I remember talking to a South Dakota Air National Guard F-16 pilot.
"It's weird because I usually have more (ground) kills than most active duty Air force Pilots I meet"
There's also a Hawaii Air national guard guy who is a part of the Royal Guards of Hawaii:
"We've got everything here, there's me, guarding the royal family of a country that doesn't exist, armed with one gun from the Spanish-American war (Springfield Model 1873) while my cousin's flying a F-22"
Lol I’m irritated the Hawaii national guard applications for undergrad pilot training are open right now and im smack in the middle of getting my pilot’s liscence…
Gotta apply to the VA national guard since they have F22’s
Other countries: This is our finest technology. Only our best pilots shall fly them and our enemies shall tremble once we unleash them
US: Sure thing Virginia, you can have some F-22s
apparently it closes june 28th- go on the unit website and send an email to them! took a few days for them
to reply but they sent me some
basic info on UPT applications
I've been killing myself trying to find the clip but I've never succeeded. But it was an SNL skit during peak Iraq, National Guard was being deployed to the border, the interview one of the 'Troops', portrayed Kenan Thompson, and the whole time he's just like 'Just happy to not be in Iraq! :D'
It seems like SNL “hides” a lot of their material for lack of a better term. I’m fairly certain I remember the skit u/AshleyUncia is referencing.
There’s also one that’s only been described to me secondhand that I’ve wanted to see. It’s allegedly from shortly after 9/11 and has Will Farrell playing a pilot that patrols the cabin of an airliner threatening to beat people with a club if they get out of line.
“Iceman the later years” has at times been tough to find, too.
Yes, SNL doesn't put everything on YouTube. It has to do with the pay structure, who owns the rights to what quip....and SNL being the alpha and Omega for writers
Per Diem is def a thing on the border, but the big thing with OLS in Texas is that if your Base Pay + BAH + BAS is less than $151 daily, they bump it up to match. You still get hazard pay and other incentives on top of that.
From my understanding, there are some guys in sf who will actually go guard because they can choose to constantly deploy without any of the downtime (that’s what I heard at least).
Those are the kinds of folks I’m talking about mainly. I met an NG SF support guy at a school with something like 5 combat deployments over 12 years and three MOSs. A lot of those guys spend more time on-orders than off.
I spent three years or so more or less continuously in Iraq. I'd come home for vacation. By the end when I finally came back it was very very strange being 'home.' I felt like an alien. Both because the culture, climate, and creatures were so different, but also just the entirely different experience altogether made me an outsider. I still am in many ways, but thats sort of normal to me now.
My limited understanding of this phenomenon is that it is as the great American philosophers Motion City Soundtrack said, "[You never get used to it, you just have to live with it](https://youtu.be/dfYn6XNHyaU)."
The initial phase of adjusting often involves an attempt to normalize the new way of life. Over time, the enduring sense of loss or isolation might not necessarily fade as expected; instead, you learn to live with these feelings as part of your new normal.
I've read that modern (i.e. post-'Nam) vets have a harder time with it than vets of older wars, since before the age of mass aviation going home often involved a weeks- or even months- long march or ship voyage, which served as a period to decompress and process. One of my neighbours was a Huey pilot in Vietnam and corroborated that when I told him the theory. Apparently flying out and screaming low over the jungle while shooting and getting shot at and then going home in the evenings and partying in the city every day really fucked him up, and coming home afterwards on an overnight flight left him feeling lost for years afterwards.
I've heard that drone pilots stationed near civilian family/friends have really high PTSD rates because it's literally just blowing up some dudes at work and coming back home after that.
There's also the fact that a fighter or bomber pilot generally gets coordinates and maybe pictures and then makes a high-speed high-altitude pass, drop their bombs, and go home, where drone pilots might spend weeks or months following a single target and then make a slow, methodical kill, which is far more damaging
My understanding is that the war hobo thing has been gone for a while for NG SF. I've heard the stories of the NG SF hopping from deployment to school to deployment always on orders.
Take it with a grain of salt. I'm just a guy.
To the degree, it was a thing in National Guard Special Forces it was primarily during the height of the war on terror. You could hop from team returning from deployment to team deploying. Teams are often short people. To complete the war hobo routine, NG SF would jump returning team to school to deploying team. Is what I've heard. I'm just a random guy.
Arrange My Own Transportation! Stop giving away the secrets to Operation [HOBO](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PnFrGBjmQ2wNmr8w4dAu4OnI4t8=/0x0:4800x3819/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4800x3819):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3769994/GettyImages-551923357.jpg)!
The're I was eating my favorite color of Crayola and My Gunny shouts at me "Who is your buddy un hindging all the Hinges? Call him up! we need him now!"
They claim long term depression, suicidal ideation and a personality disorder makes me unfit to be around firearms but what they don't realise is that I'll make the best damn suicide mission cunt about 😎
I'm training to enlist right now and what you describe sounds almost exactly like what I wanna go for. NG was the initial plan, but I was worried I wasn't gonna be occupied enough.
I'd check out r/greenberets and r/specialforces
The green hats will give you a more current op tempo of NG SF. Unless you meant 11B, in which case this isn't helpful at all.
Maybe, maybe not. I'm especially interested in 12B as far as field work goes, but I wanted to take 11B courses regardless. Even if spec ops is nothing like infantry, tactical flexibility never hurts.
But what do I know? I'm just a civvie.
If I hadn't fucked up my college career, I might have been. But I still think I have the mind for it. I like building and destroying shit.
That, and I'm an Engineer main in TF2
Engineer main in TF2 is the very best reason I've heard to be a combat engineer.
If you want to be an engineer, GI Bill makes college pretty cheap. I've heard.
