Once my active duty contract finishes I’m planning on going national guard. I will stay as an 11B. What are some of the biggest changes?

It's more laid back on the Army Regulations but otherwise NG Infantry is not all that different from AD Infantry. Your still expected to maintain PT standards (largely on your own), Adhere to Regular Army Regulations. The biggest thing that will blow you away is you will have NCO's asking you how the Army handles things in specific areas because they have not been on Active Duty for a while and have not kept current, so be prepared for that shock. You will still have access to all the NCO schools and the National Guard will try to keep you on the promotion track upwards but therin lies another small difference. The move up or out program the Regular Army runs is not as strict in the National Guard so you have a lot of NCO's in the NG that should have been moved out that are hanging onto their rank and slots...........it impacts promotion to the ranks of SSG and SFC a lot of times. Promotion to SGT is fairly normal though. Not sure if that helps you or not. I did the tour in reverse a long time ago was NG Infantry first then Regular Army Infantry......that transition was more difficult. The way you are doing it is a lot easier and at first will feel like it's too good to be trueha-, then you will start to forget training from Regular Army and rely on NG training more.......thats when you know the transition is complete (ha-ha). Well that and you no longer quote Army regulations as much. From a safety perspective, you really need to stay alert to what is going on around you with movements and other areas as once again NG does not train as much as RA and you run into situations where Ooops your camping under artillery shells firing or something like that. So you have to practice to stay alert more on safety items. Thats all I remember.

In the Guard promotions are based on unit vacancies. Promotion to E5 should be easy enough but making E6 might take ten years or more! If you are in a unit preparing for mobilization more schools are available then usual. Let your unit leadership know you are willing and motivated to go and it will all come to you eventually. Use what you have learned on Active Duty and help out the ones who have only been to basic or OSUT. Best of luck!

Also, just noticed, ha-ha, your from warm Florida but the Army sent you to the frigid 10th Mountain....ha-ha. The big green weanie again. :)