You must live a certain distance from your assigned unit (150 miles I believe)
You must be in an AOC that is eligible for APMC. Not all AOC's in AMEDD are eligible
You must apply to join APMC. Once you join you still have to work with your assigned unit as your commander can still require you to be at BA monthly or at certain BA weekends
I have been in APMC for several years. It has its pluses and minuses. Biggest plus is the ability to drill with any unit. I've got to drill with Air Force NG, Army NG, Navy Reserves, multiple different Army Reserve units. I have multiple units I can complete a BA weekend with if my home unit has a BA weekend that doesn't match up with my schedule. I've been able to check out other Reserve units before deciding to transfer to them.
The minuses:
- APMC staff is not the best to work with. They take forever to respond to emails. They often only answer 1 of multiple questions in email.
- You must be proactive. You are kind of on your own a lot in APMC. You need to know what your yearly requirements are for drill points, trainings, etc.
- You must work with your commander of your unit. Just because you are APMC does not mean you come and go as you please. Want to make
sure you stay on their good side? Keep your metrics green. Always pass height/weight and ACFT. Don't cause your commander problems and they usually won't give you any grief for being on their books, but not always at BA
- You will need to still have good evals. It's hard to get good OER's if you aren't drilling with the same unit all the time. You will need to be
pro-active and work with your rater and senior rater to show what your key achievements are each rating period since they won't see you often