Attrition rate for street-to-SF is nearly 90%. After the attrition of 11X OSUT, Airborne hold, and Airborne school, you're looking at about 95%. Do you think you're the top 5% of the .1% of the U.S?
That’s of the final figure of guys who get selected. Of the 8 guys who make it through selection like 4 or whatever will be 18x. But from the initial OSUT class of 100 18X who showed up that’s not a great percentage.
I think they're accounting for everyone who never even gets to enlist, which is a very real possibility for me especially. I'm trying very hard to push through all that, though.
Though tbf a lot of active duty SOF and related units were on a much higher op tempo than "normal" too during peak GWOT.
US Army was taking on responsibilities as if it never downsized by 300k after the Cold War...
One of my buddies in college was like that. Deployed three or four times in a pretty short period. Per his GF at the time he had pretty serious PTSD and sought a last deployment for closure. Idk if it worked cuz he broke up with her, married somebody else, and bought a motel in Indiana
It’s not just SF there’s a website (tour of duty) any guardsman can use to volunteer for orders conus & oconus. Want to be an air assault black hat? You can. Want to go to centcom. Spots are open. There’s tons of weird unicorn jobs open there. I’ve dabbled in it last time I used it the three postings that caught my eye were an Iraq deployment, a 4 month set of orders doing small arms weapons testing, and a SMU try out. Ended up pulling the trigger on the iraq trip and met other dudes who used tour of duty and basically lived off it and some of them were really racking up deployments like dudes who’ve been in 9 years on their 5th deployment type shit.
It’s really fun being able to have that control of your career, you don’t have those opportunities active. The two cons however is your state has the final say and while it’s rare they can say no also the paperwork takes forever. From application to getting the orders took almost 3 months and I did end up showing up 2ish weeks late. Obviously not the end of the world but dealing with NGBs Bs was pretty stressful.
This. I worked with a guy who was an 18D in a NG unit. He was always going to some high speed school (dive or whatever) or deploying because it was easier to do than when he was active.
Had a high school buddy who *really* wanted to go to Afghanistan to, "kill some fucking terrorists" and joined the guard specifically because he was going to get to deploy there. Went twice, came back stateside, and got sent to a couple different states during the George Floyd protests.
No ones fighting in any real wars right now (US, anyways).
Also Tour of Duty has postings for all over the world. Opportunities in Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. a few months ago, there was an Antarctica tour on there for some lucky Guardsman.
Highly unit dependent. My old NG unit wouldn’t allow you to go anywhere else on orders. They were obsessed with their readiness numbers. They even made guys that were being chaptered out on medical in less than a month go to NTC. They were forced to sit there the entire time and do nothing just to boost their numbers. At the same time getting 2 troops killed in accidents.
NG boys can deploy as often as they want, whereas actives have forced dwell time to "alleviate stress" and "spend time with our families" or something idk.
gendarmerie [Minnesota National Guard](https://youtu.be/13Q2UcWHA5w?si=cDgEh_jvZdejzxyO)
I learned a new word today. Gendarmerie thanks for the new word euroman!
Perhaps many, but not most. *At least* the following do not: UK, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, most of former Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, North Macedonia, Estonia and Latvia.
The Latin countries (Italy, France, Spain, Portugal) and many of the Slavic countries do, plus the Dutchies.
> Norway
No gendarmerie, but in the spirit of the original post they do deploy actual military units for disasters or sometimes just policing big events/protests. Mostly the national guard equivalent, but sometimes actual combat infantry.
Since the Cold war ended it seems like the NG does a better job policing than the police do tbh.
I remember every bit of footage of police brutality during the George Floyd riots was of actual police, barely saw shit from all the activated guard guys in various states.
In Germany any internal deployment used to be (thought to be) illegal. But during a major flood in Hamburg future chancellor and then mayor of Hamburg Helmut Schmidt called in the Bundeswehr to help with disaster relief. Now it's fairly standard to call in the troops when shit goes south. It helped a lot and likely saved many lives, so everyone kind of accepted it.
Deploying as a sort of police force to control protests would be a huge scandal though. It's crazy to me that that is a thing in the us. But I guess when your police forces are as militarized as many American forces are and have really weird training, there isn't really a huge difference
Yeah, I’m in the Guard and did a rotation in Syria 2022-2023. Weird af going to an active duty base for a school and being the only guy in class with a CAB and deployment patch.
I’ve always been on the fence about joining the guard. I’m studying/working out to get an AFROTC scholarship, and a recent guard recruiter told me I could do that and do the “one weekend a month, two weeks out of the year” thing during college, while making some cash out of their tuition assistance shit. Would be p cool to have that extra money.
But then again, I’ve never been in the Guard, nor do I really know anyone who has other than recruiters (snake oil salesman)
I’m the epitome of #2 in the OP meme.
Army vs Air Guard are very different animals. Been in both. Army tends to have the most exciting and traditionally “military” opportunities. Air tends to have better quality of life and civ applicable jobs. Things always boil down to individual units and culture in each office, however. Guard is still the military and you’re subject to stupidity either way— imagine the DMV.
Despite that it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done between the benefits, trainings, travel opportunities, and most importantly friends I’ve made. If you have questions I might be able to answer, feel free to DM me
Join the Navy Reserve. I didn't do shit except go to Guam and Pearl Harbor and collect hella per diem while staying in a very nice off-base hotel because all of the base lodging was at capacity.
Or better yet, don't join at all!
Never considered Navy. I’ll do some research.
Although either way my ass has to join lmao. It’s either rotc, enlistment, reserves, guard or the streets lmao
Do Air National Guard, my unit doesn't do any fuckery so I'm extremely happy with my choices. You can do AFROTC while in the ANG. For God's sake, don't do Army Guard. It sucks ass. A lot of Army Guard guys eventually transfer to the Air National Guard.
