I'm prior service Army enlisted, headed into MS3, and have been exploring the idea of joining the Army Reserves with no incentive. After spending the last week trying unsuccessfully to get a response/contact with an AMEDD recruiter, I was finally able to talk to a civilian at one of the stations who told me that it's not possible to join the Reserves without taking a stipend. Tbh, I don't believe that this is correct (especially since I know that you can do it in the guard) and think it's more likely that they just have never dealt with that, but I'm making this post to see if anyone has any personal experience with being in the reserves in the 00E67 AOC without taking a stipend.
I don't feel like I really need the stipend and I've always advised people joining the military to take the shortest possible contract to see how they feel about it and I'm not going to ignore my own advice by locking myself into a 10-20 year contract. With that said, I do want to participate in the military again and don't want to miss out on a potential 8 years of reserve time by joining as an attending (I'm mid-30's already). I'm not just trying to take some 1380 money and run. I would consider the guard but I'm primarily interested in a specialty that is only in the reserves and don't want to join the guard, actively drill every month, and then have to transfer to the reserves after 2 years. Also, I'm in Texas and would prefer not to get bogged down in political shenanigans.
Sorry for the book but wanted to get all of the pertinent info out there.
I don't feel like I really need the stipend and I've always advised people joining the military to take the shortest possible contract to see how they feel about it and I'm not going to ignore my own advice by locking myself into a 10-20 year contract. With that said, I do want to participate in the military again and don't want to miss out on a potential 8 years of reserve time by joining as an attending (I'm mid-30's already). I'm not just trying to take some 1380 money and run. I would consider the guard but I'm primarily interested in a specialty that is only in the reserves and don't want to join the guard, actively drill every month, and then have to transfer to the reserves after 2 years. Also, I'm in Texas and would prefer not to get bogged down in political shenanigans.
Sorry for the book but wanted to get all of the pertinent info out there.
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