Chances of Being Deployed Nat'l Guard

[dornel87]

Pretty straight forward question:

I'm prior Active, now currently CA Nat'l guard AMMO troop for the past couple of years.  I was wondering what are the chances of being deployed in the Nat'l Guard if shit went down, like a war with N. Korea or some kind of conflict?  And let's say if my unit doesn't get deployed during a time of conflict, can I volunteer to go active? 

Thanks!

Edited December 27, 2017 by dornel87

[brabus]

There's always the option of deploying with another wing...I'd be surprised if any wing out there who was tasked doesn't have at least one AMMO dude who would rather stay behind and would be happy for you take his place.  Tell your leadership what you want to do and they can keep an ear out for opportunities.

[EvilEagle]

Surprised you didn't put this in the ANG section.  

 

There aren't enough fighters, bombers and tankers to get a full-scale mission done (like N. Korea) without ANG pitching in.  Some of us would go - varies unit to unit and where you lie on your next AEF rotation.  If something kicks off short notice in PACAF and you are out the door in a month to CENTCOM, you are likely still going on your original tasking.  If you just came back, you are likely not going, etc.  You can volunteer to go with another ANG unit that's going.  

[herkbum]

Almost 26 yrs in the ANG and I’ve never been anywhere that I didn’t volunteer to go. 

[matmacwc]

I've seen forced group mobilization (Bama ANG, but they earned F-35's out of it) but never individuals unless they ask.  A big shooting match would probably change the entire dynamic.

Edited December 27, 2017 by matmacwc

[SocialD]

12 hours ago, matmacwc said:

I've seen forced group mobilization (Bama ANG, but they earned F-35's out of it) but never individuals unless they ask.  A big shooting match would probably change the entire dynamic.

Well technically speaking, all our deployments, including TSPs, are group involuntary mobilizations (not just Bama).  However, not every pilot is required to go, we just have to fill the trip, which could even come from outside help.  The individual just gets to decide if they want to go voluntary or involuntary...which is like picking between the fat one or the the ugly one (wrt to benefits received).  

Also, if you look outside of ops, there are actually quite a few individual involuntary mobilizations.  We've recently had troops from Supply, Medical, CE and likely soon a Chief, get mobilized for 6 months to a year.  On the plus side, they leave it up to the base to decide who goes from that section, and they're usually filled with a volunteer.

[HeyWatchThis]

16 hours ago, matmacwc said:

I've seen forced group mobilization (Bama ANG, but they earned F-35's out of it) but never individuals unless they ask.  A big shooting match would probably change the entire dynamic.

 

3 hours ago, SocialD said:

Well technically speaking, all our deployments, including TSPs, are group involuntary mobilizations (not just Bama).  However, not every pilot is required to go, we just have to fill the trip, which could even come from outside help.  The individual just gets to decide if they want to go voluntary or involuntary...which is like picking between the fat one or the the ugly one (wrt to benefits received).  

Also, if you look outside of ops, there are actually quite a few individual involuntary mobilizations.  We've recently had troops from Supply, Medical, CE and likely soon a Chief, get mobilized for 6 months to a year.  On the plus side, they leave it up to the base to decide who goes from that section, and they're usually filled with a volunteer.

Is this something fairly new (individual involuntary mobilization?) for the guard/reserve?  I thought the whole point of a mobilization was so it wasn't easy for AD to Chuck the grenade over the fence at the guard/reserve which is why they are "supposed" to mobilize squadrons/wings and not individuals.  Its suppose to be a last option that is costly and weighed heavily...I've been wrong once before though...

[EvilEagle]

Yep, new suck getting spread around to the ANG now.  They are calling them "small group deployments" - my wife's CE squadron got a bunch for FY18.  Nothing for Ops or Mx yet - just give it time.  

[SocialD]

On 12/27/2017 at 2:21 PM, HeyWatchThis said:

Is this something fairly new (individual involuntary mobilization?) for the guard/reserve?  I thought the whole point of a mobilization was so it wasn't easy for AD to Chuck the grenade over the fence at the guard/reserve which is why they are "supposed" to mobilize squadrons/wings and not individuals.  Its suppose to be a last option that is costly and weighed heavily...I've been wrong once before though...

Not all that new, but like Evil said, it's not made it's way to Ops or MX yet.  This is in the Guard...I've heard it's already made it to OPS in the AF Reserve.  

 

23 hours ago, EvilEagle said:

Nothing for Ops or Mx yet - just give it time.  

Yup, and they think they have a pilot shortage problem now!  Just wait until they start telling guys they're going to take a $100k paycut to go build powerpoint slides/fight off being cheifed at the Deid.  I'm guessing we'd lose ~25% (minimum) of the squadron over night, if this shit started. 

[HeyWatchThis]

20 hours ago, SocialD said:

Not all that new, but like Evil said, it's not made it's way to Ops or MX yet.  This is in the Guard...I've heard it's already made it to OPS in the AF Reserve.  

 

Yup, and they think they have a pilot shortage problem now!  Just wait until they start telling guys they're going to take a $100k paycut to go build powerpoint slides/fight off being cheifed at the Deid.  I'm guessing we'd lose ~25% (minimum) of the squadron over night, if this shit started. 

I can confirm it is happening in the reserves.  Travis got 5 deployments  and lost 6 dudes because of it who turned paperwork in...WP just got one as well....

Here's the even better thing about them...they are calling them "emergent" taskings which means they can drop them on wings/squadrons whenever they want.....Meaning the deployments don't even have to fall during the wing/squadrons deployment window....Makes life planning fantastic....Already heard multiple guys discussing dropping paperwork before hitting 20 yrs because of this....

