Posted: 11/3/2005 8:50:24 AM EDT
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Been thinking about joining the VA National Guard looking at Security Forces but didn't see any positions open for it on the VANG website, looked at readiness and it sounded like a cool job. Plan for NBC SHTF basically. Anyone in this AFSC or know anything about it other than what the description says? |
The Air Guard is ALWAYS looking for SP's just talk to a live recruiter for what is available. If you join as an SP expect to be deployed for 4-6 months atleast every 2 years or most likely less ! Readiness is a crappy AFSC , You will be doing chem warfare refresher training pretty much every drill weekend and you will be very involved with every ORI and BS readiness exercise / inspection that comes around. For some reason the AF has a bizarre outdated " Cold War " fixation with Chem Warfare Training that borders on stupidity . 
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I have no problem with the deployment, but I still have 2 +/- years left of college and do not want to extend that further(I transferred schools which added on atleast a semester if not a full year because of different requirements and not transferred credits) I'd like to have something that could keep me state side atleast until I get out of college, then I am thinking about possibly going AD if I enjoy the Guard. So readiness is really a shitty AFSC? |
| I guess I am not really sure what I want, I thought they both sounded like they could be interesting. I'm not expecting it to be civvy life wake up 9-5 or anything but I don't want to go into somethign that will be complete crap give me no room for advancement if I chose to make it a career |
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Aircraft maintenance AFSC's are good if you wan't to do 20 years and have a chance of getting rank faster. Most guard maintenance shops will have enough manning positions so there is room for a couple of traditional Staff/Tech sgt's and usually atleast one traditional Msgt slot. An AFSC like readiness is a small shop of 4-8 people so there is a good chance you would top out an E-5 staff sgt with no possibility of making E-6 or 7. Also making rank in the SP field is tough because they like to keep the chief to indian ratio high so there are not alot of E-6/7+ slots. |
If I did go and choose to make a career I would eventually probably want to go through OCS, if that makes any type of difference in either of those fields, I would have a four year degree and would like to put some use with it. But I think one should BTDT before they become an officer. |
You damn near have to fail the ASVAB to qualify for SP's, I think they require a score of 10 or lower in the general area? The good news is that some cop is always testing positive for drugs or getting caught stealing so openings are going to be there.  Before you get signed for anything, ask to spend the day at the unit(on a drill weekend), walk around, meet people, ask questions, go see other units too. Take a hard look and review carefully before you sign anything, you can request a specific time frame for going to basic and tech school and there are bonus payments for some fields. The recruiter is trying to fill the crap jobs as well as the one you want. Take a look at everything, but if you want to be an SP, stick to your guns and wait for a slot to open up. The Air Force always needs another glove stealing cop to keep things secure. Oh yeah, Readiness blows. In the war zone they have some jobs, mostly they call false gas warnings and drive the rest of us up the damn wall. Since no gas attack has been proven since WWI and the only gas exposure(we blew up chemical weapons by accident) during the first desert war as lied and denied, it is not very useful. |
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The Air Guard in VA is really small. The F16 Fighter Wing (192d?) at Sandston, and the RED HORSE heavy combat engineers down near the beach. AFAIK, that's about it. Whatever subordinate jobs would fall under those two units would be available, but there is not really a strong ANG presence in VA. From the VA ARNG side, we rarely if ever hear about the zoomies, they're sort of forgotten about and tacked on. It sounds like they've got what probably are high-priority units, though... with the fighters and the airstrip makers. High priority units usually mean two things - high budget (lots of training opportunities, good equipment, etc) and high deployment tempo. I've heard a LOT of people talk about leaving the VA ARNG and going to the VA ANG. We'll see what actually happens when everybody's home, though. Good luck, whatever you do. |
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I took the ASVAB many moons ago in high school and got in the high 80's low 90's, I dont know if thats good or bad, no one really ever told me anything about my score. The readiness potentially sounded pretty cool, too bad it sounds like it will really suck ass. I like the SF cause it's not infantry, but nor is it a managerial desk job. Are there any AF recruiters on the board? |