Question for Marines in the reserves

[Tmac73]

I have been thinking about switching to reserves to go to college too instead of active duty. I wasn't sure the real big differences and couldn't find much on it.

Is it like Army reserves with the 1 weekend a month, 2 weeks a year kind of thing?

Whats the pay difference i'm sure its a big one and hows it work? I looked up the pay grade charts and could not find reserve charts.

Even if your reserves are you still covered like active for educational benefits?

[josephd]

yes it is like the Army, 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks a year.

Pay is nothing like active duty, in the reserves you get paid per drill. So on a long drill weekend (Friday, Sat, Sun. 6 drill period) you'll get right around $300 as an E-2 or E-3.

Education benefits are different also, I could get into that but this post would be pages long.

My suggestion to you, is unless you have a good job lined up and/or are really set on finishing school, just go active duty. I made the mistake of going reserve thinking I was gonna go back and finish school and now there is nothing I want more than to be in the fleet and on deployment.

[Tmac73]

good to know. Thanks, i have no set schools yet or a job that'll pay decent so active it is! I'm still going to research but that'll probably be the choice

[josephd]

good to know. Thanks, i have no set schools yet or a job that'll pay decent so active it is! I'm still going to research but that'll probably be the choice

yeah unless you have something lined up and ready for when you get back don't do it

[Tmac73]

Yeah even my bestfriends dad who is a reservist but in the airforce said don't do it unless I have a good job. I want to be a firefighter after so I hope I can ask for a new MOS since i'm only 17 still, I'm sure my Sgt. Maj my MCJROTC instructor can take care of it!

[Tmac73]

I've been looking more into it. My football coach wants me to meet with the Norwich coach about football. They apparently have reserves for the Marines go there and I gotta find out if they pay for most of it or not. But I was looking for any reservist that went to college too looking for that perspective now

[TheReservist]

About the reserves and college, depending on your deployment cycle it could be very hard. I was in the reserves for 6 years and spent about 3 of them active duty either on deployments or training courses.

[03Mike]

When you talk to the Norwich coach, ask about NROTC. Norwich has a great program.

[Tmac73]

Yeah I was not fully sure of how reserves worked. My recruiter just explained to me that they have deployment cycles almost as much as active sometimes. I'm switching to reserves my MOS i'll be picking is rifleman its one of the only ones available in July thats when I want to ship to bootcamp.

[TheReservist]

Last I heard was that they wanted the reserves to have a 5:1 deployment cycle, which would in essence be five years at home for every 1 year deployed. I don't know how that is actually working as the drawdown from Iraq has caused some of the pressure to be taken off of the reserves.

[Tmac73]

Well my recruiter told me its a 7 month deployment once every 2 years. But its not always to Afghanistan or Iraq. Its to training deployments and I'd train with other countries military with my unit. Not sure how it works. But I think its a good way to go, and if I decided after bootcamp I want active I just stay reserves for max. 2 years then go active. I just want to see if I can do reserves and school first

[TheReservist]

a 2:1 deployment schedule is what they are trying to get for active duty. Also, I know from personal experience and that of many of my friends, it is extremely hard to be able to go active duty from being in the reserves

[Mindgame]

As far as college benifits. I don't think there are any until you are a veteran, or have a certian amount of active time. As for the not being on combat deployments. There are MEU's and whatnot, but its apparently dificult to get on as a reservist. Don't have any experience with that. As far as I know every other reservist I know has done combat deployments. Maybe a 2 week at to quam or something.

As for rotations for deployments. Our unit has been every year since 03. However, they ask for volenteers before putting people on the rosters. Usually the list fills right up. I recomend not joining if you plan on going to school fulltime. We have a bunch of people who finished or are finishing there contracts, and have never deployed because of school. I honestly think its a waste of space, and time.

Now as far as being a reservist. I don't regret it one bit. I actually think it fit me much better then active. I have a good paying job, and a nice cavilian life. I've deployed, and plan on doing it again, but thats all whenever I want. Unless of course the unit gets called up because of a major event.

[Tmac73]

Its hard to switch over to active, yes I've heard but I want to go reserve first and I have the option of switching to active. I don't have the option of going from active to reserves. I'll try and see if school works if Not then i'll find out how to switch to active. My new MOS is 0311, its a reserve MOS and its locked in for me now. But I think its a good way to go and start out.

[Tmac73]

My friend, that is not a Marine but his brother is and talks to alot of them keeps telling me to go active. He said I will not have time for college.. I'm not sure have reserves work but I thought it was to help give people time for college. Hopefully that happens. And hes saying my pay would suck, I know as a reservist once a month is crap but my recruiter told me when a reservist is training for a deployment and while deployed they get paid as an active Marine.

I still hope I can attend college. I'm pretty damn poor and need help with paying so that'll be one good benefit of joining the Marines other then finally getting that title!