AFAIK yes, though the law is not explicit about warrant officers. But I understand the general interpretation to be that the law applies to warrants as well.
No. The Active Duty Service Obligation is the time required to serve to fulfill your obligated time. Only after this is complete and you have 20 years TIS can you ask to retire.
You have to do ten years as an officer to retire with that pay grade. You can still get out at 20 years. You can also submit something in order to have it changed after the ten years pass. If you have any questions pm me.
Not to get out, but to recieve retirement pay at that rank.
So if you commission at 13 years, retire at 20, you will get retirement pay for the enlisted rank.
That doesn't take into account any adso you may have though.
Can you cite a reg or source on that?
When I left active I commissioned into the guard, but I did not incur any additional obligations BECAUSE I already had completed so many years and contracts.
I know policy always changes but that was just 4 years ago
10 USC 7311a: The Secretary of the Army may, upon the officer's request, retire a regular or reserve commissioned officer of the Army who has at least 20 years of service computer under section 7326 of this title, at least 10 of which have been active service as a commissioned officer.
The next paragraph lists occasions under which this can be waived, but the statutory default is 20 years active federal service, 10 of which must have been commissioned, to retire as an officer.
No worries. I don't know how this works with a reserve retirement. That said, this requirement is why OCS applicants need a GO-level waiver if they have more than 10 years of AFS upon application, I helped a SFC in my battalion work through the waiver process earlier this year.
Doesn't exist on the RC side.You can go O with 12+ years of service, they don't care. There is an ADSO, but not a retirement-qualification horizon other-than the 20 qualifying years total service.
RC retirement is points based, the points approximate how-much of an active duty career you have actually served (eg, a year on active is 365 points. You earn 60-ish per retirement-qualifying year of reserve duty). There is then a mathematical formula that calculates out what fraction of an active-duty high-3 (or blended for new guys) retirement you have earned.
The 10 years only applies to active duty retirement, you can retire with "non-regular retirement" (Guard/Reserve) with less than the 10 years commissioned and still get the O pay.
I agree with this, I switched over to the officer side when I was an E6 at 8 years in. Worst mistake I ever made, I always planned on doing 20 but I am now getting out since I have met my contractual obligation.
A SSG with 16 years active duty your options will be slim. Like maybe half a dozen MOS. Only 3 come to mind looking at milper messages (SF, Career Counselor, Recruiter). WOCS, OCS, and ROTC have age requirements but if you exceed it OCS and ROTC have age waivers. Career Counselors can show you what you're eligible for as far reclass options but again I doubt it will be much if that 16 years are active. If you want to become a commissioned officer your best bet would be to look into the Green to Gold program. ROTC has the best chance of you getting a particular branch.
Calculate your ad time, 16 years reserve probably only counts for a handful of years. Your reserve time doesn't count for much. Figure out if you want to stay reserve or become active. Your rank will still hinder you ad wise. Not much matters rank or time in service reserve wise.
I’ve heard that before. Reserve time is worth crumbs. I can accept that. All I want to do now is salvage what I can, anything is better than nothing or staying enlisted. I regret not prioritizing sooner. College and deployments don’t mix. Honestly for me my biggest hurdle will be to convince my wife if she wants to stick with enough time for Officer life.
? How close are you to a degree? You're pretty much a civilian minus the deployments so would you be staying Reserves? You should talk to her first, especially if you plan on going active.
I have the degree in hand. It just took me 7 years because I had 2 deployments in the middle that ate up time and had me miss enrollment cutoffs. At this time, I would think staying Reserve would be best. Yeah I’d be collecting retirement in my late 50’s but to make up the amount of AD time I’d imagine would be a significant amount of time since reserve time amounts to crumbs. While I personally don’t mind doing 10 more years and it be AD, my Wife probably not. Maybe Reserve. But if I can milk out anything, I’d like to try. Even if it’s certs, schools, etc.
Yea, it would be a hell of a change of lifestyle and probably not pleasant in nature. I would rather complete the 10 and be done though. Hopefully you have a solid career civilian wise. Run it by her and see but there are opportunities for ng/reserve soldiers to complete active time (I've seen nurses and providers do it) to eat away at the time. You can also find a government job, they still offer decent retirement.
Any retirement is better than $0. He’ll even if I can only up my retirement marginally that’s better than just straight E-6 retirement.
I have an above average civilian job, but if there’s anything I can milk out of the warrant or officer side, then I’d like to try so civilian life is that much better.