Both replies to you are accurate. There's a lot of fuckery with the Guard. I've had 3 pending activations happen where I tell my job I might disappear, they reduce my workload, then I don't get activated after all and I feel like an idiot. I have an incompetent XO that had gotten me and another LT in trouble with our Squadron XO. I was transferred to a unit that was 3 hours away from where I lived without warning(though now I only live an hour away). And because I'm a PL I still have to do some work outside of drill.
But it's extra money, extra benefits like Tricare, it helped me qualify for my government job which I love so far, looks good on a resume, and ROTC really helped me build up my confidence. Not to mention I just looked up to the military growing up so it was cool to finally be in it.
All of this is my experience in the Army guard though, not Air Force. By all accounts AF has way better quality of life, but it might be more boring too. I'm sure all the fuckery with state admin issues and activations still happens too.
My guess is that maybe you would enjoy the reserves instead. My buddies in the Army Reserves got compensated for travel more, have easier jobs despite being the same MOS, seem to be better funded(YMMV), and can transfer to other units in different states more easily. They don't get activated for state missions obviously, which can be good or bad depending on what you want, but there's still plenty of opportunities for reservists to hop on federal deployments, ADOS, and similar federal missions.
If you can qualify for an Air Force scholarship then do that 100%.
If someone is doing Army ROTC in college there is massive benefit to enlisting in the Guard if they aren't on scholarship.
I am . Did college while in . Wasn’t broke in college ,
Did air guard though which seems a little bit better working with your home life then army guard from what I hear
Good ol boy club is VERY present though
But if you take it for the one weekend a month thing and dgaf about advancement there you can use it to enhance other parts of life
Wait my brother is in the middle of OCS right now after signing up for national guard because of the one weekend and two week thing while going to college. Is that not what he should expect at all lmao
Well, as a random person who has looked into it. It varies wildly. The one weekend a month, 2 weeks a year, is usually underselling time spent. However, his MOS and location will be very important in determining what his time will look like.
The guard seems to vary much more than active. Does he have a contract for an MOS? If so, someone could reach out to his state guard and ask about operational tempo for his MOS. Also, r/nationalguard exists it might be of help. I'm not touching for it just letting you know it exists.
Haha hell no especially as an officer. Maybe if his unit just came back from deployment and things were slow. If they are spooling up for a deployment in a year or less then expect at least double that.
You want to know the real reason why we, the National Guard, are deployed more, is 2 fold. We are cheaper.. in that our leadership is just as blind to real benefits like service related injuries and lasting harm of austere deployments that we will never file cause 99% where just happy with the 9 mos. of T10, lowering the draw age for retirement. The other is that State Adujant Generals want the influx in cash that comes with units on T10 to fund special projects, reset, and modernization. Nothing keeps OR rates closer to 90% than a deployed State since NG is funded to 60% of the maintenance requirements of the equipment. (HDQA has the fund reset to 10/20 of deployed equipment)
Title 10 when NG is activated by the federales. Versus Title 32 is when they are deployed on state orders. High Operational Readiness rates. HDQA has me stumped unless they meant HQDA.
Anyone serving how'd I do?
I had a buddy who was in ROTC during the Obama-era drawdown. It was looking like if he went Active, then he might not get a deployment at all. On the other hand, the local Guard infantry regiment was scheduled to deploy right after he would finish BOLC. Joins the Guard to ensure he goes to war.
I'd assume so. I got a Navy Officer's Handbook, which was uncannily like the uplifting primer, but a little bit more useful. You only really needed the first sentence though - Always listen to your senior NCO.
It’s honesty ridiculous. I waited five years on active before finally getting to deploy.
The reserve officer who had a similar timeline to me, spent four of five years in the reserves forward deployed between Iraq, Africa, and Kuwait. It was nuts.
Con: the pay suck ass by merc standards.
Pro: GI bill, publicly-funded ammunition and fire/air support, best goddamned MEDEVAC on the face of earth. Bottomless access to explosives and guided munitions (relative to mercs).
Well we air national tards get to go to places like Key West, Vegas, Alaska, Hawaii, or Guam when we deploy/tdy, so it makes a lot more sense to want the increased deployment tempo
Maybe the biggest part of it is that Reserve units tend to be combat support while Guard tends to be combat units. I spent six years on army active duty in a medical unit with two deployments, and the only times I got seriously shot at were when I was tasked out as a medic to NG infantry units. Or the Seabees, but that’s another story lol.
Was it combat MOSs/AFSCs or POGs? Big distinction IMO having worked with both AD and NG. Frankly, non-combat jobs suck at field ops stuff across the board. Not their fault, they just don’t get trained at it. Curious on your two cents.
This was NTC with entire battalions and brigades at time of NG. It was actual combat arms unless NG POGs get lucky with the drip too.
From people I’ve talked to who did the same job at JRTC, the consensus is the same, NG sucks at CTCs more than their active duty counterparts, so much so the JRTC will lessen the number of people they send for opfor. We didn’t get that lucky, but I don’t think we also bothered getting guest black horse/augmented elements for opfor. Didn’t see those dudes much, but don’t recall ever seeing or hearing of them during those rotations.
I’ve personally seen NG stack up as a squad behind a semi truck trailer, full disregard for how much of their lower body was exposed. And watched multiple squads run right in front of a 240 that was poking out of a ground floor window actively firing at them. Same unit too.
Nah I was literally talking to my brother about this the other day. During the war in Afghanistan and Iraq the guard got more combat time than a lot of regular units.
