Mobilizations, when did you tell your employer?

[Hail_HYDRA!]

Promotion boards aren't just people in your community.

What looks better? Someone on active duty supporting the Navy doing real world work or someone doing 3 weeks of AT per year and herding cats? Nothing wrong with being a DH doing weekend warrior stuff. But, someone doing ADOS is doing much more than almost any SELRES. That counts for something.

Then just go active. I keep hearing this kind of guidance and yes it is great for the Navy, but in all practicality where are folks priorities in terms of that three legged stool (family, civilian career, and USNR). I mean, if that works for folks to put the Navy first above all things, then more power to you. But to suggest this is the way or trend for success is the pendulum swinging to the extreme in the other direction if this is what is going to be valued in community briefs.

 

[SELRES_AMDO]

Then just go active. I keep hearing this kind of guidance and yes it is great for the Navy, but in all practicality where are folks priorities in terms of that three legged stool (family, civilian career, and USNR). I mean, if that works for folks to put the Navy first above all things, then more power to you. But to suggest this is the way or trend for success is the pendulum swinging to the extreme in the other direction if this is what is going to be valued in community briefs.

I didn't make the rules. I just play the game put in front of me. Some people value their civ career. Some value their Navy career. Some try to balance both as best they can.

We can argue about promotion precepts all day. But, in the end the Navy is promoting people for their organization and couldn't care less about someone's personal life and civilian career. That's just the way it is. And some people are willing to burn up their civ career in hopes of putting on O-6. More power to them.

Why should the Navy not value reservists willing to be on active duty supporting their missions?

 

[Hail_HYDRA!]

I didn't make the rules. I just play the game put in front of me. Some people value their civ career. Some value their Navy career. Some try to balance both as best they can.

We can argue about promotion precepts all day. But, in the end the Navy is promoting people for their organization and couldn't care less about someone's personal life and civilian career. That's just the way it is. And some people are willing to burn up their civ career in hopes of putting on O-6. More power to them.

Why should the Navy not value reservists willing to be on active duty supporting their missions?

You just put a damn fork in that argument. It is done! ?

All jokes aside, fair points and 100% concur on your argument. Now, back to injecting my b.s., I’d rather do a MOB vice ADSW, but if I were to be let go for whatever reason ADSW would keep me afloat, pun intended, until I got my life in order.

 

[Randy Daytona]

The pension is a big plus too, especially when most of the aviators I know were at or a little more than halfway there when they joined the reserves and the next 10 years goes a lot faster than the first. Most guys in my unit are looking at $3000 or more in pension a month starting at 55-59 years old for a total close to $1 million if you live as long as average, not too shabby.

To add on to Flash, I hope the senior guys are providing mentorship to both the newly commissioned as well as to the company grade. There are some people here well versed in stock market as well as real estate who can elaborate upon the pros and cons to a much greater extent; I hope they will find time to post their expertise. As for me, my plan is a 4 legged stool: social security, a 401k, some rental houses to generate monthly income independent of the stock market, and a reserve pension.

 

[Hair Warrior]

Then just go active. I keep hearing this kind of guidance and yes it is great for the Navy, but in all practicality where are folks priorities in terms of that three legged stool (family, civilian career, and USNR). I mean, if that works for folks to put the Navy first above all things, then more power to you. But to suggest this is the way or trend for success is the pendulum swinging to the extreme in the other direction if this is what is going to be valued in community briefs.

Love the three-legged stool analogy. I've heard it for years and use it myself.

For me: long term ADSW/ADOS/ADT is a way to push pause (or snooze) on my civilian job for a while, and focus only on family and Navy.

You can get fired from a Navy job for repeatedly neglecting/shirking your DWE duties if your civilian job is super busy/stressful. You cannot get fired from your civilian job while you're on USERRA-protected military leave.

Just two ways of looking at a glass with 50% liquid and 50% air.

 

[Hail_HYDRA!]

