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Kind of a long post. I have been active duty now for 13 yrs. Just went through a divorce and now its basically just me. The last 7 yrs it has been all about where she has wanted to go, try to make her happy blah blah blah, you get the picture. My family has always been close to me, but i have never had the chance to be stationed close to them. I'm really thinking about going ANG to try and get within a few hours of them now. Has anyone done this so late in the game so to speak. I hear that it's more of a part time type thing until/if you get a full time position. I'm not one to take chances when it comes to things like this. I need the steady income, not only for the bills but the lovely child support also. I want to be back close to home but i don't know if i can take the chance. Right now i have a steady not bad paying job. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
One of the things about the ANG and having 13 years. If you go ANG would you be willing to do ANG full time by this I mean take a 6 month deployment here and there until you get your 20 years so you can retire with full benefits. While doing this you can go to school fulltime on the GI Bill and complete your education. I did this while I went to college. If you can then ANG is the way to go for you. Also remember once you have enough time to get within the 20 year retirement window they will let you go active until you get your 20 in and retire. Next is do you want to switch career fields and go back to school? Technical fields are more sought after in the guard vs. security forces, also the medical fields.
Bellhead.....i was just deployed for a year and got back in March '11 and am turning around and deploying again in October for 6 months so deployments are not an issue for me. I am just worried about making as much as i am now and getting the full retirement when the time comes. Do i need 20 yrs in the ANG before i get my retirement or 20 yrs total between AD and ANG? If i just need 20 yrs total, i'm dang near there. Biggest thing for me is not taking a pay cut and being part-time. I wouldn't mind going back to a tech school, not a big deal for me. Guess i just need to talk to a recruiter and see what is up.
Almost certain it's the 20 years active duty. But anytime you are put on orders as a ANG person it counts as active duty time and it adds up. Do a 4 month deployment here, go to school for 4 months, do another deployment. Also depending on your career field and unit you may be able to stay at home and go active for a month at a time. The ANG unit I was with was like that you could go out every night and pick up a day, it was a ACS squadron and the officers needed to accumulate time every month controlling planes. My career field was computers and switching which maintained the tyq-23 vans, so they needed two techs there every night of the week. Also there were deployments available all over the world all the time, especially drug ops. My neighbor who was RIFFed as a B-1 pilot with 11 years as a captain went ANG accumulated enough active duty time to retire as a lt. colonel. He ended up moving and switching ang jobs a couple of times to do this but a 0-5 retirement is worth it.
Another thing is pick a career field with a year long school....
Hubby got out of the AF after 10 years and went Army Nat'l Guard. He then worked Civil Service for 10 years and then was asked to go back to active duty fulltime after 9/11. He now has 3 years left before he will be able to collect his full retirement (at the age of 54) but before that it would've been 62. He wishes every day he had stayed active duty all along. Hubby's MOS allows him to meet hundreds of people and he runs into people everyday who regret getting out at 13-15 years.
I would think long and hard at out right now when you are so close to getting a retirement. Set a goal for yourself to get your degree now while you can... there are plenty of schools that you can do online if you have an odd work schedule. I would also recommend visiting your Airmen and Family Readiness Center to get lots of great info available there.
22Crew, if it were me, I'd stay Active. If you don't like your current job, there are plenty of staff & other jobs in your AFSC. Especially with more stripes on your arm. What about volunteering for a Special Duty? Thunderbirds? Courier? MTI? Many others are available. Seven more years (that'll fly by, trust me) there were times I hated maintenance. But most of the time I found it enjoyable. And nowadays, I kinda miss it. There ain't nothin' like ICTs out here in the Real World...
STAY!!!! Let me make this clear...STAY!!!!! Oh the numbers of people I have known for 4 decades that got out and wish they could have gotten back in. You will have a real regret attack on the date that you could have retired but you got out.
Almost certain it's the 20 years active duty. But anytime you are put on orders as a ANG person it counts as active duty time and it adds up. Do a 4 month deployment here, go to school for 4 months, do another deployment. Also depending on your career field and unit you may be able to stay at home and go active for a month at a time. The ANG unit I was with was like that you could go out every night and pick up a day, it was a ACS squadron and the officers needed to accumulate time every month controlling planes. My career field was computers and switching which maintained the tyq-23 vans, so they needed two techs there every night of the week. Also there were deployments available all over the world all the time, especially drug ops. My neighbor who was RIFFed as a B-1 pilot with 11 years as a captain went ANG accumulated enough active duty time to retire as a lt. colonel. He ended up moving and switching ang jobs a couple of times to do this but a 0-5 retirement is worth it.
Another thing is pick a career field with a year long school....
If you decide to go guard, do you have your college degree? If so you might try the reserve officer route via the guard. It's hard to get but your retirement would be better. I also remember if you had accumulated 16 years active duty time between guard and active duty you could request to go active again to pick up your retirement.
The best thing to do is keep your eyes, ears, and options open. There are a lot of ways to skin the retirement potato.
Thanks for all the advice everybody. Looking like i will stay. I can retire at 39 and start from there.....still young.
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