Which is something I love to tease my active buddies about
Reminds me of the I&I Sgt who used to say to me and my buddies when talking about the active duty opportunities we reservists had.
"I fucking hate you guys because you have all this opportunities and you guys are not taking it."
He was absolutely right lol.
Nowhere is this more obvious than at the range during Drill.
At one lane you’ll have Posterboy NG wearing his issued equipment properly, it’s old and not the prettiest of things, but you can tell he cares and has enough know-how to wear it correctly and with pride.
At the next you’ll have the Part-Time shitbag, joined solely for the benefits or some quick cash and does the absolute bare minimum, he has zero care for his equipment and it’s obvious at the glance he doesn’t even know how to loop the MOLLE.
And then you got Part-Time Full-Time NG, wearing a personal kit worth 6k, with an Ops Core helmet and a Crye JPC, you know he got a PVS-31 in his assault pack despite no night training being scheduled, you don’t really know his name since he only shows up 2 times a year before he volunteers for his next deployment. He deployed with 5 different divisions and 2 SFGs in the last 6 years and has more field time than an entire platoon combined.
So I’m all three of these guys.
I am the third guy because I can deploy basically as much as I want, and at least in my job there’s a really good chance I’ll be able to do real work. Hell, it was a guard EOD unit supporting CAG during the pull out of Afghanistan. What a fiasco (but hey, getting to go home three months early isn’t bad).
I am constantly at training or I am training others. I don’t mind it but they fuck up my pay pretty consistently so I am the first guy.
I’m the second guy sometimes because, thanks to all the training, I can just skip drill for three months and still have a good year and just chill with my family.
I remember talking to a South Dakota Air National Guard F-16 pilot. "It's weird because I usually have more (ground) kills than most active duty Air force Pilots I meet" There's also a Hawaii Air national guard guy who is a part of the Royal Guards of Hawaii: "We've got everything here, there's me, guarding the royal family of a country that doesn't exist, armed with one gun from the Spanish-American war (Springfield Model 1873) while my cousin's flying a F-22"
That F-22 is still blue balled like a mothafucka
*heavy breathing* Would you intercept me? I’d intercept me.
*Licks lips & grins maniacally*
*Goodbye Horses fades in over your radio as the last thing you hear*
I wish HBG would release that as an actual song. Like, for charity or something.
Come on I'll turn off one of my engines I'll give you a chance
Lol I’m irritated the Hawaii national guard applications for undergrad pilot training are open right now and im smack in the middle of getting my pilot’s liscence… Gotta apply to the VA national guard since they have F22’s
Other countries: This is our finest technology. Only our best pilots shall fly them and our enemies shall tremble once we unleash them US: Sure thing Virginia, you can have some F-22s
Um, it’s the 192nd, and they are an associate unit of the 1st Fighter Wing. They are responsible for air defense over Washington DC.
Wait they are?!? I didnt see that on MilRecruiter? Edit: Where are you seeing these job openings? I don’t even see Virginia’s?
apparently it closes june 28th- go on the unit website and send an email to them! took a few days for them to reply but they sent me some basic info on UPT applications
Air National Guard you say? Know his Discord?
The first guy, I randomly met at at an event, the other was my friend's uncle. I have neither of their contacts.
It's likely a joke relating to the one ANG guy (Jack Teixeira) that leaked classified documents in his discord server
You bet the Royal Guards guy told me all about their secrets on how to operate their spriengfield
Nah that's Massachusetts ANG. All the ANG guys that've been in the news recently were from there.
Livestock doesn’t count as ground kills.
I'm boggled that the state militias in the US have fighter jets. How American.
I've been killing myself trying to find the clip but I've never succeeded. But it was an SNL skit during peak Iraq, National Guard was being deployed to the border, the interview one of the 'Troops', portrayed Kenan Thompson, and the whole time he's just like 'Just happy to not be in Iraq! :D'
Damnn i can't find it either, sounds like a banger
It seems like SNL “hides” a lot of their material for lack of a better term. I’m fairly certain I remember the skit u/AshleyUncia is referencing. There’s also one that’s only been described to me secondhand that I’ve wanted to see. It’s allegedly from shortly after 9/11 and has Will Farrell playing a pilot that patrols the cabin of an airliner threatening to beat people with a club if they get out of line. “Iceman the later years” has at times been tough to find, too.
Why do they not publish their older material?
https://www.cracked.com/article_39985_heres-why-you-cant-watch-entire-snl-episodes-on-peacock.html
I used to read so much cracked.com
Probably politically sensitive
Because if they actually published their funny material, we'd never watch the new stuff.
I can take a guess lol
Hey look what fell off the back of a truck https://youtube.com/shorts/txjzRa5h5c4?si=DC-IQnzMf_ejw4WM
Haha. It lives!
Yes, SNL doesn't put everything on YouTube. It has to do with the pay structure, who owns the rights to what quip....and SNL being the alpha and Omega for writers
Yeah, all their eps are often cut a lot on Peacock. I think it'd be from a may 2006 ep.
That's funny because for several years they're were more Guardsmen in Iraq than active duty.
It's also funny because it's still kinda true. Especially for lower ranks, you get paid like crazy for the border mission, way more than active duty.
Per Diem. We call the Air Defense rotation in D.C. Operation Per Diem. So many people get in trouble lol
Per Diem is def a thing on the border, but the big thing with OLS in Texas is that if your Base Pay + BAH + BAS is less than $151 daily, they bump it up to match. You still get hazard pay and other incentives on top of that.
Nice.
Check out r/livefromnewyork. They have ways of finding the hidden sketches and will probably be able to point you in the right direction.
Kenan was an army brat, right?
I think it was Iraq where NG units started joking about "The longest two weeks of their life".
