So I've been talking with an Army Reserve recruiter, I'm highly interested in being a 68W. Everything was going fine untill I started reading about Guards vs Reserves. Honestly I didn't know there was a difference, and just Reserves are what you do after active duty be Guards we're new entry.  Guardsmen say most reservists are pieces of shit and Reserves say the same and Guards. I can't tell how much of it is just "locker room" talk and I'm so
confused as to what I would really want. Any feedback from either side would be greatly appreciated

Having served in all three components, I think it really comes down to the individual unit. They are great units and terrible units in both the Guard and Reserve. I would get the feel of the unit first before making a decision. 

The Reserves are Federal units, and are resourced a little better than the Guard. Guard units have more of a hometown feel and you'll find people who spend entire careers in one unit. If you have a local Guard unit you can join, you may feel more connected to your community than in the Reserves. These are all generalities and specific units may be different.

I met some guys in a Guard SF unit from Tennessee who seemed pretty HSLD; you might want to check them out if so inclined.

Guard has combat arms and belongs to the State but can be called up by the Fed's and deployed. States may have special "yellow ribbon" college funding programs in addition to those offered to Vets or USAR. My understanding is that promotions and positions are done within the State only, so making rank may take time.

Reserves are support. Everything from engineers to finance. There are programs for college tuition assistance. They are a federal force which means they aren't called up for State issues such as floods, wildfires, etc. You can transfer to any USAR unit in the world, volunteer for deployments easier, get promoted easier due to the wider geographical areas, etc.

Both have TSP, Tricare Reserve Select insurance, same pay, earn GI Bill.

Both the NG and USAR have great and horrible units. You should go visit units you are considering joining and talk to the Soldiers to get a feel for the unit. Yes we give each other shit. I'm USAR and have worked with several NG units while deployed and never had a bad experience with them. I can't say the same about working with active duty units.

Rep 63 - MOS 18D. ..........you're welcome!


18Z50....

National Guard...not Guards.

Guard & Reserve, NO s.

It's "Guard", not "Guards"

What are you going for? College money? Training? Excitement?

Depending on the state, National Guard will be far superior to Reserve on college. Many states offer free state school tuition in addition to GI bill and GI Bill kicker.

Training will be the same.

Excitement or things to do with be Guard. Natural disaster? National Guard does state missions, so that will be you. NG Also has half of the Army's combat arms units. You want to be attached to an infantry unit and actually experience military life? National Guard.

Go Guard.

Honestly OP, if you really want to join the military, go active duty first. Then do the part time stuff.

You’ll have a waaayyyyy better perspective on part time military service.

My dad was USAR for 20+ years, 1970s-90s.   Never deployed.

He points out most Reserve units are logistics, most Guard units are typically offensive (infantry, helos, etc). Plus Guard gets called up for in-state issues too.

What everyone else says about combat arms and state tuition incentives is valid.

I would ask if you are likely to move between states or possibly overseas at any point. If you move to Germany or Japan, the National Guard can't find you a unit to drill with. The USAR can. I have seen this first hand. Even if there aren't USAR units where you are, you can sometimes sometimes find part time drilling work in a staff shop or unit that would allow you to work your day job in another country and perform reserve duties in a unit there.
If you want to move to another state, you can IST (interstate transfer) in the NG, but it isn't as easy as you'd hope.  If your state decides they want to keep you and don't want to lose you, you're going to have a serious uphill battle to transfer.

Guard myself. Worked with and deployed with all of them. There are great units and asshats in all branches and components.

You aren’t planning on moving, are you?

So, you’ll be driving to this unit which you will be joining.

Where are they? What is their mission? Do you want to be a part of it?

Fuck that recruiter if he isn’t encouraging you to do so. Some of the dummies lying POS recruiters out there are Reserve recruiters, FWIW.

And, where are the local Guard units? What do they offer? Have you talked to their recruiters?

Not so sure about the guard being better funded.  Guard depends on state money. North Dakota  was recently in the news because they ran out of money for ROTC scholarships.

That said, whenever I was it at course with guardsman, they always seem to get a rental car, while the reservist didn't.

Guard and Reserves both very heavily depend on the  individual unit.  Some suck, and some don't.. Good luck

I’ve done both.

The parts of the Reserve Ive seen were awful.  Zero interest in any kind of mission capability and an entire focus on officer careerism, generally for officers who failed out of, or were forced out of, active duty or the Guard.

The prototypical Reserve unit is some type of vestigial HQ that has no real function or associated purpose or any mission.

The prototypical Guard unit is an infantry or MP or transportation company where bitter prior-service NCOs tell stories to baffled newbies who have never been trained by anybody, all under the “leadership” of the bottom quarter of the local state university’s ROTC program.

The Guard is the better of the two.

And always, always, remember that the mission of the US Army is to produce as many retired officers as possible, at the highest rank possible.  Once you understand that, all of our mushy backasswards bullshit and stunningly malingerish defeats will seem like airy victories and stunning successes.

