a part timer a mandatory call up can really screw you. Believe me, I've seen it happen.

The big difference between our system and yours is that I volunteered to do a tour on the rotation of my own chosing, I wasn't compelled. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the Guard and I'd never tell someone not to join the military, but thats definately something you have to go into with your eyes open.

Well I've already started on the paperwork for it and I'm dead-set on doing it.
Honestly I'm more interested in this national guard thing than college.

My recruiter also said that the unit there was last deployed in 2007 so it isn't eligible for deployment until 2012 unless there is a surge and if I do get deployed well then good otherwise what's the point of drilling?

I used to know a guy in the Nation Guard and I used to call him a "Weekender" sometimes to piss him off. It was all in good fun though. He wasn't fond of "Yahoo" either... :)

I'm not too interested in the military, I've always been more interested in police work. If other jobs don't go well, I might try to be a state trooper.

That's interesting because I'm thinking of joining active duty Army after I get out of college to become a cop in Baltimore city.

I am typing from the barracks at tracen Yorktown. In week two of BM class a school.

I thought about joining the Marines, but right now I'm working on joining the police

Thanks, but no thanks. I knew someone in the National Guard who figured he could do it at the same time that he was enrolled at a trade school. Then Katrina hit.

Also, my goal is to become an intelligence analyst. If I qualify for OCS, my goal would be to see if I can go to the AIC.