I know I’m not a typical “Guard Puke”; I’ve been in the Guard for about 6 years and spent almost 5 on active duty. I know there are a million differences between the Guard, Reserve and Active Duty. I’m not digging at active duty, just pointing out some of the main differences. And I’ll apologize now if this turns into a book.
(1) I agree the promotion system should be the same for everyone. But until it changes nothing can be done about the skills/leadership qualities that may be lacking in G/R personnel who are promoted quickly. It’s not necessarily their fault, it’s the system.
(2) I think every member of the Air Force should receive a Performance Report each year. They need this form so they know how they are doing in their job and what they need to do to improve their career. Just because someone isn’t full time (active duty) doesn’t mean they don’t need to know how they’re doing on the job.
(3) I believe each Guard, Reserve and AD unit should deploy for the same amount of time and in a cycle. There is no reason the same one or two units should always be deployed. ROTATE!!!
(4) When an active duty member retires, they start receiving their retirement almost immediately, regardless of their age. G/R members who retire must wait until 1 month after their 60th b-day before they receive anything. There is absolutely no reason a member should have to wait.
(5) I agree TRICARE benefits should be available when G/R members are activated. If a member is injured while activated, TRICARE will cover 100%. Many times a member continues to need treatment after their activation is complete and the member usually winds up paying for these medical expenses out of their own pocket. TRICARE should cover any and all medical treatment a member needs due to an injury that occurred while activated. I realize there are very few cases when this happens, but I know several people who have faced this problem. It needs to be addressed and fixed ASAP before it becomes a regular occurrence.

I agree with you completely, with one exception...

Retirement.

The retirement system for the Guard and Reserve is the one thing that makes sense to me. An active duty member receives their pension immediately upon retirement because they have completed no less than 20 years of 24/7 service to their particular branch of service. I have personally known many Guardsman and Reservist that have done nothing more than one weekend a month and two weeks a year. Tabulate that and they worked a whopping total of 1.8 years. Should that person be entitled to a pension equal that of a person with a full 20 years of uninterrupted service? I think not.

Maybe their needs to be some consideration given to those Guard and Reserve members that have more time on Active Duty but to outright provide the same pension benefits to someone with less than 1/10 of the committed time would be an injustice.

SlagleRock Out!

I understand what you're saying but why should their age matter? They have served their country for at least 20 years. They have sacrificed just like the active duty community. Granted it’s no where close to the sacrifices active duty members make, they have sacrificed and served, just the same. Who are we to say that they don’t deserve the same retirement benefits?

One more thing: The Guard retirement system is based on the number of points a member earns over their career and there is a minimum number that must be met before they can retire. They aren’t eligible nor do they receive the same retirement pension active duty members receive. Points are given for the number of days you perform active duty (i.e., one weekend a month, two weeks a year) as well as the different courses (i.e., CDCs, ALS, etc.) a member completes over their career. I don’t know the details of the retirement system because I haven’t worked in that area in almost 4 years however I do know the retirement offered to the Guard/Reserve is not equal to what a member receives when they retire from active duty.

I do know the retirement offered to the Guard/Reserve is not equal to what a member receives when they retire from active duty.

You are right it isn't equal to the AD retirement nor should it be. They don't carry the load as long.

Here is a simple example. You have two Major League Baseball Pitchers. Both are equally talented and equally qualified. Person A pitches 50 games a year and person B only pitches 1. Should they get the same paycheck in retirement when person A pitched 1000 games to person B's 20? No matter what twist you put on it someone who is a traditional Guardsmen or Reservist who deploys once or twice over their career clearly hasn't earned retirment compensation equal to a full timer. I mean, if the government were to do something so silly everyone would be in the reserves. I mean, why go full time if part time can get you all the perks.

SlagleRock Out!

I know we talked about this last night I wanted to clarify what I was saying for everyone else. I never said the Guard/Reserve should get the same amount of money as an active duty member receives upon retirement. I agree with you completely that it would not be fair. All I was pointing out is the Guard/Reserve shouldn't be forced to wait until they are 60 to start receiving the benefits they have clearly earned. Anyway, that’s just my opinion! ;) I love you baby!!!

