Are you in the Reserve or National Guard?

If so, would be interested to chat with you about your experience. I'm not looking for anybody in a particular branch because I would like to get a more high-level view of what I might be getting myself into before I go talk to a recruiter type person.

And if you joined as a non-prior-service and went through the OTS/OCS program then I have a few basic questions for you.

And if you are currently involved with IT/InfoSec/Cyber/NetWar/etc, then that's even better.

My questions are centered around three things really;
- what is the drill like for a technician vs an "info sec" officer (every branch has their own terms so I use this generally),
- and how does the general on-boarding process work, and finally
- do you feel that your position as a reservist / guard has provided significant value?

Thanks.

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SteveLord

While you wait, sign up here and make a thread. Or look up some previous ones.

Guard Forums

Rappeller

I'm in the Guard and also work full time as a technician for the Guard and bonus in the IT aspect of it

grauwulf

Thanks SteveLord. There is a lot of great information over there. Signed up and just waiting on account approval.

thanks for the heads up.

grauwulf

Thanks for the reply Rappeller. I'm trying to get a better understanding of which organizations are doing what in terms of information security and "cyber". I've been able to find information on what the various reserve forces, and the Air National Guard are up to, but I can't seem to find anything on the Army National Guard. Any advice on where I might go to dig up some more info (aside from visiting a recruiter just yet)?

SteveLord

I started a thread for you. (I am a moderator there, but can't approve registrations unfortunately.)

Rappeller

If you ask specific questions I will help you out as much as I can, with the understanding I am not going to put out anything that even comes close to a security breach.

grauwulf

LOL! No really? So I guess that means I shouldn't ask what the passwords to all your firewalls are...

drat *snaps fingers*

Jokes aside, my questions are pretty much what I put in my initial post:

- what is the drill like for a technician vs an "info sec" officer (every branch has their own terms so I use this generally),
- and how does the general on-boarding process work, and finally
- do you feel that your position as a reservist / guard has provided significant value?

SteveLord

I can tell you the MOS you'd want to look at (if you don't know already) is 25B. The AIT school covers a lot of CompTIA, Cisco and even some Microsoft stuff I believe. It's equivalent to tens of thousands of dollars in training on the civilian side. The most skilled can apply to become a Warrant Officer. These are some of the fewest, but most respected ranks in the Army. There is no other way to spell Subject Matter Expert in the military. However, you need a few years under your belt before you can even qualify for the school.

Also, going Guard affords you the ability to apply for federal technician position (availability varies by state.) These have you wearing your uniform daily, but getting paid based off the federal scale...NOT your military rank. Most IT jobs in my state are GS-9. These are anywhere from $38k to $77k roughly.

Enlistment may be very easy or hard for you. Depends on your age, health and legal background. The military is at it's peak in manpower...so any flaws will be a set back for you. Also...there needs to be 25B slots in your state, or else you need to find another. Don't worry about sign on bonuses...there are few if any. Boot camp is 10 weeks. Your AIT afterward is a littler longer than that I believe.

Benefits in short. Student Loan reimbursement. Up to 100% state tuition coverage. Eligibility for USAA insurance/finance. Cellphone plan discounts. TriCare Reserve Select health insurance. SGLI life insurance.

phantasm

This thread is taking me down memory lane... good luck OP.

grauwulf

SteveLord wrote: »

I can tell you the MOS ...

Thanks again SteveLord. I'm still waiting for the account to be approved, but I haven't seen any responses over there anyway so no big rush *shrugs* I imagine that board gets quite a lot of this kind of stuff anyway. In any-case I've been digging into the archives and have already found a good bit of useful information.

You're response post above also also brought up something that I though you may want to share with your counterparts on the other forums. I've been having similar conversations with active, reserve, and air national guard units over the past few months and in every case that I can remember the conversation almost immediately turns to the pay and benefits. This boggles my mind. I realize that it is important information, if you get activated (mobilized?) it's nice to know you can pay your mortgage, but I suspect that it is immaterial to conversation most of the time. Many of the benefits are nice but there is absolutely no way the military will be able to match my current or prospective earnings, and that's OK. I can't say that many people out there aren't looking for a quick paycheck but I imagine that there are more than a few people out there with questions similar to mine, who are more interested in what they have to offer than they are in what they stand to gain. Just something to keep in mind.

Rappeller

Actually since I am currently in a line unit as a LAN Manager the only true equipment I have been working on has been the desktops and laptops at the rear, BUT!!!!!!! the new equipment coming down the pipe is to be able to set up networks in the field. see Program Details - Warfighter Information Network - Tactical - Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) I just got back from the initial training so that my unit can have the equipment fielded. I have 2 more weeks to go to dealing with the transmission portion of it. We will be working with Cisco equipment including VoIP.

Everyone

I was a 3C0X1 on Active Duty with the USAF, then stayed in that career field in the Air National Guard after leaving active duty. A couple years ago they split it up into different 3D0 career fields, so now I'm a 3D0X2. 10 years total service now.

If you want to do Information Security, 3D0X3 is what you're after on the Air National Guard of Air Force Reserve side. Although they can get stuck doing Information Assurance too.

3D0X2 = Start out as Help Desk, then maybe move into Systems Administration.

Those are the Enlisted career fields. Comm Officer slots are hard to come by. Enlisted do all the actual technical work anyway, Comm Officers just do management tasks and give briefings.

Full Time Technicians have to drill just like Traditional Guardsman. They work the same weekends. Difference is a Traditional goes back to his Civilian job on Monday.