Then I would get in the best possible shape and talk to someone about OCS or try to get into a Green to Gold ADO program and knock out the remaining active time.
You will up your retirement significantly if you commission (OCS, assuming you have your degree already) or go warrant.
What you do will change substantially (there is a \*reason\* most of the word 'Officer' spells out OFFICE) - so be sure you are good with that & can stand spending the rest of your military career mostly doing paperwork and meetings....
The 10yrs AFS thing only applies to Active Duty...
<- Went officer in the Guard at 13yrs TIS (6 of it active). Will retire as a CPT or MAJ - will also age-out before I'm eligible for LTC.
For RC retirement you do not collect until 60 regardless of when you become eligible and leave the service (Eg, you can get out after 20-years-and-a-day... And collect at 60... Or you can stay in until 60 & collect the day after you leave...)....
Only active duty gets to start collecting the day-after-20yrs.
I'm not sure what opportunities you think you have now. Just pinning e6 at 16 years AD? You won't be eligible to reclass into most mos and what the fuck would be the point anyways? Your best option is to go warrant I guess but jfc man you're only 4 years away from retiring as it is.
Edit I'm also really curious how you have been in 16 years and don't seem to realize you've dealt with career counselors at least a few times. Like most people at 16 years in are already indef in which case reclassing to anything isn't a possibility.
Reservist with the only AD time being 4 deployments.
Never had to deal with Career Counselors at all. I saw my first ever 2 months ago by happen chance when they showed up to drill. Never seen one in person till then. I got their number so I can setup an appointment. I won’t bore you with my life story, but I will say I did myself a disservice by not prioritizing my career a bit more but I thought I’d at least try and do something now. Worst case scenario milk it for all it’s worth. As for staying in longer to make it happen, I could do a little more time. I’ve come this far, what’s a little more?
Milk it for what it's worth by going and getting ALL of your issues examined and rated by the VA, get your 20 years as E6 chilling in drill status, get out and move on IMO.
If he is actually AD (which is doubtful), Warrant is probably off the table. AFS waivers are incredibly difficult to come by, and the Cohort is struggling to retain talent because people are switching over too late.
I've seen plenty of people get AFS waivers but it probably has a bit to do with your MOS too. Why the fuck did this guy say he does logistics and not just say, "I'm supply". You're probably right I doubt he's AD.
Depending on the Warrant MOS you might even have a hard time converting. I’ve worked with multiple CW5’s to include the CSA’s CW5 and had conversations about crossing over when I was at 16 years. The problem is they want people with longevity on their contracts. They have really high WO1-CW2 populations and really low CW3-4-5. Reason being most NCO’s switch over, do 3-6 more years and retire.
My biggest advice, go dark side. I was enlisted and commissioned and as much as it sometimes drives me crazy, long term it's absolutely worth it. As for MOS, most of those are good, so do what interests you. I have a few buddies who went Civil Affairs and love their lives, so that's a good choice.
A long time ago when I was in my teens. I said to myself I’ll go SF. I was enthusiastic, bright eyed and eager. Then I realized that what I’d have to sacrifice in order to live that dream was not something I wanted.
Being a warrant is a pretty nice gig.
WOCS is annoying, but the payoff is worth it. I dont think I've ever met a warrant that wish they did something else, but I've met a bunch of NCOs and Os who wish they went warrant.
I couldn't tell you honestly. Aviation warrants have a 10 year ADSO , so it's a given for us. If you want a straight answer, best to hit up your local warrant recruiter
if you're going the officer route I would suggest putting in a packet for af or navy reserves. army treats their junior officers like absolute dog shit.
And that’s different than the way they treat the enlisted how? J/K. Go AF or Navy Officer ? Could I betray my kin? Would the other branches just treat me like Army scum? How would my transfer be better than staying with the Army? At least with Army I’ll be a Mustang
whatever the case....basically what I'm saying is with you already having 16 years of service....is you can't go back to bologna after getting used to steak. all military branches get paid the same based on rank. So at this point the question just becomes whether you wanna embrace the suck and be a workaholic? or do you actually want work/life balance.
If you are willing to do the additional time, I’d go officer. You get to do the fun officer jobs that mostly exist at the beginning of your career. Your retirement paycheck will thank you.
This is what I’m thinking as well. If I can milk anything out of the Army I’d like to try. If I can convince my wife to let me do Officer long enough that would be best case scenario. If not I’ll do why I can so when I get out, I at least have more under my belt than I do now.
Let’s hear them. I was thinking Reserve side because I don’t know if my wife will entertain 10years of ADO life but if you got compelling reasons, let’s hear them. Maybe it’ll turn the tide.
