A little background:

I'm seriously thinking about becoming a PJ in either the guard or reserve, and I don't have any prior military experience. Right now I'm talking to a reserve recruiter about going to Davis-Monthan in AZ since its the closest base that has PJs (I currently work at Kirtland in NM). I would have joined as active duty but I would feel like that would be throwing the many years of schooling out the window. I have come close to joining the military in the past (almost decided to go to West Point) but my eyes would have kept me from doing what I really wanted (I'll definitely need PRK to be a PJ). I'm a very strong swimmer and runner having competed in both for many years, and now do triathlons. So on to the questions...


Questions:

- Is there any sort of distance requirement as a reserve PJ, as in distance between where I live and the base. I just ask because I'll have about an 8 hour commute.

- Is it possible to transfer between bases or between the reserve and guard?

- Does the reserve/ANG have CROs? And if so are there any recommendations about choosing between PJ and CRO (i.e. difference in duties/training)

- Finally, any general comments/suggestions are welcome. This is something I'm very serious about, but I just want to know I'm doing the right thing; I don't do anything half-assed and failure/quiting isn't an option for me.

I know some of these questions would be better answered by a recruiter (who I'll meet with in a couple days), but I thought I'd ask anyway. Thanks for anyone who took the time to read all this.

Tom

Do a search...lots of these have been answered. Yes AFRC has CROs.

As far as transferring between Reserve and Guard (and into Active Duty from Reserve/Guard, for that matter), you need to ask that specific question to the unit to which you will be assigned.

In RegAF, the Air Force funds all your training, food, etc. In AFRes/ANG, the individual unit has a training budget that funds your training, food, billeting, etc. That budget is limited, and many commanders may not want to spend their money so another unit can gain the benefit.

Also, the bottom line here is a unit recruits people because they need to have a certain staffing level to be mission capable. Regardless of whether or not the gaining unit reimburses the unit that paid for your training, the unit that paid for your training expects to have a usable airman on a certain date and for a certain amount of time.

For example, let's say you start training on 1 Jan 07, and your initial training takes 24 months. On 1 Jan 09, your commander expects you to be mission capable, and he expects you to be available to him for missions until 1 Jan 13 (6 year enlistment, right?). Anything that prevents him from getting those four years of mission capability out of his investment in your training is going to cause him to speak to you in a disparaging manner, if you get my drift.

thum

Thanks a lot for the replies. I did do a search for most of the questions I just didn't find any answers that pertained to ANG/AFRC ; the CRO question was a last second curiosity which I see now was answered in several places, sorry about that.

That makes sense about the whole funding and staffing issue, kind of what I expected. It just makes it harder for dealing with a full time job and the limited number of ANG/AFRC bases that have PJs. I guess I'll just have to work some more on the logistics. Thanks again.