5
5
0
<p>Ladies and Gentlemen,</p><p> </p><p>I have been serving in the Army National Guard for 9 years, and currently on my second deployment in Afghanistan. I have about 13 months left in the Guard. I am in serious debate with myself on staying in or not. I have a daughter with my ex wife and continuing to leave on deployments and training is interfering with a lot of my time with her. I grew up without a father around and I dont want that for my daughter. I want to be able to be there for soccer games or whatever else she wants to do. Also, people may not believe it but it is really hard to get a good job being in the Guard. Employers know that you will be leaving a lot and use other "reasons" not to hire you. On the flip side of things, I want to stay in for Tri-Care, you just cant beat that insurance. Having an extra pay check during retirement is not a bad thing either. Also I have moved up pretty quick, and I believe I could continue to do so. If any of you have any advise, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance</p><p> </p>
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 18
SSG White,<br><br>Your emotions might be getting the best of you right now because you're currently deployed. I would wait until you get back to make a decision. By the time your time is up you will be over half-way to retirement. I do understand the need to be with family though. There are many pros to staying in the Army but ultimately you have to do what's best for you and your family. In my opinion family outweighs everything. Good luck and get home safe.<br>
(6)
(0)
Not sure if this will help you out because every unit is different and plus we are of different breed and situation. I just ended my active service in the Corps after 9 years, over 4 of those years were spent in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other southwest asian countries. The operational tempo for me was not going to stop despite requests for doing special duty assignments like drill instructor or recruiting to place me in garrison for 3 years +. I always found myself in units where I couldn't be released due to MOS shortage and importance in command billet. In order for me to catch that break from conducting deployments and short missions overseas, I decided to transfer to the Select Marine Corps Reserve. The SMCR has given me more than a break but allowed me to stay plugged into the Corps that I love so much and the time to raise my daughter and time with my wife. A weekend a month, two weeks a year, to continue what I do best and love, while being able to pursue other interests full time, spend more time with family, and still have great health, dental, and retirement benefits was a selling point for me to go into the reserves. Another point for staying in partly and not fully separating was staying plugged into the Corps for when that time comes again when our nation engages in another major conflict, I would feel great obligations to serve and wouldn't be able to do so again in the Corps unless I stayed in it in some form.
(4)
(0)
Don't know your MOS or anything, but have you considered the United States. army Reserve and changing career paths. We have a lot of different options that might benefit you. Send me a message if interested and I can give you some tips that might benefit you.
(4)
(0)
Read This Next