Posted on Mar 6, 2016
Does anyone feel that their acquired MOS skills aren't being used to full potential?
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I'm feeling that my MOS as a 91F (Small Arms Artillery Repairer) doesn't serve it's full potential in the Guard. I expected that I would've been repairing and troubleshooting weapons. Instead damaged weapons are being repaired by a second party. It's Personally disappointing because I enjoyed the training and won't get the opportunity to perform my MOS.
Posted in these groups: 
Army National Guard
91F: Small Arms/Artillery Repairer
Army National Guard 91F: Small Arms/Artillery Repairer
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 15
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This is the Guard. You likely have federal technicians that do this for a job everyday. It will not change. Part time soldiers have fewer and fewer real world jobs all the time. It's essentially becoming the Boy and Girl scouts for grown men and women. Go active.
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SGT (Join to see)
Switching to active duty has crossed my mind sergeant. My wife is supported of the idea. Her main concern is having to quitting her job and not being able to find work. She's a Special Ed teacher at a high school and worries that there won't be a demand for teachers on any base.
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SGT (Join to see)
SGT (Join to see) - As a parent of a special needs child, let me tell you, there is always a need for special ed teachers.
I'm a 68A biomed in the reserves and I've done my job one time in three years. It's the same story throughout this side of the military.
I'm a 68A biomed in the reserves and I've done my job one time in three years. It's the same story throughout this side of the military.
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MAJ Javier Rivera
SGT (Join to see) My advice: go active! Your wife, as a Special Ed Teacher will most likely find a job wherever you go; with very few exceptions of course. Just be cautious on how the Army deals with prior service. There are special rules for it.
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It sure is easy for Active Duty folks to run down the Guard. When CFLCC Hq in the Iraq war needed Information Operations support, they got them from the Guard. But when it got to be time for awards, where did they go?
It is a different beast being a Guardsman. If you expect someone to save up something for you to do 2 days a month, you'll spend your career waiting. I spent 11 years of my 38 year career as an intel analyst, and you can probably imagine how many times we got real-world classified information to analyze.
So I generated my own, doing what any open source intel analyst has to do - scour the unclassified media for hints to mosaic together into a pattern of real world ground truth.
In your situation, you are going to have to take your time to lay out a schedule of what useful work you can do in the 16 hours that constitutes a drill weekend. And you have to realize that it has to fit within everything else that the Guard has to manage with only 39 days a year to get done, i.e. weapons qual, PT tests, mandatory briefings, field problems, and so on. (So don't plan on more than 4 hours at most.) And when you have a plan done, with a clear indication of value to the unit, then you still have to convince someone in your command to approve it and put in on the training schedule. And only THEN will they save back some of the repairs for you to do.
There's also the possibility of an Annual Training with an active unit doing small arms repair. That also has to be planned, justified, coordinated, and funded.
I mean no insult to AD, but you have 365 days per year to train, and if you don't have a plan, it's no problem, because there's always someone to tell you what to do. The Guard depends of people to spend their own personal time (unpaid) planning and accomplishing missions. If that's too much for you, then consider going active and let someone else do the thinking.
It is a different beast being a Guardsman. If you expect someone to save up something for you to do 2 days a month, you'll spend your career waiting. I spent 11 years of my 38 year career as an intel analyst, and you can probably imagine how many times we got real-world classified information to analyze.
So I generated my own, doing what any open source intel analyst has to do - scour the unclassified media for hints to mosaic together into a pattern of real world ground truth.
In your situation, you are going to have to take your time to lay out a schedule of what useful work you can do in the 16 hours that constitutes a drill weekend. And you have to realize that it has to fit within everything else that the Guard has to manage with only 39 days a year to get done, i.e. weapons qual, PT tests, mandatory briefings, field problems, and so on. (So don't plan on more than 4 hours at most.) And when you have a plan done, with a clear indication of value to the unit, then you still have to convince someone in your command to approve it and put in on the training schedule. And only THEN will they save back some of the repairs for you to do.
There's also the possibility of an Annual Training with an active unit doing small arms repair. That also has to be planned, justified, coordinated, and funded.
I mean no insult to AD, but you have 365 days per year to train, and if you don't have a plan, it's no problem, because there's always someone to tell you what to do. The Guard depends of people to spend their own personal time (unpaid) planning and accomplishing missions. If that's too much for you, then consider going active and let someone else do the thinking.
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I've been in the guard now for 5 years as a 91f and have never done my job.
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SGT (Join to see)
As a 91f I find it to be extremely disappointing not being able to repair weapons in the guard. It's sad to know that all that training was just a waste. Hoping that if I get the deployed the opportunity to actually fix weapons may arise.
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