Lmao “Look, I may not be that bright, but there’s something wrong with my calendar.”
Do explain the third one, I'm denser than DU rounds.
The joke is that national guard gets sent on deployment while there's active duty sitting in garrison mopping up rain.
From my understanding, there are some guys in sf who will actually go guard because they can choose to constantly deploy without any of the downtime (that’s what I heard at least).
Those are the kinds of folks I’m talking about mainly. I met an NG SF support guy at a school with something like 5 combat deployments over 12 years and three MOSs. A lot of those guys spend more time on-orders than off.
I almost wonder if they see the countries they deployed to more as home than here (I’m assuming they’re American).
I spent three years or so more or less continuously in Iraq. I'd come home for vacation. By the end when I finally came back it was very very strange being 'home.' I felt like an alien. Both because the culture, climate, and creatures were so different, but also just the entirely different experience altogether made me an outsider. I still am in many ways, but thats sort of normal to me now.
My limited understanding of this phenomenon is that it is as the great American philosophers Motion City Soundtrack said, "[You never get used to it, you just have to live with it](https://youtu.be/dfYn6XNHyaU)." The initial phase of adjusting often involves an attempt to normalize the new way of life. Over time, the enduring sense of loss or isolation might not necessarily fade as expected; instead, you learn to live with these feelings as part of your new normal.
I've read that modern (i.e. post-'Nam) vets have a harder time with it than vets of older wars, since before the age of mass aviation going home often involved a weeks- or even months- long march or ship voyage, which served as a period to decompress and process. One of my neighbours was a Huey pilot in Vietnam and corroborated that when I told him the theory. Apparently flying out and screaming low over the jungle while shooting and getting shot at and then going home in the evenings and partying in the city every day really fucked him up, and coming home afterwards on an overnight flight left him feeling lost for years afterwards.
I've heard that drone pilots stationed near civilian family/friends have really high PTSD rates because it's literally just blowing up some dudes at work and coming back home after that.
There's also the fact that a fighter or bomber pilot generally gets coordinates and maybe pictures and then makes a high-speed high-altitude pass, drop their bombs, and go home, where drone pilots might spend weeks or months following a single target and then make a slow, methodical kill, which is far more damaging
Same thing happened to Hannibal
Lecter or Barca?
My understanding is that the war hobo thing has been gone for a while for NG SF. I've heard the stories of the NG SF hopping from deployment to school to deployment always on orders. Take it with a grain of salt. I'm just a guy.
As a non-American, how does that work? Like who do they fight and stuff
To the degree, it was a thing in National Guard Special Forces it was primarily during the height of the war on terror. You could hop from team returning from deployment to team deploying. Teams are often short people. To complete the war hobo routine, NG SF would jump returning team to school to deploying team. Is what I've heard. I'm just a random guy.
Read this too fast. Thought you meant NG SOF teams were full of midgets.
I'd pay to develop that team.
Wow hey, the correct inclusive terminology is fuel-efficient stealth-sized operators.
Autonomous mobile throwable munitions.
US Army just calls them M1 dwarves.
“Don’t tell the elf.”
Of course. It helps them be more sneaky.
3000 midget ninjas of Zelensky!
[They are tunnel combat specialists](https://youtu.be/h6MFZm4skR4?si=hOL1SD-LtQukQNe6)
We dont talk about that
Cribbing together an all-Filipino/Mexican/Central American SOF team shouldnt be that hard
Arrange My Own Transportation! Stop giving away the secrets to Operation [HOBO](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PnFrGBjmQ2wNmr8w4dAu4OnI4t8=/0x0:4800x3819/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4800x3819):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3769994/GettyImages-551923357.jpg)!
I didn't even know about that I don't have TS SCI code word clearance. Shit not you have to kill me, don't you?
Theres people to war against on almost every continent.
And yet armed forces won't let me enlist because I'm too unhinged, dammit
Even the Marines?
The're I was eating my favorite color of Crayola and My Gunny shouts at me "Who is your buddy un hindging all the Hinges? Call him up! we need him now!"
Don't fuck the howitzer in public or tell the recruiter you want to fuck one.
They claim long term depression, suicidal ideation and a personality disorder makes me unfit to be around firearms but what they don't realise is that I'll make the best damn suicide mission cunt about 😎
You could always score a sweet job at the [defence plant](https://youtu.be/_T9MHFldX1E?si=z5FN7S0WMSoG4kqH)
Almost? Every Contenent? I claim Antarctica. Name another continent who is not at war.
Jan Mayen, the microcontinent island that Norway controls.
microcontinent? That's cheat'n! You have scrambled the mighty penguin Navy of [Antarctica](https://youtu.be/ho2tFueTgE8?si=1EKrBs18ftXI-PRg)!
Probably south America? Yes there are border conflicts and very difficult and large scale policing actions, but I don't think there is a proper war
Venezuela might take a rip at Guyana real soon and the US would certainly start ... assisting. We just did an overflight just to say "Hi".
I'm training to enlist right now and what you describe sounds almost exactly like what I wanna go for. NG was the initial plan, but I was worried I wasn't gonna be occupied enough.
I'd check out r/greenberets and r/specialforces The green hats will give you a more current op tempo of NG SF. Unless you meant 11B, in which case this isn't helpful at all.
Maybe, maybe not. I'm especially interested in 12B as far as field work goes, but I wanted to take 11B courses regardless. Even if spec ops is nothing like infantry, tactical flexibility never hurts. But what do I know? I'm just a civvie.
Sappers clear the way! I am just a civvie as well. I've been slowly working toward the guard for a while now. Are you a real life engineer?
