national guard vs reserves-deployment questions

[medhead1990]

Been considering ANG or AR for little over a year now. I have always thought I would like to serve but my spouse has had some reservations. My brother in Law is special forces and my wife does a good bit of worrying for him and the idea of having another person to worry about isn't her idea of fun.

That being said she is more open to the idea of ANG and AR and im hoping to figure out exactly how being in one or the other works, because if I can get her to feel reasonably reassured that Ill be really safe I think ll be good to go and sign up.

So This is what i know peppered with questions.

ANG- Sounds like the deployments happen at most at 2-year intervals (usual seems to be every three and every 4 or 5 if you get lucky) and for a max of about 90 days boots on the ground and a total of 120. Is this all correct?

ANG- Deployments generally are overseas? My assumption is as a physician you are VERY rarely if ever in incredibly dangerous combat zones (if I get confirmative to this im smooth sailing to sign up)? However, you can be activated for state emergencies (does this count as a deployment? Ie snowstorm hits and ANG goes around helping people out of their houses).

PCP type position where you are the unit doc.

Classic 1 weekend a month two weeks a year.

AR- Deployments are longer (6-12 mo.) and are almost exclusively at US-based military hospitals where you are filling in for an active duty counterpart while they go overseas. When on these deployments are you in a proverbial black zone where you cant have family come nor can you go and visit family that whole time (im guessing you have a weekend or two off where you can go home)?

Generally your practicing in your specialty.

1 weekend a month two weeks a year.

Thanks in advance

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[armytrainingsir]

Reserves do the 90 day rotations.

These may be as backfill in the US or overseas.


I had a friend that retired after 28 yrs, 18 or so if that USAR. his only deployment was Colorado for 90 days during ski season. Took his family with him. Home schooled the kids that semester iirc.

And I know USAR docs with three 90 day rotation in Iraq in the past decade as 05/06’s.

All in the same specialty.


I’ll let NG folks chime in on NG stufff

 

[armytrainingsir]

I can find only one account of a military physician killed since 9/11 in the Middle East. A trauma surgeon killed during a mortar attack with a Forward Surgical Team. I have read there are at least 3 others, but I can find any names or details.


One of my attendings told me years ago that more physicians were murdered in the US during the Vietnam war than were killed in Vietnam.

 

[deleted480308]

Navy flight surgeon died recently in a helicopter event while getting in/out

But yeah “safe” is relative. You are safer than the avg soldier but you are still a soldier with chances of being sent to some very dangerous places with a chance of not coming back

 

[formerF1DO]

So, what is better, National Guard or Reserves? I would imagine every doctor wants to be deployed at maximum 90 days or less, and not be killed.

 

[DMBandFan86]

There are no guarantees in joining any branch of the military. Medhead1990, I'm not sure where you are getting your deployment statistics from for AR vs NG.

In my opinion, if you are going to join then you should be prepared for the worst case scenario and not just hoping for the best. In the eyes of the army you are a soldier first and a physician second (NG or AR). So while you can do some data gathering and figure out your chances of deploying in a 'dangerous area' and hope for maybe 1 or 2 90 day deployments during your career, none of it will guarantee what will happen after you sign up.

 

[medhead1990]

Great info all around. Another question... in both Ng and ar could I volunteer for stateside natural disasters outside of my own state? I’ll probably be volunteering to do that every so often anyway so doing it as military would be an added bonus.

 

[notdeadyet]

If you’re looking to do home disaster work, ARNG is a much better bet. If you’re looking to do domestic activations for 90 days to backfill on military bases, Reserves is better. You can try to do the opposite from either flavor, but it’s a PIA.

 

[DeadCactus]

To me, people who join the Guard tend to be people who want to serve in an operational/military/disaster medicine sort of capacity and have a change of pace from their normal civilian work. Their role in the military is largely administrative and low level primary care work with the occasional opportunity to train for or participate in some more "military experiences". People who join the Reserves generally want to serve by basically doing their civilian job but in uniform for a military population.

 

[notdeadyet]

People who join the Reserves generally want to serve by basically doing their civilian job but in uniform for a military population.

I would also say that there are a number of folks I know that opted for AR because their state ARNG is awful. There are some truly horrible state Guards out there that live up to the Nasty Guard stereotype in many depressing ways.

 

[medhead1990]

I would also say that there are a number of folks I know that opted for AR because their state ARNG is awful. There are some truly horrible state Guards out there that live up to the Nasty Guard stereotype in many depressing ways.

That’s an interesting predicament. Well if I was to find out that I was in a bad guard state once already and it how hard is it to switch to reserves?

 

[notdeadyet]

Not hard. It takes months but it's do-able.

 

[Sunna12]

Been considering ANG or AR for little over a year now. I have always thought I would like to serve but my spouse has had some reservations. My brother in Law is special forces and my wife does a good bit of worrying for him and the idea of having another person to worry about isn't her idea of fun.

That being said she is more open to the idea of ANG and AR and im hoping to figure out exactly how being in one or the other works, because if I can get her to feel reasonably reassured that Ill be really safe I think ll be good to go and sign up.

So This is what i know peppered with questions.

ANG- Sounds like the deployments happen at most at 2-year intervals (usual seems to be every three and every 4 or 5 if you get lucky) and for a max of about 90 days boots on the ground and a total of 120. Is this all correct?

ANG- Deployments generally are overseas? My assumption is as a physician you are VERY rarely if ever in incredibly dangerous combat zones (if I get confirmative to this im smooth sailing to sign up)? However, you can be activated for state emergencies (does this count as a deployment? Ie snowstorm hits and ANG goes around helping people out of their houses).

PCP type position where you are the unit doc.

Classic 1 weekend a month two weeks a year.

AR- Deployments are longer (6-12 mo.) and are almost exclusively at US-based military hospitals where you are filling in for an active duty counterpart while they go overseas. When on these deployments are you in a proverbial black zone where you cant have family come nor can you go and visit family that whole time (im guessing you have a weekend or two off where you can go home)?

Generally your practicing in your specialty.

1 weekend a month two weeks a year.

Thanks in advance

Where did you get this information? The difference is National Guard is primarily a force of the state- you are the first to be deployed to national disasters near you, but you can still be deployed overseas to serve.

Reserves assigns you to a specific duty location where you do your time- but there are different types of reservists. For example, I served as an IMA stationed in Tokyo and the Air Force would send me to Tokyo one month a year to do all my time at once. It was glorious.

You cannot say for certain how long deployments will last or what your deployment tempo will be. Halfway through my active duty enlistment they switched our tempo, albeit for the better. Your unit can change your deployment cycle at any time.

You most certainly have a chance to be deployed to a combat zone if you are a physician and we are at war. It is unlikely you will be on a FOB (forward operating base) that has limited resources and is in the middle of the s*$t storm, but you will be in the country to take care of injured service members being evacuated from the FOBs and patrols. I don't know about you, but this is why I would serve again as a physician- to take care of my brothers and sisters in arms at a time when they need quality medical care the most. When I was in Iraq the base "hospital" was conveniently located in the center of the base, surrounded by cement T-walls- they were likely in the safest spot on the base. But it was Iraq, and we were being mortared quite frequently.

Do not drink the recruiter kool-aid- they can make all the promises in the world, but what it comes down to is that you will always go when and where the military needs you to go. If you are not okay with this, you should rethink your plan to enlist.