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Confused about Reserve vs. Active duty

FutureMarine311

New Member
Many different sites on the internet give different information about this. (Your reserve or active duty obligations to Navy/MC once you are commissioned).

Some say you have an 8 year obligation, 4 of which are mandatory active duty, the other can be active duty or reserve.

Some say you must be reserve for your officer career (hence reserve officer training corps).

Some say you will be active duty your entire career.

Can anyone clear this up real quick?
 

snake020

Contributor
Typically, the commitment following ROTC is 8 years: at least 4 years on active duty and 4 years in the reserve (active or IRR) if you choose to separate from active duty.

Your mileage may vary based on your job (submariners/aviators have extra time) as well as if there is stop loss that gets implemented later which would prevent you from separating from active duty.

As far as being a "reserve" officer, the rules have changed. Everyone coming on active duty now comes in as a "regular" officer. Used to be you were considered "reserve" even if full time active duty until around the time you made O-4 and got offered a "regular" commission. From what I understand, the "regular" guys were more protected against a reduction in force, which seems like it's a total farce given the air farce's force shaping of its "regular" officers now.
 

usmcmaximus

New Member
If you take an NROTC scholarship, you are committed to four years Reserve time and four years Active duty time. The four years Reserve are the four years spent at college as a Navy Option or Marine Option Midshipman. Even though you are only a midshipman, you are technically considered a reservist as you will undergo summer training each summer during the course of your college tenure. Upon completion of college, you will be commissioned active duty in either the USN or USMC.

On the Marine side of the house, you will have a four year commitment if you opt to go ground and pursue a career in any of the 22 ground MOS. If you go air, your commitment is dependent upon whether you go rotary or fixed wing. For rotary, it is six years commitment from the day you are winged. For fixed wing, it is eight years.

I hope this helps. Personally, I would opt for ROTC over PLC since ROTC covers your tuition, books, and at some schools, room is paid for as well. Plus, you get a monthly stipend. So, the monetary benefits are pretty considerable.
 

zippy

Freedom!
pilot
Contributor
If you take an NROTC scholarship, you are committed to four years Reserve time and four years Active duty time. The four years Reserve are the four years spent at college as a Navy Option or Marine Option Midshipman...

Bad info.

4yrs active, and another 4 reserve is the minimum obligation upon commissioning. Your rotc time doesnt count towards your your obligation. Interestingly enough those days that you are on AD for training on summer cruise, can be counted for points for a reserve retirement. Not 100% sure how one goes about getting that done though.
 

Fly Navy

...Great Job!
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
Bad info.

4yrs active, and another 4 reserve is the minimum obligation upon commissioning. Your rotc time doesnt count towards your your obligation.

Yes, thank you. That was terrible info. How did you commission usmcmaximus? If you were NROTC Marine Option, you were fed some bullsh!t.
 

gaetabob

Registered User
pilot
Interestingly enough those days that you are on AD for training on summer cruise, can be counted for points for a reserve retirement. Not 100% sure how one goes about getting that done though.
I got this from a brief I sat through during my years in the part-time Navy (i.e. a drilling reservist):

If you are able to furnish the required supporting documentation (orders, copies of deck log or ships diary) to:
Naval Reserve Personnel Center (Code N33)
4400 Dauphine Street
New Orleans, LA 70149-7800

retirement points will be credited. To locate supporting documentation:
Ship deck Logs/Ships diary/Muster Roll
Naval Historical Center Washington Navy Yard 805 Kidder Breese SE Washington Navy Yard, DC 20370-5060*

Website: http://www.history.navy.mil (Click on FAQ, then click Deck Log of Navy Ships, then click Deck Logs: Purpose and Content)

Include your NAME, SSN, Ship Title, the approximate dates of the cruises and the university attended while a Midshipman. There may be a cost involved for the requestor.

I hope this helps...
 

sbpilot

Registered User
Heres a scenario: lets say a midshipman gets comissioned upon graduation, and is selected for aviation, and ends up getting jets. How many years after college graduation would be spent in the Navy? Lets say that person is 21 when they graduate, so when could that person expect to finish with the Navy? Also, how many of those years are spent actually flying? I know there are shore tours involved in the 8 year comittment, but do you do anything during your shore tours to stay "current" in the jet? Slightly confused... :confused:
 

Fly Navy

...Great Job!
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
Heres a scenario: lets say a midshipman gets comissioned upon graduation, and is selected for aviation, and ends up getting jets. How many years after college graduation would be spent in the Navy? Lets say that person is 21 when they graduate, so when could that person expect to finish with the Navy? Also, how many of those years are spent actually flying? I know there are shore tours involved in the 8 year comittment, but do you do anything during your shore tours to stay "current" in the jet? Slightly confused... :confused:

I'll give you my situation.

Commissioned May 2003.

Winged March 2006.

My 8 year commitment didn't start until winging (standard for pilots/NFO). By the time my commitment is up, I'll have about 11 years in. I'll be 32 years old.
 