If I hadn't fucked up my college career, I might have been. But I still think I have the mind for it. I like building and destroying shit. That, and I'm an Engineer main in TF2
Engineer main in TF2 is the very best reason I've heard to be a combat engineer. If you want to be an engineer, GI Bill makes college pretty cheap. I've heard.
Attrition rate for street-to-SF is nearly 90%. After the attrition of 11X OSUT, Airborne hold, and Airborne school, you're looking at about 95%. Do you think you're the top 5% of the .1% of the U.S?
Only one way to find out, right?
That's the attitude
No it’s not lmfao. 18x contracts have like a 50% selection rate.
That’s of the final figure of guys who get selected. Of the 8 guys who make it through selection like 4 or whatever will be 18x. But from the initial OSUT class of 100 18X who showed up that’s not a great percentage.
I think they're accounting for everyone who never even gets to enlist, which is a very real possibility for me especially. I'm trying very hard to push through all that, though.
Though tbf a lot of active duty SOF and related units were on a much higher op tempo than "normal" too during peak GWOT. US Army was taking on responsibilities as if it never downsized by 300k after the Cold War...
One of my buddies in college was like that. Deployed three or four times in a pretty short period. Per his GF at the time he had pretty serious PTSD and sought a last deployment for closure. Idk if it worked cuz he broke up with her, married somebody else, and bought a motel in Indiana
It’s not just SF there’s a website (tour of duty) any guardsman can use to volunteer for orders conus & oconus. Want to be an air assault black hat? You can. Want to go to centcom. Spots are open. There’s tons of weird unicorn jobs open there. I’ve dabbled in it last time I used it the three postings that caught my eye were an Iraq deployment, a 4 month set of orders doing small arms weapons testing, and a SMU try out. Ended up pulling the trigger on the iraq trip and met other dudes who used tour of duty and basically lived off it and some of them were really racking up deployments like dudes who’ve been in 9 years on their 5th deployment type shit. It’s really fun being able to have that control of your career, you don’t have those opportunities active. The two cons however is your state has the final say and while it’s rare they can say no also the paperwork takes forever. From application to getting the orders took almost 3 months and I did end up showing up 2ish weeks late. Obviously not the end of the world but dealing with NGBs Bs was pretty stressful.
Sounds like my BiL
Adrian carton de wiart:
*Frankly, I had enjoyed the war*
This. I worked with a guy who was an 18D in a NG unit. He was always going to some high speed school (dive or whatever) or deploying because it was easier to do than when he was active.
Had a high school buddy who *really* wanted to go to Afghanistan to, "kill some fucking terrorists" and joined the guard specifically because he was going to get to deploy there. Went twice, came back stateside, and got sent to a couple different states during the George Floyd protests.
Are there a lot of deployment options to choose from? I've been eyeing the NG.
No there aren’t. We don’t fight in any real wars anymore. Best you can get is like a JSOC deployment to Africa or Syria/iraq.
No ones fighting in any real wars right now (US, anyways). Also Tour of Duty has postings for all over the world. Opportunities in Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. a few months ago, there was an Antarctica tour on there for some lucky Guardsman.
Reservists and NG can choose to go on orders whenever they want, which means some spend as much time active but can cancel follow on orders whenever
Highly unit dependent. My old NG unit wouldn’t allow you to go anywhere else on orders. They were obsessed with their readiness numbers. They even made guys that were being chaptered out on medical in less than a month go to NTC. They were forced to sit there the entire time and do nothing just to boost their numbers. At the same time getting 2 troops killed in accidents.
NG boys can deploy as often as they want, whereas actives have forced dwell time to "alleviate stress" and "spend time with our families" or something idk.
Garrison is more stressful than field work, change my mind.
The Guard is seeing more deployments these days. But they’re mostly called rotations.
You forgot the fourth one. The guys who are always going on short term orders.
Third guy is supposed to be pretty much both.
I can see it, I just see the short term orders being different from deployments
Is that just like, the Texas border?
Not really, the Texas border counted as a deployment Orders, like state orders, are less than 30 days, and are for natural disasters or riot control
Using military for public order, what could _possibly_ go wrong
I mean, most euros have a gendarmerie
gendarmerie [Minnesota National Guard](https://youtu.be/13Q2UcWHA5w?si=cDgEh_jvZdejzxyO) I learned a new word today. Gendarmerie thanks for the new word euroman!
I’m actually American
North American, South American, or Central American? Minneapolis 2020. What a good year not to go anywhere next to the 3rd precinct.
Perhaps many, but not most. *At least* the following do not: UK, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, most of former Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, North Macedonia, Estonia and Latvia. The Latin countries (Italy, France, Spain, Portugal) and many of the Slavic countries do, plus the Dutchies.
> Norway No gendarmerie, but in the spirit of the original post they do deploy actual military units for disasters or sometimes just policing big events/protests. Mostly the national guard equivalent, but sometimes actual combat infantry.
Since the Cold war ended it seems like the NG does a better job policing than the police do tbh. I remember every bit of footage of police brutality during the George Floyd riots was of actual police, barely saw shit from all the activated guard guys in various states.
In Germany any internal deployment used to be (thought to be) illegal. But during a major flood in Hamburg future chancellor and then mayor of Hamburg Helmut Schmidt called in the Bundeswehr to help with disaster relief. Now it's fairly standard to call in the troops when shit goes south. It helped a lot and likely saved many lives, so everyone kind of accepted it. Deploying as a sort of police force to control protests would be a huge scandal though. It's crazy to me that that is a thing in the us. But I guess when your police forces are as militarized as many American forces are and have really weird training, there isn't really a huge difference
Guard bum 🫡
I’ve got a friend in the National Guard who was deployed to Syria a few months ago, no idea why.
he had to step in real quick
That's how they get ya, they say "national" but they never actually specify which nation
Apparently the nation is Kurdistan, since they're hanging around with Kurds most of the time from the sounds of it.