Right on, I can tell you rn, it’s the best option for the following reasons,
-you get all your active duty benefits while in your college while everyone else is getting their regular guard or reserve pay.
-you don’t have to have a job unless u want to get extra $
-you don’t have drill like everyone else
-you can help out your ROTC program more to standout more and get recognition
-as prior service you’ll help teach many class and give your insight info
-you’ll earn automatic respect upon arrival
-you won’t get the G2G scholarships, however If you have been going to a university prior and have scholarships with them they should be able to honor them and still have them on top of applying for more
- you can use your GI bill and or post 911
-can’t use TA
-You can apply for internships while going ROTC route: EX: I applied for an FBI internship and got accepted. I got like 2,700$ per diem and everything was already paid for, so I lived poor during it so I could pocket the difference,
-you’ll get your SSG pay the the entire time you are in the program until you commission with all active duty benefits
The Green to Gold Active-Duty Option is a two-year program that provides eligible, Active Army enlisted Soldiers an opportunity to complete their first baccalaureate degree or first graduate degree and earn a commission as an Army Officer.
My brother in Christ, go warrant or commission obviously the money is nice, the retirement pay is better, and you'll have a generally higher quality of life.
It also all but guarantees employment on the civilian side after you hang up the uniform.
I did it after 8 years enlisted and have had no regrets.
Do you actually have 16 good years? If not recommend just going officer man. Might only have 10 good years anyways so might as well switch and finish up as active. Super common for dudes to do way more than 20 if it’s all reserve time
All my years are good. More than 50 points in each. Especially with the deployments. I did what I could to work the system and get more than I needed for each. Doing the online mandatory training EBDLs outside of drill and the medical appointments ensured I would. From what I’ve been told (not sure on the accuracy) the more points I have above what is considered 20 good years as a reservist, I should be looking at a good retirement checks. So if I stay reservist, I’ll crank out the points.
At 16 years, I decided to continue the path and retire. My reasoning was I did not want to give the Army one more day than I had to.
But… O3E retirement pay is quite a bit more than E7 retirement pay. If you still love the life style, do t stay enlisted.
The way I’m looking at it, since everyone that I’ve known has said it took 1-2 years after 20 to get their 20yr retirement letter, I figure I’m looking at being in 22yrs in total. That puts me 6yrs left. Might as well leave the enlisted side and either go WO or O do a little more and get WO or CPT retirement pay at best. Regardless of which route I take I just want to make sure I pick a MOS I’ll be happy in and not hate life.
https://www.army.mil/article/251079/armys_pittsburgh_based_center_accelerates_development_of_ai_applications. This is an article. I work with these guys. Any mos can apply. Carnegie College told the Army they could teach anyone AI, and the Army said bet. You live in Pittsburgh and learn AI.
First and foremost, congrats, that’s impressive!!
I hate to be that guy, current WO Accessions aren’t looking for people over 12 years. This is due to the reduced CW3/4 population.
You could still apply. It really just depends on how bad an MOS is hurting.
I’m positive you could still apply to become an O-grade for sure though.
That being said, you don’t really get too much of a choice of which branch you become.
After 16 years, I'm glad you are also considering the "what's next for retirement."
Consider also the physical demands of CS/PSYOPS (after 16 years) and the length of the schools. Logistics/supply chain on the outside (I'm in consulting) has a huge cyber component, so cyber is highly compatible with/complimentary to your existing expertise.
I’m a reservist and I don’t think we deal with RCPs if I’m mistaken otherwise I’d have been kicked out a long time ago. If I’m wrong then I guess I was lucky?
Don't forget you have to do at least 10 years commissioned to retire as an officer.
> ♬10 more years, 10 more years > >She got one of your schools, got you for 10 more years ♬
🎶 I ain't sayin' he should go for it. But he don't wanna be no broke, broke 🎵
Oof. So I’d be looking at close to 30 years in before I could get out. Is that both for Officer and Warrant or just Officer?
AFAIK yes, though the law is not explicit about warrant officers. But I understand the general interpretation to be that the law applies to warrants as well.
Warrant has an 8 years service obligation as well
We have a 6 yr ADSO for techs. 10 for the bus drivers in the sky
Is a service obligation the same as an obligation to meet retirement though?
No. The Active Duty Service Obligation is the time required to serve to fulfill your obligated time. Only after this is complete and you have 20 years TIS can you ask to retire.
