I'm going to be blatantly honest with you about my time in the Navy and Navy Reserve. I'm no recruiter, just an ordinary guy looking to lay it all out for you.
There are many reasons you might be reading this, but I hope to answer most questions you might have about my experience, whether you're looking to join or just curious.
For this post, I want to focus most of my energy talking about the Navy Reserve and how that works. I did go through boot camp and spent about 6 months in follow-on training. If you want some of my thoughts on that, I actually wrote another post a while back on that subject.
After I finished my 2 months of boot camp and 6 months of job specific training (in beautiful San Diego, CA), it was back to normal life for me. The advantage of being in the reserves is that you essentially get to go back to normal life at the end of your training period, with the exception of drilling 2 days a month with 1, 2-week trip required every year.
At the time that I got out of training, it was back to college for me to finish up classes. Another advantage that the Navy Reserve provided was a few extra hundred dollars a month for college from the Reserve GI Bill. With that along with the about $200 a month in weekend drill pay, a college student could expect about $500 a month from being in the reserves.
Now, those aren't the reasons I joined the Navy Reserve, but for many, they are – to me, they were just a bonus perk. I was first drawn to the reserves by the capability of being able to take a semester off of school, join the military, get paid and save money, and then come back and complete my degree. While I was stressed many times in my initial training period wondering whether I would ever make it back to school, it all ended up working out.
Those first months to years of training are essentially active duty from the standpoint of pay and how you are treated, but life is quite different than someone not in a training status. When I got to my reserve center close to my home, I filled out some paperwork and was sent back to live on my own, only to be required to show up once a month.
The first few months of reserve duty was paperwork and classes to understand what reserve life is like. When your only exposure to the Navy so far has been seudo-active duty, it can be hard to understand how relaxed reserve duty is. To clarify further for those who are unfamiliar, reserve duty is on a Saturday and Sunday each month, from about 7 am to 5 pm. It's like a normal job on the weekends and in the evenings you get to go home if you live close enough.
After completing the "indoc" classes for my reserve center, I was transferred to what is called a support unit. This unit served as my transitional unit before I found a more permanent unit with people in my specific job or rating.
Bonus fun facts to keep you interested:
- I've never set foot on a Navy Ship
- I've only ever swum once during my time with the Navy
I get the question a lot of "what do you do when you drill for the reserves?"
I would like to say we do military things, work out, and otherwise prepare for life on active duty. For the 6 months I was in my support unit, my most productive days were spent filling out paperwork or doing homework on my laptop. This wont be the experience for everyone, but this is what it was like for me. Once I found a unit of people who were trained in my rating, things got much better.
I was assigned to a unit of other "mineman," which is my job – meaning we are trained to build naval mines. We were and are a small group, so I quickly made friends and started to enjoy being in the reserves again. Since we were a small unit, it meant that each of us had more responsibilities, so drill weekends flew by much faster. Now, still being in this unit, drill weekends consist of a bunch of "collateral duties" I have to accomplish on drill weekend but there is still downtime. Even still, drill weekend is like a 9-5 on the weekends. Also, civilian employers are required to give you drill weekends off and still retain you – in case you thought my boss would never let me do that. (They also have to allow you to go through initial training and promise you a job, assuming you're full time.)
For most of the year, reserve duty means sacrificing 1 weekend a month for working on a military base. It may sound cool, but drill weekends really aren't much more than administrative work, for MOST units and people.
The fun really comes when you go on what is called AT or "additional training." This is the mandatory 2 week a year trip that you take with your unit or sometimes on your own. During this time, you get a taste of active duty again with some major perks. For most that go on AT, you go to the active duty command that your reserve unit supports. For me, that means I got to Guam every year. Now, the military doesn't have room on base for all the reservists that come each year, so they put you up in a hotel. For my unit, we stay in the Hilton Resort right on the beach in Guam. This is perk number 1. To clarify, this isn't going to be the experience of every AT, but I'd say at least over 50 percent.
The Navy pays for your airfare, your hotel, and gives you about ~$80 a day in per deum, depending on location to live off of – all major perks. They also pay you active duty salary (not that that is a lot of money, though - for junior enlisted, about 1000 for 2 weeks). In case you think you can't take off work, your employer legally has to allow you to take this 2-week trip without taking away other vacation time. While we are in Guam, our unit works 12 hour days in a warehouse. It's not easy work, but we have nice accommodations when we have off time. All in all, AT is like a cross between a hard work trip with some fun minor vacation time thrown in on the weekends. It's a nice way to travel for free, without being on active duty.
This is reserve life, but the second biggest question I get asked is, "Are you going to get deployed?"
Deployment is always the fear that people who think about joining the reserve have. For me, while I was finishing my degree, I was afraid of getting deployed and it messing up my ability to finish school. This fear certainly has grounds, but not to the degree I expected. In the reserves, if you want to go on an active duty assignment, you can choose to. Most people in the reserves that get deployed choose to. For our active duty counterparts, where they go often gets assigned to them with little choice. For reservists, we can choose if we want to get deployed and when, but there's also no obligation to do so.
Theoretically speaking, there could be a reservist who is on deployment for years if they choose. The only difference is that when their orders are up, they either get to go home to their reserve center or choose another place to go on deployment. There's choice involved in the reserves. I have not met anyone who has been involuntarily recalled to active duty in the reserves, although it does happen. Getting involuntarily called up happens to about 1% of all reservists and depends heavily on the type of job you are trained in.
To summarize, I probably won't get deployed unless I want to, or if a major war begins. For many who want that active duty "fun" and experience, they can simply choose to do so at a time of their pleasing. I can safely say that for MOST reservists, deployment is not a threat. If, however, you are trained in a combat job or one in demand, your threat of deployment is much higher.
That's about all the rambling I can do right now on this subject. If you have ANY question at all, please leave it below. I'd love to give everyone deeper insight into how the reserves work and help you figure out what's right for you. The last thing I want you to do is lock yourself into a military contract and hate your life. Or, on the other hand, not join the reserves and wish you had.
P.S. I'll be real about any negatives about the reserves and also any positives in the comments. I wanted to keep the post somewhat neutral-ish with good and bad, but if you ask me specific questions, I'll give harsher or better realities. Also, feel free to pose specific situations and I'll try to address what might be right for you.
A picture of me and my unit at on a recent trip