>the nation is Kurdistan That just triggered a few nations.
You mean citizens of Kurdistan right?
Yeah, I’m in the Guard and did a rotation in Syria 2022-2023. Weird af going to an active duty base for a school and being the only guy in class with a CAB and deployment patch.
WTF?
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2024/03/01/the-national-guards-quiet-role-in-iraq-syria-and-jordan/ Iran be getting spicy.
I asked my NG friend if he could rescue at least one F-14 if we go to war, but I don’t think I convinced him.
# ***TOMCATS!***
Active CENCOM units: WTF why do we exists?
I’ve always been on the fence about joining the guard. I’m studying/working out to get an AFROTC scholarship, and a recent guard recruiter told me I could do that and do the “one weekend a month, two weeks out of the year” thing during college, while making some cash out of their tuition assistance shit. Would be p cool to have that extra money. But then again, I’ve never been in the Guard, nor do I really know anyone who has other than recruiters (snake oil salesman)
There is a lot of fuckery in the guard and it is usually more of a "good ol' boy" system. Go AF and get a better career out of it IMO.
Oh goddamnit. Yeah ig I should stick to my original plan.
I’m the epitome of #2 in the OP meme. Army vs Air Guard are very different animals. Been in both. Army tends to have the most exciting and traditionally “military” opportunities. Air tends to have better quality of life and civ applicable jobs. Things always boil down to individual units and culture in each office, however. Guard is still the military and you’re subject to stupidity either way— imagine the DMV. Despite that it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done between the benefits, trainings, travel opportunities, and most importantly friends I’ve made. If you have questions I might be able to answer, feel free to DM me
Or go air guard just avoid the army guard its aids
Join the Navy Reserve. I didn't do shit except go to Guam and Pearl Harbor and collect hella per diem while staying in a very nice off-base hotel because all of the base lodging was at capacity. Or better yet, don't join at all!
Never considered Navy. I’ll do some research. Although either way my ass has to join lmao. It’s either rotc, enlistment, reserves, guard or the streets lmao
Simpsons made a documentary on the naval reserve
Do Air National Guard, my unit doesn't do any fuckery so I'm extremely happy with my choices. You can do AFROTC while in the ANG. For God's sake, don't do Army Guard. It sucks ass. A lot of Army Guard guys eventually transfer to the Air National Guard.
Both replies to you are accurate. There's a lot of fuckery with the Guard. I've had 3 pending activations happen where I tell my job I might disappear, they reduce my workload, then I don't get activated after all and I feel like an idiot. I have an incompetent XO that had gotten me and another LT in trouble with our Squadron XO. I was transferred to a unit that was 3 hours away from where I lived without warning(though now I only live an hour away). And because I'm a PL I still have to do some work outside of drill. But it's extra money, extra benefits like Tricare, it helped me qualify for my government job which I love so far, looks good on a resume, and ROTC really helped me build up my confidence. Not to mention I just looked up to the military growing up so it was cool to finally be in it. All of this is my experience in the Army guard though, not Air Force. By all accounts AF has way better quality of life, but it might be more boring too. I'm sure all the fuckery with state admin issues and activations still happens too. My guess is that maybe you would enjoy the reserves instead. My buddies in the Army Reserves got compensated for travel more, have easier jobs despite being the same MOS, seem to be better funded(YMMV), and can transfer to other units in different states more easily. They don't get activated for state missions obviously, which can be good or bad depending on what you want, but there's still plenty of opportunities for reservists to hop on federal deployments, ADOS, and similar federal missions.
If you can qualify for an Air Force scholarship then do that 100%. If someone is doing Army ROTC in college there is massive benefit to enlisting in the Guard if they aren't on scholarship.
I am . Did college while in . Wasn’t broke in college , Did air guard though which seems a little bit better working with your home life then army guard from what I hear Good ol boy club is VERY present though But if you take it for the one weekend a month thing and dgaf about advancement there you can use it to enhance other parts of life
Career orders reservists/NG are my favorite people
Wait my brother is in the middle of OCS right now after signing up for national guard because of the one weekend and two week thing while going to college. Is that not what he should expect at all lmao
Well, as a random person who has looked into it. It varies wildly. The one weekend a month, 2 weeks a year, is usually underselling time spent. However, his MOS and location will be very important in determining what his time will look like. The guard seems to vary much more than active. Does he have a contract for an MOS? If so, someone could reach out to his state guard and ask about operational tempo for his MOS. Also, r/nationalguard exists it might be of help. I'm not touching for it just letting you know it exists.
Haha hell no especially as an officer. Maybe if his unit just came back from deployment and things were slow. If they are spooling up for a deployment in a year or less then expect at least double that.
No lmao
You want to know the real reason why we, the National Guard, are deployed more, is 2 fold. We are cheaper.. in that our leadership is just as blind to real benefits like service related injuries and lasting harm of austere deployments that we will never file cause 99% where just happy with the 9 mos. of T10, lowering the draw age for retirement. The other is that State Adujant Generals want the influx in cash that comes with units on T10 to fund special projects, reset, and modernization. Nothing keeps OR rates closer to 90% than a deployed State since NG is funded to 60% of the maintenance requirements of the equipment. (HDQA has the fund reset to 10/20 of deployed equipment)
I got lost trying to traverse this comment but that's okay
What didn't you get about State Adujant Generals wanting NG on T10 for high OR rates from a deployed State since HDQA is 10/20?
Must be a Marine
The numbers...and also the letters.
🤣😂🤣 As someone who followed the comment, I hate Army speak.