Lol.  I can identify with nearly all of that.  Spot on.  Prior Usmcr then NG.  Most time in NG was as a mortarman in an armor unit then an MP.   Sadly I can attest that the guard wastes a lot of their training time.   Whereas the marine reserves were some miserly opportunist time fuckers.   Pretty much our only down tome on a muta 5 was the bus ride to the field.  They had us cleaning weapons on the bus on the way back on Sunday after the two days and nights of movement to contact drills and or range time.  They did not waste time for shit.

Full-time jobs in guard.

AGRs in units an recruiters
Drug task force
Homeland response units
Funeral honors.
Techs-at MATEs an state HQs.

Take a look at what job will get your closest to a top secret clearance.    It'll pay you dividends for the rest of your working life.    22 years, active and "guards" as you call it.   11/19 series.  retired as an 11Z.     My brother, active duty warrant, got out with a TS SCI, life is easy as can be as a DA or AF civilian.    Think about it as a long term strategy....what's gonna keep my bank account full and provide me options?

This can't be repeated enough.

There is zero reason not to visit the unit before signing on. This isn't active duty, you should be able to know exactly where it is and what they do.

National Guard recruiters tend to be with the units. For whatever reason, you'll often have reserve recruiters in the recruiting stations, and they will rarely be up front about local Guard opportunities (or even the unit you'll go to signing on with them).

Edit. Holy thread resurrection, Batman!

Did OP ever sign up?

Guard gets federal and state benefits

Many more 68W opportunities throughout the ARNG than the USAR

Ah, the Army Reserve, where shit officers go to get promoted in POG jobs when they get denied command in the Active Component or the NG.  I'm not saying they're all that way, but the AR is filled with hydrocephalitic mouthbreathers who espouse warfighting functions, TLP's, MDMP but couldn't fight their way out of Somali quadriplegic infant orphanage guarded by Ru Paul.

They give more fucks about the font you used on your weekly QRB slides for the BN roll-up brief than the soldiers they are supposed to be leading.

I'd put money down that 65% of officers in the AR will complete a CCC or ILE in a branch that is different than the branch they graduated from in BOLC because they couldn't hack it in a Combat Arms branch.  The AR takes them because they think they are getting some HSLD snake eater with Airborne wings and a combat patch, but they're getting the dregs of the officer corps.

Damn man. I think we know the same people.

Was going to comment til I saw this.
OP could be an E6 by now.

There's a dude at my job (civvy job, I'm now retired from the NG after 24 years), was part of my organization, but now with another group on the site.  Was also an FA officer in the NG in my Brigade.  Was assigned to my SQDN HHC as the FSO.  I had just left HHC after my staff time as S2 NCOIC and was a PSG in a RSTA Troop.  My BN XO had been my Company XO in OIF3, and Troop Commander in OND1.  Been through the shit with this officer whom I would follow into hell whilst carrying a can of gasoline.  This doucherocket corners me and another NG guy (CW3 from FSO fuckface's BN) at work one day and proceeds to tell me he was put at ny BN HHC to "fix" it.  Shut up, FSO, you ain't "fixing" shit, we only tolerate you because you can math a little bit and know how to talk right to the pull-string-go-boom fucktards. Spends the better part of an hour pissing in the BN XO.  As he spews his self-righteous "I know the right way to do shit" drivel, I pull out my phone and live-text my BN XO all the shit he was talking about my BN and Staff.  Next drill, fuckface gets fired and sent back to the FA BN. (this is approximately 2016)

When I was in college, I was in ROTC for half a semester.  The APMS ( Associate Professor of Military Science) was a CPT I respected.  I withdrew from college to go to OIF3.  The APMS was now shitnozzle fired FSO's BN Commander.   So, now LTC Former APMS calls me and wants to chat face-to-face.  So, I meet him at BDE HQ and he tells me, unequivocally,  that 1LT crusty cumstain will NEVER get Command as long as he could influence it.  

Two months later, turdfucker transfers to the Reserves.  He's a fuckin Major now...and still a world class pile of quivering hippopotamus diarrhea.

I hope a gorilla sodomizes him with a rusty, AIDS-covered pineapple, in front of his mother.

or a Major

WORD !

Don't be a "weekend warrior"...

Currently in a reserve Ground Ambulance company. If you want to do cool shit you’ll have to volunteer a lot. You won’t do much in weekend drill.
Medical units also seem completely averse to shooting so take that with a grain of salt.
If it were me I would go AD and get the experience and pay and training and then do a Guard tour.
TN is a good state to do it.
Currently transitioning to Guard from Reserves.
Something to consider for the Guard is your command HQ will be in the same state. Not the case in the reserves.
We got to go to our annual training one year with none of our equipment because BN was too lazy or incapable of doing the paperwork to ship our shit.
Message me if you want to learn more about what I’ve seen. But i would still recommend service. Especially if young and or single.

You should go Air National Guard !

National Guards=week end warriors
Reserves= Been there.