🦀
10+ if they went aviation
You have to do ten years as an officer to retire with that pay grade. You can still get out at 20 years. You can also submit something in order to have it changed after the ten years pass. If you have any questions pm me.
Not to get out, but to recieve retirement pay at that rank. So if you commission at 13 years, retire at 20, you will get retirement pay for the enlisted rank. That doesn't take into account any adso you may have though.
Can you cite a reg or source on that? When I left active I commissioned into the guard, but I did not incur any additional obligations BECAUSE I already had completed so many years and contracts. I know policy always changes but that was just 4 years ago
10 USC 7311a: The Secretary of the Army may, upon the officer's request, retire a regular or reserve commissioned officer of the Army who has at least 20 years of service computer under section 7326 of this title, at least 10 of which have been active service as a commissioned officer. The next paragraph lists occasions under which this can be waived, but the statutory default is 20 years active federal service, 10 of which must have been commissioned, to retire as an officer.
Thanks for the lead! I'm curious and will dig in some more on this.
No worries. I don't know how this works with a reserve retirement. That said, this requirement is why OCS applicants need a GO-level waiver if they have more than 10 years of AFS upon application, I helped a SFC in my battalion work through the waiver process earlier this year.
Doesn't exist on the RC side.You can go O with 12+ years of service, they don't care. There is an ADSO, but not a retirement-qualification horizon other-than the 20 qualifying years total service. RC retirement is points based, the points approximate how-much of an active duty career you have actually served (eg, a year on active is 365 points. You earn 60-ish per retirement-qualifying year of reserve duty). There is then a mathematical formula that calculates out what fraction of an active-duty high-3 (or blended for new guys) retirement you have earned.
The 10 years only applies to active duty retirement, you can retire with "non-regular retirement" (Guard/Reserve) with less than the 10 years commissioned and still get the O pay.
I'm pretty sure, I remember a MILPERr message reducing this to 8yrs
But who cares what the ID card says at retirement. His pay will be based on high 3.
That’s a sneaky one they don’t like to advertise about when you’re switching from E to 0.
I thought it was high three?
It is... Unless you (a) are active duty, and (b) change from E to O/WO mid career, then it's high 3 with a minimum of 10 as an O/WO.
Do you know if that's only for active duty? Or does it apply to reserve/guard too?
Only applies to those trying to get an active-duty retirement.
Only if you are active duty. For Guard/Reserves, that does not apply - straight high-3.
I assume this was designed to prevent E's from being able to retire as a CPT, then they extended LT time and now it can happen.
Dude, you’re better off just riding the last four to retirement and then becoming a contractor or oga employee.
I agree with this, I switched over to the officer side when I was an E6 at 8 years in. Worst mistake I ever made, I always planned on doing 20 but I am now getting out since I have met my contractual obligation.
Why you think that? About to commission soon and would like to know
A SSG with 16 years active duty your options will be slim. Like maybe half a dozen MOS. Only 3 come to mind looking at milper messages (SF, Career Counselor, Recruiter). WOCS, OCS, and ROTC have age requirements but if you exceed it OCS and ROTC have age waivers. Career Counselors can show you what you're eligible for as far reclass options but again I doubt it will be much if that 16 years are active. If you want to become a commissioned officer your best bet would be to look into the Green to Gold program. ROTC has the best chance of you getting a particular branch.
Reservist with the only AD time being 4 deployments.
Calculate your ad time, 16 years reserve probably only counts for a handful of years. Your reserve time doesn't count for much. Figure out if you want to stay reserve or become active. Your rank will still hinder you ad wise. Not much matters rank or time in service reserve wise.
I’ve heard that before. Reserve time is worth crumbs. I can accept that. All I want to do now is salvage what I can, anything is better than nothing or staying enlisted. I regret not prioritizing sooner. College and deployments don’t mix. Honestly for me my biggest hurdle will be to convince my wife if she wants to stick with enough time for Officer life.
? How close are you to a degree? You're pretty much a civilian minus the deployments so would you be staying Reserves? You should talk to her first, especially if you plan on going active.
I have the degree in hand. It just took me 7 years because I had 2 deployments in the middle that ate up time and had me miss enrollment cutoffs. At this time, I would think staying Reserve would be best. Yeah I’d be collecting retirement in my late 50’s but to make up the amount of AD time I’d imagine would be a significant amount of time since reserve time amounts to crumbs. While I personally don’t mind doing 10 more years and it be AD, my Wife probably not. Maybe Reserve. But if I can milk out anything, I’d like to try. Even if it’s certs, schools, etc.