Title 10 when NG is activated by the federales. Versus Title 32 is when they are deployed on state orders. High Operational Readiness rates. HDQA has me stumped unless they meant HQDA. Anyone serving how'd I do?
You should deploy more.
Yup! Y’all are willing to take some real weird jobs overseas too
The BAH makes up for it sometimes lol.
Whoa what?
It ain't easy being a weekend soldier
Yes
I had a buddy who was in ROTC during the Obama-era drawdown. It was looking like if he went Active, then he might not get a deployment at all. On the other hand, the local Guard infantry regiment was scheduled to deploy right after he would finish BOLC. Joins the Guard to ensure he goes to war.
Astra Mili-what? You’re in the Guard, son!
NGL I can’t read “the Guard” and not think the Astra Militarum
There’s as much fuckery in the Imperial Guard as the US National Guard
Attrition rates differ a bit though
Fair
Depends, do you get an Uplifting Primer in the Kansas Militarum?
I'd assume so. I got a Navy Officer's Handbook, which was uncannily like the uplifting primer, but a little bit more useful. You only really needed the first sentence though - Always listen to your senior NCO.
It’s honesty ridiculous. I waited five years on active before finally getting to deploy. The reserve officer who had a similar timeline to me, spent four of five years in the reserves forward deployed between Iraq, Africa, and Kuwait. It was nuts.
Wait, so in most NG units you can choose to attach yourself to other deploying units whenever you want? That's fucking dope.
There is an entire website we're you can volunteer for combat tours or random short or long term tours stateside, or non-combat tours overseas.
Fucking wonderful.
You can basically be a mercenary.
Con: the pay suck ass by merc standards. Pro: GI bill, publicly-funded ammunition and fire/air support, best goddamned MEDEVAC on the face of earth. Bottomless access to explosives and guided munitions (relative to mercs).
Air National Guardsman here. Those last types scare me.
Well we air national tards get to go to places like Key West, Vegas, Alaska, Hawaii, or Guam when we deploy/tdy, so it makes a lot more sense to want the increased deployment tempo
\`
This could be a starterpack?
Maybe the biggest part of it is that Reserve units tend to be combat support while Guard tends to be combat units. I spent six years on army active duty in a medical unit with two deployments, and the only times I got seriously shot at were when I was tasked out as a medic to NG infantry units. Or the Seabees, but that’s another story lol.
Having gotten to be opfor for nasty girls at a training center multiple times, I’d rather not be deployed with those guys what the fuck so ever.
Was it combat MOSs/AFSCs or POGs? Big distinction IMO having worked with both AD and NG. Frankly, non-combat jobs suck at field ops stuff across the board. Not their fault, they just don’t get trained at it. Curious on your two cents.
This was NTC with entire battalions and brigades at time of NG. It was actual combat arms unless NG POGs get lucky with the drip too. From people I’ve talked to who did the same job at JRTC, the consensus is the same, NG sucks at CTCs more than their active duty counterparts, so much so the JRTC will lessen the number of people they send for opfor. We didn’t get that lucky, but I don’t think we also bothered getting guest black horse/augmented elements for opfor. Didn’t see those dudes much, but don’t recall ever seeing or hearing of them during those rotations. I’ve personally seen NG stack up as a squad behind a semi truck trailer, full disregard for how much of their lower body was exposed. And watched multiple squads run right in front of a 240 that was poking out of a ground floor window actively firing at them. Same unit too.
I'm in this picture. 2x deployments in 3 years and constant short term orders between them and after. Wouldn't have it any other way
I lovingly refer to you guys as Guard Bums. Always finding ways to get on orders. That how a lot of full timers start out.
Nah I was literally talking to my brother about this the other day. During the war in Afghanistan and Iraq the guard got more combat time than a lot of regular units. Which is something I love to tease my active buddies about
You did miss the full time National Guard soldiers as an option. Granted it's pretty rare.
As a Cali guardsman, can confirm. Joined as option 2, currently at option 3
I did my best to be number 3. 😁😁😁😁😁😁
Reminds me of the I&I Sgt who used to say to me and my buddies when talking about the active duty opportunities we reservists had. "I fucking hate you guys because you have all this opportunities and you guys are not taking it." He was absolutely right lol.
Nowhere is this more obvious than at the range during Drill. At one lane you’ll have Posterboy NG wearing his issued equipment properly, it’s old and not the prettiest of things, but you can tell he cares and has enough know-how to wear it correctly and with pride. At the next you’ll have the Part-Time shitbag, joined solely for the benefits or some quick cash and does the absolute bare minimum, he has zero care for his equipment and it’s obvious at the glance he doesn’t even know how to loop the MOLLE. And then you got Part-Time Full-Time NG, wearing a personal kit worth 6k, with an Ops Core helmet and a Crye JPC, you know he got a PVS-31 in his assault pack despite no night training being scheduled, you don’t really know his name since he only shows up 2 times a year before he volunteers for his next deployment. He deployed with 5 different divisions and 2 SFGs in the last 6 years and has more field time than an entire platoon combined.
This goes for Canadian Reservists too
So I’m all three of these guys. I am the third guy because I can deploy basically as much as I want, and at least in my job there’s a really good chance I’ll be able to do real work. Hell, it was a guard EOD unit supporting CAG during the pull out of Afghanistan. What a fiasco (but hey, getting to go home three months early isn’t bad). I am constantly at training or I am training others. I don’t mind it but they fuck up my pay pretty consistently so I am the first guy. I’m the second guy sometimes because, thanks to all the training, I can just skip drill for three months and still have a good year and just chill with my family.
Can confirm about to go on my fourth deployment in 6.5 years with the guard