jcollins

As a non prior service airman your time will be regimented in tech school and you will not have time during the week for outside activities like college classes. Expect to take 1-2 semesters off of college to finish basic training and your training pipeline. The good news is the connections and experience you will make being enlisted will give you a huge leg up on pilot hiring boards.

See AFMAN 34-135 Table 3.1

There are two ways to get promoted in the Air Guard: position vacancy and ROPMA. Position vacancy requires you be assigned to a vacant higher-graded position. Appropriate PME completed is also a defacto requirement. Once assigned to the position, your commander will need to write a letter nominating you for promotion which gets staffing through your JFHQ. You then appear before a FEDREC board (some states have you do it in person) and once approved by the board your package gets sent to NGB. You need 4 years TIG to appear in front of the FEDREC board and then it can take 6-12 months to get approval from NGB. So realistically you are looking at 5 years before pinning on O5, although your date of rank will be backdated to the date of your FEDREC board. The other way to get promoted is ROPMA. ROPMA for O5 is 7 years TIG, so you are hitting the board 6-12 months before that. Doesn't require PME, although if your state is like mine, you will get an automatic DNP going to the board which will most likely result in you not getting promoted. If you are ROPMA promoted to O5 while in an O4 position there is a provision that you can continue to occupy the position until you have 20 years in and can retire.

FYI Guard units typically do not have full-time medical staff other than a couple admin people. There are not hospitals on Guard bases.

It doesn't have to be a perfect zero trust environment, it just has to have a certain policy implemented. The organizations that didn't have this policy and are getting pwned as a result are the same ones getting pwned in thousand other ways that are not as sophisticated that this. However, the real reason people should be extremely worried about this type of attack is that a supply chain attack coupled with advanced AI payload would be virtually unstoppable in nearly all environments, and it's only a matter of time until that day. The only way to deal with this type of attack is to migrate to full zero trust and deploy machine learning AI countermeasures, of course in the DoD we are screwed because A) Our acquisition process sucks (we still use McAfee which is a joke) and B) our flag officer leadership doesn't understand how this stuff works.

That article is bullshit, not surprising the source. Not to get into the details but the attack, while extremely dangerous in the right situation, is ineffective in a properly configured zero trust environment.

Are you a part-time reservist? In the Air Force we have something called a PCARS (points summary) and they automatically flow there from Air University, no form needed. Maybe you can talk to Air University about your specific situation.

I have seen NGB kick back a position vacancy federal recognition package before due to OPRs. If your JFHQ is making you rewrite them them, they are helping you out in the long run if it doesn't appear that way.

There are a couple 17Ds on this board. I am a 17D in the Guard, I don't post here that much because what I do in my current job has nothing to do with flying airplanes. As far as the jobs go I posted in your other thread, you should read that to get my take on it. The only update I have is that 3D1X4 is not an entry level job in the Guard last time I checked, you have to retrain into it from another comm job (meaning you as a new enlistee can't be put in it). Your recruiter needs to check the enlisted job guide (forget what it is called) to confirm this is not still the case. I stand by my original comment that you should try to be a 1B4, the base comm jobs are so watered down with rights being taken away that a lot of kids get frustrated that they don't get to do any hands-on work during the drill weekends.

I am a 17D in the Guard. I am assuming you are planning on joining the Guard as enlisting on Active Duty doesn't make any sense as you would lose your mind working for kids 15 year younger than you. In my opinion, most Comm jobs have been badly neutered in the last 10 years so that they're all not that great. The exception to the rule is 1B4, if you can get in one of those units they do some interesting stuff. If not the only jobs I would consider are 3D0x2 (windows server admin with maybe some VMware) or 3D1x2 (CCNA type stuff with some telecom). All the rest of the jobs are not that great, 3D0x3 may be worthwhile if you are gunning for being a hands-off CISSP policy person. The problem with all the jobs is that they have centralized control of the network to the NOSC/DISA, so at the base level you don't get to do much. The network also sucks because they did this and you have a pissed off base populace that you can't do much to help. The real growth is in the cyber units (1B4), so if you want to have a meaningful contribution that is where to go. As far as 17Ds go, they are not typically hands on unless they are one of the few of us that work doing something cool on the outside (Raphael mudge comes to mind). There are some interesting opportunities in the cyber units if you know where to look. Going for 17D, biggest thing is the technical degree although an enlisted comm afsc could help.

17D_Guy come join the Guard. It's the best of both worlds. Six figure income, no PCS and you get to do cool stuff on the weekends. Google "Cyber Shield exercise" for examples.

There are plenty of Guard units that fly RPAs, Syracuse NY, Springfield OH, Willow Grove PA and others. You're going to need to do some research if their hiring boards aren't listed on their sites.

If the Reserves works like the Air Guard then you get assigned another job if you wash out of UPT. I've known a number of people who have done that and had successful careers in another career field. I wouldn't worry about washing out of OTS as long as you come in decent shape and don't quit, it's not a weed-out course.

E3 is the highest grade you can get in the Air Guard. If you really want to get commissioned you might want to look at Army Guard OCS, the age limit might be higher.

You are correct, you have to serve 5 years as a civilian to qualify for a FERS retirement. Any time you buy back doesn't count toward getting you that 5 years and qualifying you for a FERS retirement. You can't walk in off the street, buy back 5 years and then immediately qualify for a retirement. I don't have the reference as it's buried somewhere in the byzantine OPM regulations - contact your state HRO and they should be able to provide it.