Brett327

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
To pile on, it's impossible to predict how much flying one might do during the initial commitment. It's possible (though not likely) to have flying orders all the way through your DH tour. It's also possible to fly for your first tour, then not fly again until your DH tour (5 year gap with no flying). It's also conceivable that you'll fly your first tour, then never fly again (lackluster performance and no DH screen). Bottom line, most people are somewhere in the middle of those scenarios, and if you're worrying about a year or two here and there, you're probably in the wrong business.

Brett
 

midshipmanx

New Member
Okay folks, there is a lot of cross information being confused here. As someone that was on active duty and made the transition to the reserves let me clarify some things.

1. All officers, regardless of commissioning source are now commissioned as full active duty (USN) not active reserves (USNR)

2. If you were an NROTC midshipman, you can indeed get credit for your midshipman cruise time as was very accurately explained in a previous post (with applicable addresses). However, please note that this pertains to retirement points only, not for service obligation time as partial years don't count (you would be hard pressed to get a qualifying year with only midshipman cruises).

3. Everyone entering the Navy, Enlisted or Officer (regarless of commissioning source) has an 8 year committment. This can be any combination of Active or Reserve time. However, you often have minimum active duty requirements based on your commissioning source, designator or, for enlisted, for the contract agreement you sign based on your rate (for instance Nuke enlisted have a 6 year active duty requirement meaning their inactive requirement would only be 2 years if they decided not to reenlist). One thing I heard that was incorrect. An aviator said that their 8 year committment didn't commence until they got their wings. This is not true. However, your active duty commitment does not commence until you get your wings. So, for aviators, I think it's a 5 year active duty commitment or something once you get your wings...whatever it is, your other active duty time still chips away at your overall 8 year service requirement. That 8 years is just that, 8 years of service combined active and reserve time. So, for that guy that served 11 years, you are more than covered.

Now, if you get done your active duty time and you find that you have not yet completed 8 years of combined service, never fear, you don't have to start drilling as a reservist. However, you are automatically entered into the Individual Ready Reserve. The only committment, technically, as a member of the IRR is that you are required to update the Navy of any changes in address. However, few people do this. You are of course, subject to active duty recall at any time. When your 8 years is up, you are supposed to get a letter in the mail thanking you for your service and informing you that you have been released from the IRR. However, if you don't update your address with them (meaning your address is different from when you left active duty) then you won't get the letter.

Now, retirement points, like I mentioned before, as an NROTC midshipman (sorry service academy guys, no go on the cruise thing) you can get retirement point credit for your cruises provided you can provide documentation stating you were actually doing a midshipman cruise. This counts for retirement points only. Day for day. So, if you did a 14 day cruise, you would get 14 retirement points. Cool, huh? but what does that mean? Well, it means that IF you decide to make the Navy a career and retire or you become a drilling reservist, you can get those points and add them to your retirement percentage. But, that's only 14/360ths of a year so you aren't getting a lot of percent (at 2.5%/full year). But if you do a few, you might get a quarter percent added to your retirement. If you don't retire from the Navy, then that midshipman cruise time isn't worth the hassle to get credit for because, as I said, it doesn't actually hack away at your service time obligation. Only complete years count.

Oh, you will know if you have any reserve obligation upon discharge because it will say so on your DD-214. Just read it carefully.

I hope this helps.

LT, USNR
 

kmac

Coffee Drinker
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
One thing I heard that was incorrect. An aviator said that their 8 year committment didn't commence until they got their wings. This is not true. However, your active duty commitment does not commence until you get your wings. So, for aviators, I think it's a 5 year active duty commitment or something once you get your wings...whatever it is, your other active duty time still chips away at your overall 8 year service requirement. That 8 years is just that, 8 years of service combined active and reserve time. So, for that guy that served 11 years, you are more than covered.

I don't believe that you are correct on that one. All NA (and from the sound of it NFOs) have an 8 year commitment from the time of wings. That's the contract.

Am I misunderstanding your statement?
 

SLB

New Member
None
Just to add to this, a person can go to Bupers on-line, log-in, and then click on the link ARPR/ASOSH on-line. Then click on ASOSH. This is your Annual Statement of Service History. When I first did this I found that my midshipman cruises were already credited toward my retirement points without me doing a thing. So check that first before writing to the Res personnel center.

SLB
 

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
midshipmanx, I must say that your choice of username (when you registered this year) is a bit confusing sir ;)
 

SLB

New Member
None
KMAC,
I think what he meant was your 8 year commitment is served concurrenlty along with any community related commitments. For instance: once commmissioned you have to serve 8 years. If you go aviation you will have an 8 year commitment after you get your wings. However, the time spent in flight school counts as your 8 year commitment to Uncle Sam. The 8 years required after flight school is the commitment you promised to become a NA. So you could spend 2 years in flight school and then have only 6 years left of required service, but have to spend 8 total years active as a NA from the time you got your wings. Therefore, you can get out after your commitment is done for being a NA, and you won't owe anything to Uncle Sam because you went two years beyond your requirement of 8 years service.

Clear as mud?

SLB
 

kmac

Coffee Drinker
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
Got it, and still is irrelevant. Thanks for clarifying SLB.
 
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