Full Time jobs are hard to come by, there's a lot of competition for them. You pretty much can't get one unless you're either a veteran with prior service (which would include someone just leaving active duty), or B already a guardsman. So your best bet is to start off as a traditional guardsman, and hope a slot opens up. These jobs typically only open up when someone either dies or retires. On the rare occasion a new mission comes along, several slots may open up at once, but they're always quickly snatched up by people who are already in the unit.

Your challenge will be to find a unit near you that has an opening in the career field you want. Otherwise you'd be stuck taking whatever they have open now, then hope you can cross train into the one you really want if an opening comes up later on.

If you Enlist in the ANG, you'll spend 8.5 weeks at Basic Training, then it's off to Tech School. Tech School for most of the 3D0 career fields are between 3 to 6 months.

As far as pay and benefits go... if you're already employed and want to go the traditional guardsman route... like you said, the pay won't match what you get in your civilian job, which can make paying bills very hard. I've been fortunate enough to work for employers that will pay the difference in my salary for at least 2 weeks a year, which helps a lot. Talk to your employer, find out what their policies are. Minimum legal requirement is you still have a job to come back to, but a lot will go above and beyond that. My last employer paid the difference in my salary no matter how long I was activated for. I spent over 2 months gone in one year, and had no loss in income. My current will pay up to 2 weeks if it's for training, or indefinitely if it's activation for a national crisis.

On the ANG side, my experience has been that they always try to take volunteers first for deployments. I've never had to do more than my 2 weeks a year (not including initial training required for a position) unless I wanted to.

grauwulf

Excellent info folks!

So on the enlisted side for pretty much every branch (as far as I can tell) has a similar on-boarding. You go to basic, you go to tech, you report to your unit and do your thing. Two questions about tech school for reserve/guard:
- Is Technical School/AIT/etc like basic where you're gone for a solid 6 months, or is the tech school your drill activity for some length of time?
- It looks like most of the tech school classes for cyber stuff are either (A) VERY generic "here, we'll prep you for Security+ so you meet 8570" or (b) VERY specific "this is the procedure thou shalt follow when an audit log looks funky". Will I have to sit through the basic level classes? I teach Sec+ and C|EH classes so it seems like a waste of time... then again I hear I'll be very comfortable with 'hurry up and wait' after basic training

In the Officer route, however, there appears to be a bit more divergence in the methodologies. If they really love you it looks like everybody except the Marine's has some sort of direct commission program, but realistically you go to basic then you go to OCS/OTS. The Army National Guard has the OTS spread out of 18 months and it seems that it is your drill activity rather than a solid block of time. There is an "express" program that runs 6 weeks or something like that, but that appears to be a special program.
- Is that the way all of the Guard/Reserve programs do it?
- It's my understanding that if you enlist you can't apply for a commission for at least a year. Do you know if that is correct?

I think I might be getting too far down in the weeds now. Maybe I should bite the bullet and hand over my email address so I can chat with one of those online recruiter folks. (I was trying to avoid the recruiter spam)

Any information you have to add is most appreciated, as is what you have already shared!

Thanks.

SteveLord

Tech school (or AIT) would have you gone the entire duration of the training. You'd most likely do 8-10hrs of class a day and have weekends off.

While you can drill prior to BCT/AIT, it is nothing but preparation/classroom/learning ranks/ etc. You are not a fully qualified military asset until you've completed them both.

Everyone

I can only tell you about the 3D0X2 tech school, as that is what my troops have gone to recently (it has changed from the 3C0X1 school I went through). If you have any IT experience at all, it will feel like a boring waste of time. You graduate with your Security+. They go over some A+/Network+/Server+ level material as well. You can't skip it, you have to go through it.

For this particular school, you'll be at Keesler AFB near Biloxi MS for the duration of the school. You'll be on Active Status. As a 1st term Airman, you'd be required to stay in the dorms on base. They do 3 phases, but you'll only be at school long enough to hit Phase 2. Phase 1 you're only allowed off base on weekends, and you have to sign in and out, plus wear your Blues (dress uniform) when you go. You have to be back by a certain time Phase 2 you can go off base whenever you want, and wear civilian clothes, but you have to be back in your dorm room before curfew Sunday through Thursday. Friday and Saturday you can stay out as long as you like, just have to be back for formation on Sunday evening. You will form up and march to and from class every day. 3 meals a day provided at no cost at the "Aerospace Dining Facility" (aka chow hall). It's not as strict as basic, but not as relaxed as drilling or being deployed.

For the Air Force, the dorms are nice, like a hotel room. 2 people to a room. I don't know about the Army, but the Navy and Marine tech schools I've seen were open bay barracks, same as you'd see in basic training. The other branches usually love it when they get to go to an Air Force school.

tpatt100

I retired last December from the Guard, did four years in the Marines the rest National Guard. I got into IT due to night school but my first IT job was due to my Guard background and security clearance. To tell you the truth, from my experience the full timers learn some stuff and you find some good people but the enlisted people they send to school now forget everything the first year out of AIT. Majority of them have no interest in IT they just go because they heard about the money making opportunities.

Whiteout

I'm a 3D1X1 in the Air Force Reserves, Client Systems Technician. Basically anything that plugs into the wall we are required to maintain and support.For me drills consist of training and doing alot of IAO duties. New members are always coming and going from our unit and need to be provisioned to our Base. I deal with that, as well as loading certificates onto members CACs so they can login. I'm the new guy, so I get stuck doing the crappy job.

During the week, I basically work on trouble tickets and the AF is in the process of upgrading all computers to Windows 7, so I also do alot of re-imaging computers. Most of the issues I have to troubleshoot are port security issues, printers, outlook pst files, network drives not loading, and users unable to log-in.

And yes I do believe my position as a reservist has been valuable. It has opened many doors for me!

We have a cyber warefare squardron on my base which I would like to someday get into, but it is very selective. Go for something like that if you can!