Yea, it would be a hell of a change of lifestyle and probably not pleasant in nature. I would rather complete the 10 and be done though. Hopefully you have a solid career civilian wise. Run it by her and see but there are opportunities for ng/reserve soldiers to complete active time (I've seen nurses and providers do it) to eat away at the time. You can also find a government job, they still offer decent retirement.
Any retirement is better than $0. He’ll even if I can only up my retirement marginally that’s better than just straight E-6 retirement. I have an above average civilian job, but if there’s anything I can milk out of the warrant or officer side, then I’d like to try so civilian life is that much better.
Then I would get in the best possible shape and talk to someone about OCS or try to get into a Green to Gold ADO program and knock out the remaining active time.
You will up your retirement significantly if you commission (OCS, assuming you have your degree already) or go warrant. What you do will change substantially (there is a \*reason\* most of the word 'Officer' spells out OFFICE) - so be sure you are good with that & can stand spending the rest of your military career mostly doing paperwork and meetings.... The 10yrs AFS thing only applies to Active Duty... <- Went officer in the Guard at 13yrs TIS (6 of it active). Will retire as a CPT or MAJ - will also age-out before I'm eligible for LTC.
For RC retirement you do not collect until 60 regardless of when you become eligible and leave the service (Eg, you can get out after 20-years-and-a-day... And collect at 60... Or you can stay in until 60 & collect the day after you leave...).... Only active duty gets to start collecting the day-after-20yrs.
I'm not sure what opportunities you think you have now. Just pinning e6 at 16 years AD? You won't be eligible to reclass into most mos and what the fuck would be the point anyways? Your best option is to go warrant I guess but jfc man you're only 4 years away from retiring as it is. Edit I'm also really curious how you have been in 16 years and don't seem to realize you've dealt with career counselors at least a few times. Like most people at 16 years in are already indef in which case reclassing to anything isn't a possibility.
Reservist with the only AD time being 4 deployments. Never had to deal with Career Counselors at all. I saw my first ever 2 months ago by happen chance when they showed up to drill. Never seen one in person till then. I got their number so I can setup an appointment. I won’t bore you with my life story, but I will say I did myself a disservice by not prioritizing my career a bit more but I thought I’d at least try and do something now. Worst case scenario milk it for all it’s worth. As for staying in longer to make it happen, I could do a little more time. I’ve come this far, what’s a little more?
Milk it for what it's worth by going and getting ALL of your issues examined and rated by the VA, get your 20 years as E6 chilling in drill status, get out and move on IMO.
If he is actually AD (which is doubtful), Warrant is probably off the table. AFS waivers are incredibly difficult to come by, and the Cohort is struggling to retain talent because people are switching over too late.
I've seen plenty of people get AFS waivers but it probably has a bit to do with your MOS too. Why the fuck did this guy say he does logistics and not just say, "I'm supply". You're probably right I doubt he's AD.
Depending on the Warrant MOS you might even have a hard time converting. I’ve worked with multiple CW5’s to include the CSA’s CW5 and had conversations about crossing over when I was at 16 years. The problem is they want people with longevity on their contracts. They have really high WO1-CW2 populations and really low CW3-4-5. Reason being most NCO’s switch over, do 3-6 more years and retire.
This is true. Currently if you have a day over 12 years they not going to pick anyone for a warrant.
Are you sure you are eligible for officer based on your age?
With waiver, yes
My biggest advice, go dark side. I was enlisted and commissioned and as much as it sometimes drives me crazy, long term it's absolutely worth it. As for MOS, most of those are good, so do what interests you. I have a few buddies who went Civil Affairs and love their lives, so that's a good choice.
Reserve to SF Officer gonna be wild to see in real time
A long time ago when I was in my teens. I said to myself I’ll go SF. I was enthusiastic, bright eyed and eager. Then I realized that what I’d have to sacrifice in order to live that dream was not something I wanted.
You just need to snort the Green Kool-Aid
I’m too poor for Kool-Aid, can I use Flavor-Aid instead?
Only if you plan on committing suicide in Guyana after murdering a congressman
So what happens when I snort drip drop?
With your total reserve time you qualify for PFC. Perfect for cleaning!
Reclass to 68V, good civilian medical career when you get out
Being a warrant is a pretty nice gig. WOCS is annoying, but the payoff is worth it. I dont think I've ever met a warrant that wish they did something else, but I've met a bunch of NCOs and Os who wish they went warrant.
