Active or Reserve Military - Which One Will YOU Choose?


by Alan King - Date: 2007-02-28 - Word Count: 465 Share This!

The US Armed Forces come in five branches, but each has a split between those who are active duty and those who are reservists. The US Army and US Air Force also have National Guard units under their control.

Active forces are full time servicemen and can expect to be given a wide variety of missions and to be the ones expected to respond to immediate needs around the world.

Reserve units are full of part time servicemen and are expected to support themselves with civilian jobs and still maintain their military skills to standard. National Guard units are similar, but have duties to their states as well as to their nation. Several units in the National Guard predate the creation of the United States.

There is typically a certain amount of friction between active and reserve components, though how much varies by service. Some have better or worse relations between their active and reserve members, but none are so strong as to cause operational issues. There is, however, a great deal of misunderstanding involved.

For instance, National Guardsmen are typically paid for two days for each day of work performed during the weekend a month on drill status. The active forces resent this. The National Guard has restricted access to the services and facilities the active duty takes for granted and normally drives for hours to each weekend without travel compensation. The Guard also normally doesn't accrue leave and doesn't expect much time off, due to compressed schedules.

In service schools which feature students from both active and reserve components, this tends to quickly result in increased mutual respect as each brings assets and skills the other lacks. In operations other than war, the diverse backgrounds of reserve component units is quite valuable as a need to check road conditions will be met with men who do that job for their home county, or checking a school to see if it can reopen will be done by teachers, carpenters, masons, electrician, plumbers and principals. Active units, on the other hand, will typically have more time operating their equipment and can provide advice on less than obvious tricks to keep things working better, or will have practiced more obscure missions which reserve units will seldom perform.

Both share some issues. Military life can be very disruptive to life outside of the armed services. Both active and reserve servicemen will have to deal with these issues, whether it is the difficulty of creating a personal life while on active duty or putting one into storage for activation when a reservist.

It is also worth noting that many who serve only a few years on active duty find that joining a reserve component unit afterwards is a way to keep the camaraderie of military service while also getting on with other plans for life.


Related Tags: services, active, reserve, armed forces, branches

For more information on the US military please check out the author's site at http://usmilitary.com

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