This is long overdue. Back in the early seventies when most Army Reserve and National Guard members were only there to supplement their incomes, avoid the draft and for some to learn a skill, I re-enlisted in the Army Reserve. I have served active duty, RVN, seen the shortcomings of reservists being called into active duty and being sent into a combat zone. This was an opportunity to give back some of the things I'd learned the hard way, I served as the training NCO of the reserve unit, I found I couldn't set up any weekend training with Active Army units due to reservists being Non Active, nor could I do any training missions of a public service nature for the community due to the politics involved, after a couple years of frustration I bid them goodbye and within the week had joined the National Guard, with an armored unit. I put my rank aside and worked my way up from loader to platoon sgt/senior TC in just under two years, learning all I could about M60A1 tanks, weapons and tactics. In the mid 1975 annual training I volunteered to take a leave of absence from my high paying civilian job to go to Fort Knox, for some formal armored training and tactics, it was denied. I suppose it might have been my age, or previous MOS but I believe it was the lack of a National Guard mission and being under State controlled funding. The following year in 1976 the Department of Defense decided that our particular unit which had performed very high in combat ready tests, must give up our M60A1 combat ready tanks to Israel. That week I was selected to help load the M60A1's onto railroad flat cars for their deployment to Israel. On our next weekend drill I was issued a compass and map, told to take my men and train them in tank tactics and land navigation using several old jeeps loaned out from TMP's motorpool, on that Sunday afternoon I turned in my field gear and ended my military career.
Now, more than at any time in this nation's history do we need a standing army of trained and ready soldiers, dedicated to protecting and preserving freedom. This can only be accomplished by having a reserve force to back up and assist the Active Military. The Pentagon as well as all branches of the military have to recognise that the reserve forces are not bastard children and must be trained, compensated, promoted on merit not time in grade, they also have to recognise the sacrifices of the members as well as their families if they want to retain the trained personnel they have invested in.
Be thankful that you do not have a draft, be thankful you do not have to babysit some of McNamara's 50,000 where you have to deal with someone who doesn't want to serve in the first place or is malevolently demented to the point you have to watch your back at all times.

BTW , Thank you Rob and thank you Rachel for serving.

Well all I know is that their are fewer and fewer "one weekend a month two weeks a year" guard guys out there. In a twenty four month period I was deployed for a total of 18 to different locations in the US and the rest of the world. And im just an operations puke! Granted there are guys who have never been outside the guard norm in 50 years but they are few and far between.

The retirement thing is different. I honestly do not know a lot of traditional guardsmen that hit 20 and get out. If they decide to stay in past the first 6 or even 12, most are staying in 25 to 30 years to get those points. And why not? Ya gotta wait til your 55 to get the retirement anyway. Should the retirement pay be the same? Only if you retire AGR. So if I put in 20 yrs as a guard guy and all the active duty I do equals 12 years total I should have to wait another 15 years to collect my retirement for the service I put in? The time I spent away from my family that I wont get back? And thats assuming I live to BE 55! Anyway, I think Rachel brings up a couple of good points with the retirement and Tricare stuff.

One other thing.... I know you said that the guard gives out rank and in alot of cases it does. But I have noticed this trend, at my base anyway, that people will do in the guard what they do in the civilian world if its possible. Now im a temp AGR workin for the cops and almost all of them are cops in the civilian world. And I am pretty sure that a civilian cop is getting a TON more experience on alot of stuff than just about any LE out their just because of the sheer volume that a civilian cop has to deal with that we just dont see on the Active Duty air base. Now im not downing our SP's just using them as an example. And I think you will find that in a lot of career fields. So to say that people dont know or have experience in there jobs is wrong in my opinion. But there are those who dont know what the hell they are doing cause I used to be one of them. I spent two years in my office with no clue as to what was going on and waiting for someone to train me. Long story short now I am a vital part of my squadron.

sorry for the length I didnt intend to go this long. I appreciate you discussing the topics!!

Sean: I agree that not everyone who is promoted quickly is inexperienced and doesn't know their job. I know many Guard/Reserve people have a similar civilian job to the duties they have in the G/R. However each job has different policies and procedures. I realize that cops, mechanics, and “hands on” people's jobs aren’t that different but they are still different in many ways. On average, if you compare a G/R person's job knowledge (and experience) to an active duty member’s, the active duty will know more 90% of the time. Are there people out there who know more than active duty? Yes, but most of the time active duty has more job knowledge. They do that job day in and day out for a minimum of 4 years. People who are full time for 3 months here and there or AGR will know more about their job than the average Guard/Reserve member. But, that can not compare to active duty that does their job every day for 4 years minimum.