Edited December 30, 2017 by HeyWatchThis

[FUSEPLUG]

So are these taskings going to full-timers? Part-timers? Either?

[Chuck17]

So why the heck am I still active duty if there's no difference between that and the ANG?

In all seriousness gents (and speaking strictly for the C-17 and C-130 communities here) this is an idea that IS going to hit ops sooner or later. There are former-Herk-now-C-17 units out there that are touting unit/partial/individual mob and "voluntold-ism" as a way to get their units/crews street cred, get them in the game. For every one you have saying "this isn't what we want" you have more O-6s saying "we should do this!" - and Im not just talking about the flying four month rotation gigs, Im talking everything that goes along with them. It's just odd that now that we have a retention crisis and are trying to do something about it, we are taking actions that will likely decrease retention out the gate. Bizarre.

Interesting times. Just wait for the COMREL changes on the horizon... It's a brave new world.

Chuck

[Guest]

5 hours ago, HeyWatchThis said:

I can confirm it is happening in the reserves.  Travis got 5 deployments  and lost 6 dudes because of it who turned paperwork in...WP just got one as well....

Here's the even better thing about them...they are calling them "emergent" taskings which means they can drop them on wings/squadrons whenever they want.....Meaning the deployments don't even have to fall during the wing/squadrons deployment window....Makes life planning fantastic....Already heard multiple guys discussing dropping paperwork before hitting 20 yrs because of this....

 

1 hour ago, Chuck17 said:

So why the heck am I still active duty if there's no difference between that and the ANG?

In all seriousness gents (and speaking strictly for the C-17 and C-130 communities here) this is an idea that IS going to hit ops sooner or later. There are former-Herk-now-C-17 units out there that are touting unit/partial/individual mob and "voluntold-ism" as a way to get their units/crews street cred, get them in the game. For every one you have saying "this isn't what we want" you have more O-6s saying "we should do this!" - and Im not just talking about the flying four month rotation gigs, Im talking everything that goes along with them. It's just odd that now that we have a retention crisis and are trying to do something about it, we are taking actions that will likely decrease retention out the gate. Bizarre.

Interesting times. Just wait for the COMREL changes on the horizon... It's a brave new world.

Chuck

It is as if Blue is almost ready again to push stop loss out of the closet. She has tried before (cue Everhart's earlier testing of the waters) and I wonder how many reserve and ANG it will take dropping papers before this experiment also turns into "look congress we tried"

[Inertia17]

[SocialD]

17 hours ago, Chuck17 said:

So why the heck am I still active duty if there's no difference between that and the ANG?

In all seriousness gents (and speaking strictly for the C-17 and C-130 communities here) this is an idea that IS going to hit ops sooner or later. There are former-Herk-now-C-17 units out there that are touting unit/partial/individual mob and "voluntold-ism" as a way to get their units/crews street cred, get them in the game. For every one you have saying "this isn't what we want" you have more O-6s saying "we should do this!" - and Im not just talking about the flying four month rotation gigs, Im talking everything that goes along with them. It's just odd that now that we have a retention crisis and are trying to do something about it, we are taking actions that will likely decrease retention out the gate. Bizarre.

Interesting times. Just wait for the COMREL changes on the horizon... It's a brave new world.

Chuck

I can't speak to the heavy community, other than what my buddies pass along, but this would not surprise me one bit.  On our last TSP, we had a chance to sit down with Gen Welsh, in a pilots only, "bar talk" style setting.  At the time we were already tasked with our next "deployment," which was another TSP (we're now tasked with our 3rd TSP in a row), so one of our guys asked why we were doing things and not going to desert to fight ISIS.   His response..."your TAGs are asking for these TSPs..."  Yes TAGs, we all would much rather spend time away from our families and take a 35-40% pay cut, to go sit on our asses and fly training lines.  TSPs are what have guys in our squadron leaning toward punching.  We've already had one bail to preds, and even our young guys have become jaded...some have even bailed to the regionals to get their hours boosted for the majors.      

What is COMREL?

[Right Seat Driver]

54 minutes ago, SocialD said:

     What is COMREL?

Command Relationships. Think OPCON, TACON etc. Rumor is Mother AMC is looking to drastically change the way heavy units are tasked, to include the ANG and AFRC.

[mcbush]

Any further details on that? Some of us younger bucks have to make a decision on opting into the BRS next week, and this kind of thing definitely carries a lot of weight...

[ViperMan]

3 hours ago, mcbush said:

Any further details on that? Some of us younger bucks have to make a decision on opting into the BRS next week, and this kind of thing definitely carries a lot of weight...

PSA, no one needs to make a decision until the 31 Dec 2018. So don't rush yourself.

[mcbush]

You know, I actually hadn’t considered that an extra year’s worth of information might be worth leaving a little money on the table. Good point.

[HeyWatchThis]

On 12/29/2017 at 9:29 PM, FUSEPLUG said:

So are these taskings going to full-timers? Part-timers? Either?

Either as far as I know..... it hits the wing/squadron and they decide from there who fills it....

[EvilEagle]

Can go to full or part timers. It does re-hack your mob-to-dwell clock. (Or so we’ve been told)

[Buddy Spike]

12 hours ago, EvilEagle said:

Can go to full or part timers. It does re-hack your mob-to-dwell clock. (Or so we’ve been told)

Is the guard getting IAs like AFRC and Navy Reserve?