Just two ways of looking at a glass with 50% liquid and 50% air.

50% scotch with 50% laughing gas?

 

[vxc961]

I’ve been going to the commissary my entire life and I’ve never seen bad vegetables or any other bad food in the commissary.

I’ve been going to the commissary since 1995 and (CONUS) have always fresher produce in town, dairy products that aren’t ultra-pasteurized, and a greater selection.

Item for item, there’s no doubt you can save money at the commissary (especially OCONUS).

The food at the commissary isn’t “bad”, but since about 1997 I’ve been willing to pay a bit more for “better”. I also rarely carry cash, so the “baggers work for tips only” thing is annoying.
I’m not saying you can’t or shouldn’t like the commissary, but it’s not my thing.

 

[vxc961]

Isn't it a max 36 months to qual for the designator? Once you get that done, you can go on ADOS and MOB, right? I know there's the separate qual for the IWO pin, but it doesn't block people from ADOS or MOB unless people bend the rules to be able to apply for MOB as an ENS.

Regarding designator-agnostic ADOS, I've been told it doesn't look so good come promotion boards in my community. The possibility of considering ADOS is still a few years off for me anyways, and ideally would be OCONUS.

This kind of goes back to Pags' point. Is 6 years to qualify before you can think of doing any of ADOS, MOB, change units, and 14 years after that of doing all Navy work possible to be competitive and not get FOS worth $1400 or so a month after 60? This being at the expense of millions of dollars of expected additional earnings in a particular field/industry due to ongoing career damage. Seems like a heck of a gamble for a guaranteed loss. That's assuming too that the status quo stays and the reserve retirement system doesn't get cut into given the way things have been trending.

These are all really good points. I think if you look at strictly from a dollar-for-dollar point of view, the reserves might not be worth it. You really have to weigh everything when telling your employer you’re popping smoke.

For me, it was a mix of the tangible and intangible. You can search my posts and see me complain all day long about the reserves, but:

-that extra check every month from drilling was really nice(especially when I was younger)
-I got to work with really cool people
-I got to travel to really cool places
-I got see/do really cool things
-I’d wanted to wear the uniform since I was five years old, and I got to do that. For me, it was important to “finish” by getting to retirement.
-I’ll happily take my “chicken feed” reserve retirement, since it means when I civ-retire (in my 50s) I can be be a little looser with my retirement savings since I know I’ll have another income stream soon.

Finally, most of the reserve units I’ve been in were a lot like the VFW or something; we could sit around, hang out, and talk about the cool $&!t we did when we were active duty.

 

[SlickAg]

I’ve been going to the commissary since 1995 and (CONUS) have always fresher produce in town, dairy products that aren’t ultra-pasteurized, and a greater selection.

Item for item, there’s no doubt you can save money at the commissary (especially OCONUS).

The food at the commissary isn’t “bad”, but since about 1997 I’ve been willing to pay a bit more for “better”. I also rarely carry cash, so the “baggers work for tips only” thing is annoying.
I’m not saying you can’t or shouldn’t like the commissary, but it’s not my thing.

A couple friend of ours used to give me a hard time because we didn’t shop at the commissary when we lived in Norfolk. They couldn’t understand how I was willing to pay SO much by going to the Harris Teeter a few blocks away. If Hungry Man frozen dinners and other such delightful meals are your bag, by all means, keep buying in bulk.

But we enjoyed riding our bikes or walking to the store, bringing our own bags and backpacks to transport our food home, and most importantly, not looking around and feeling depressed whilst shopping.

Oddly enough, this is the same couple who saved SO much money on groceries by shopping at the commissary, yet I had to cover the whole meal once when we went out to dinner with them because they couldn’t use their debit card to pay their share of the pizza and beer because payday was still a few days on the horizon.

 

[Griz882]

...Words...
“I'm looking at making well over half a million a year.”

