What are your perceptions of the Army National Guard and Air National Guard?

As a former AD Marine, we saw zero presence from the Reserves. Then upon separation, I joined the Reserves until I found out that Police Departments would NOT hire Marine Reservists and had to separate-and was immediately hired (funny how that worked). Then, later, I joined Navy Reserves, then transferred job locations and switched to Air Force Reserves. Then, I heard of the Air Guard and swapped, and love where I am.

After 9-11, we hooked up with AD units and had run ins, until the kinks got worked out (mostly AD prejudice against the Guard. Since then, there has been so much co-mingling that for the most part, you cannot distinguish the two.

What I can tell anyone is that for the most part (there are always exceptions) the Guard and Reserves are a tremendous asset and in many cases the experience level carried by the average Guardsman/Reservist is off the charts.

I am in a Security Forces Unit that has a significant number of personnel with greater than 15 years of service, many with active duty, many with cross service affiliation (former Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Coast Guard and numerous Air Force-both from Active and Reserve of all).

In addition to all of the cross service experience, the unit is full of civilian law enforcement, many with over 15 years there.

When we deploy, we can pick up the ball and run. How do you replicate that level of experience when joining up with active duty? My answer is that you cannot. That is not a knock on active duty-it is a plug to the Guard/Reserve.

It does take a minute sometimes for Guard/Reserve to get back into the AD swing of things, but good troops pick that up quickly.

The major difference between AD and Guard/Reserve is that most Guard/Reserve are fulfilling two full time careers and are in a constant juggling act of pleasing two masters-they have to keep the Military and the Civilian bosses happy and that "aint easy".

My .02 is that if you link up with a Guard/Reserve unit-give them a minute to acclimate, then watch them excel. I would not trade my Active time for anything in the world-Semper Fi Marines, but I also would not trade my Guard time and experiences. It has been great.

If you are getting out of the Active Duty, and going into Law Enforcement, my advice to you is find an Air Guard SFS unit and join. What you will find is a unit that knows what time it is, and a family that will help you get where you want to go! Defensor Fortis

My Army National Guard unit, the 43rd MP Bde, was responsible for CLOSING Abu Ghraib prison.

Not to be confused with the 800th MP Bde who the whole mess started under.

'Nuff said about how I feel.

I would say it would depend on the unit. I am in the Guard and have been in good units and have seen some guard units embarrass the guard. I am lucky to be in one of those good guard units. I am in an awesome infantry unit. I have even been afforded the opportunity to attend Ranger school. It is hard to get that in the Guard. It is all what you make of it. I would say we are found to be the victim of many jokes from the AD side.