I am either going to stay Army guard or go reserve. From what I was told the officer programs like ROTC rank you regarding your leadership skills, grades etc.  These abilities decide which branch you can go to. Seems like infantry is tough to get into.

My question is does the ranking work the same way for the reserve components?  I guess the guard could put you anywhere they want and what if that armory is 200 miles away from home??

do the same rules apply in the guard where they can give you any mos they want?

I could be wrong but in ROTC your ranking is to compete for active duty slots. Either way the guard supposedly needs officers so you should be able to get in a combat arms MOS if you want it.

I know how they *did* it for Active Duty.

You pick your top ten choices.  Say you put Infantry first, your file gets into the Infantry Branch stack first.

They make their choices of who THEY want out of the stack. If you are not picked your file gets put on your second choice stack and so on until you are picked by a branch. In the unlikely event you do not get picked in the first ten tries you may end up anywhere left over. Maybe even back to Infantry if they have not filled all their slots.

I have a friend who was NG and I think he just went in and signed up with the unit he wanted and got that branch automatically.

If you know what you want to branch, find a unit you're interested in, and ask the CO if you can drill there for a weekend.  If you like it, and the CO likes you, he'll do what he has to to get you a slot...it's called a "paragraph line number", and it's how I ensured that I would get branched infantry, and in a unit that was close to home.  It beats leaving the decision to the Army.

So you pretty much just find someone who needs help and try out for the job?

Quoted: So you pretty much just find someone who needs help and try out for the job?

Yes.  In my experience, it hasn't been that difficult finding positions.  Locate a unit that has a vacancy, meet with the commander, and if you like the unit join.

In my opinion as an officer, the reserve has a few advantages over the guard.
1.  Easier to change units.  (especially if you ever move to another state)
2.  Only one promotion board for reservist. (guard officers have to go before a state and federal board)
3.  Reserve units tend to be rank heavy.  Not that important now but will be later.

Don't worry about choosing guard or reserve.  Just find a unit you like.  You can always switch later.  FYI, I know several officers coming to the reserves from the guard but not the other way.