Your particular case is a solid “good for you!” But, seeing that fewer than 3% of the American population make that kind of money and have excellent educations and capabilities it is kind of like Tom Brady making fun of a Little League players passing ability. That thing you do you pays you a lot of money, but not everyone is so fortunate even though their work may be equally, or more, valuable to society. For them an alternate income that has specific guarantees is well worth waving off the civvy boss a few times.

 

[nittany03]

Meanwhile in my status quo career, I'm still young and there's tons of room for title and compensation growth. Even if the highest I go career-wise is middle management in my particular field/industry, I'm looking at making well over half a million a year. It's a simple example of where I am and what's ahead for me since I'm getting long-winded but do the math.

Ever been passed up on a promotion that was communicated that you'd be getting and denied a very generous raise, bonus, and upwards of $100k in RSUs because of "concerns regarding focus" due to external activities (contrived, but what can you do)? That may have happened to me after commissioning.

TL;DR because this is getting long: While not financially ruinous, giving up making millions more than one otherwise would for the sake of a part-time gig is probably a questionable financial and life decision, and every friend and family member is more than happy to bring it up whenever the Navy gets brought up heh.

I'm guessing you work at a FAANG. Because I'm a techie too, and I can't think of anywhere else where that level of compensation for "middle management" is anywhere remotely possible. I'm happy for you, but this is an extreme outlier, and I'd be wary of describing it as the norm anywhere outside a few specialized situations that don't exist outside a few specific tech companies or the most senior of airline captains.

I'm an O-5 aviator living in Greater Seattle. That means when I'm on active duty, I'm pulling down a pro-rated paycheck of $165K pre-tax/$142K after tax. You need to be doing pretty freaking well in the civ world for your civ paycheck to equal or exceed that; go on PayScale or Glassdoor if you don't believe me. I realize that JOs and enlisted folks are going to have a different calculus, but if you're a career officer and you're at the point where you're worried that your SELRES pay isn't measuring up to your civ pay . . . you're doing pretty damned well for yourself either way.

 

[nodropinufaka]

No other service direct commissions officers outside of JAG, medical, or chaplain. And maybe now cyber.

All of the other services you can join and be an officer from the street in the Reserves. You just have to be willing to go to the training. National guard has a broken down OCS though.

You can absolutely join the Army and be an infantry officer in the National Guard right out of college. Same with USMCR.

 

[Hair Warrior]

All of the other services you can join and be an officer from the street in the Reserves. You just have to be willing to go to the training. National guard has a broken down OCS though.

You can absolutely join the Army and be an infantry officer in the National Guard right out of college. Same with USMCR.

I said direct commission. All require OCS/OTS, ROTC, or a service academy commissioning source, with the exceptions of JAG, medical, chaplain, or maybe cyber. Army and Marine reserve officers may go to active TBS, Ranger school, Airborne school, etc (and not some reserve variant course) so it kind of levels the playing field/ proficiency gap between AC-RC.

Yes, there are niche direct commissioning options out there in “line officer” fields like DCO SEAL... which is only available for SEALs.

 

[nodropinufaka]

@Hair Warrior

my point is why does intel, edo, or even supply corps warrant a direct commission?

Why can’t we just send people through ocs and NIOBC and then reserves? We would prob have a lot better retention.

They started this program for enlisted Navy reservists and it was called Non Prior Service Basic where you went to boot camp, a school, then home. It was brand new in 2004 and was a huge success. Time to bring it to officer ranks.

Intel, CW, IP, etc is hardly a specialized skill if 22 year old kids fresh from college do it everyday with no required major

 

[Hair Warrior]

Hey, you’re preaching to the choir. I think Navy DCO reservists should commission no more than a month before reporting to ODS - and that ODS is where they’ll get gained initially, get their uniforms, CAC card, Navy email, HIV blood draw, vaccines, PHA, first PRT, etc. At the end of ODS is where they would get their NOSC and unit assignments, and have the opportunity to get a quota for their career-specific training if they want to go soon.