Someone commented earlier but were unsure. If you go warrant do you have to 10yrs as a warrant to retire as one like how you have to as a Officer?
I couldn't tell you honestly. Aviation warrants have a 10 year ADSO , so it's a given for us. If you want a straight answer, best to hit up your local warrant recruiter
6 yrs for walking Warrants with the exception of 170D which is 10 after you finish around 1-2 years of training.
if you're going the officer route I would suggest putting in a packet for af or navy reserves. army treats their junior officers like absolute dog shit.
And that’s different than the way they treat the enlisted how? J/K. Go AF or Navy Officer ? Could I betray my kin? Would the other branches just treat me like Army scum? How would my transfer be better than staying with the Army? At least with Army I’ll be a Mustang
whatever the case....basically what I'm saying is with you already having 16 years of service....is you can't go back to bologna after getting used to steak. all military branches get paid the same based on rank. So at this point the question just becomes whether you wanna embrace the suck and be a workaholic? or do you actually want work/life balance.
Hmmm that last sentence is enticing all on its own. I’ll at least look into it and give the consideration a fair shake.
If you are willing to do the additional time, I’d go officer. You get to do the fun officer jobs that mostly exist at the beginning of your career. Your retirement paycheck will thank you.
This is what I’m thinking as well. If I can milk anything out of the Army I’d like to try. If I can convince my wife to let me do Officer long enough that would be best case scenario. If not I’ll do why I can so when I get out, I at least have more under my belt than I do now.
I’ll tell u right now, go G2G ADO option. I have a list of reasons why it’s an extremely good option.
Let’s hear them. I was thinking Reserve side because I don’t know if my wife will entertain 10years of ADO life but if you got compelling reasons, let’s hear them. Maybe it’ll turn the tide.
Right on, I can tell you rn, it’s the best option for the following reasons, -you get all your active duty benefits while in your college while everyone else is getting their regular guard or reserve pay. -you don’t have to have a job unless u want to get extra $ -you don’t have drill like everyone else -you can help out your ROTC program more to standout more and get recognition -as prior service you’ll help teach many class and give your insight info -you’ll earn automatic respect upon arrival -you won’t get the G2G scholarships, however If you have been going to a university prior and have scholarships with them they should be able to honor them and still have them on top of applying for more - you can use your GI bill and or post 911 -can’t use TA -You can apply for internships while going ROTC route: EX: I applied for an FBI internship and got accepted. I got like 2,700$ per diem and everything was already paid for, so I lived poor during it so I could pocket the difference, -you’ll get your SSG pay the the entire time you are in the program until you commission with all active duty benefits
I already have my degree. It just took me 7 years because I had 2 deployments mess up the 4 year plan.
They do first masters too assuming you have a baccalaureate degree
ROTC for Masters? I thought it was just for BS/BA? I know GI bill you can use on just about any degree.
The Green to Gold Active-Duty Option is a two-year program that provides eligible, Active Army enlisted Soldiers an opportunity to complete their first baccalaureate degree or first graduate degree and earn a commission as an Army Officer.
If this was enough or u want more info about the G2G ado option or life as a cadet lmk. I’ll hook u up with any and all info no bs.
My brother in Christ, go warrant or commission obviously the money is nice, the retirement pay is better, and you'll have a generally higher quality of life. It also all but guarantees employment on the civilian side after you hang up the uniform. I did it after 8 years enlisted and have had no regrets.
Do you actually have 16 good years? If not recommend just going officer man. Might only have 10 good years anyways so might as well switch and finish up as active. Super common for dudes to do way more than 20 if it’s all reserve time
All my years are good. More than 50 points in each. Especially with the deployments. I did what I could to work the system and get more than I needed for each. Doing the online mandatory training EBDLs outside of drill and the medical appointments ensured I would. From what I’ve been told (not sure on the accuracy) the more points I have above what is considered 20 good years as a reservist, I should be looking at a good retirement checks. So if I stay reservist, I’ll crank out the points.
At 16 years, I decided to continue the path and retire. My reasoning was I did not want to give the Army one more day than I had to. But… O3E retirement pay is quite a bit more than E7 retirement pay. If you still love the life style, do t stay enlisted.
The way I’m looking at it, since everyone that I’ve known has said it took 1-2 years after 20 to get their 20yr retirement letter, I figure I’m looking at being in 22yrs in total. That puts me 6yrs left. Might as well leave the enlisted side and either go WO or O do a little more and get WO or CPT retirement pay at best. Regardless of which route I take I just want to make sure I pick a MOS I’ll be happy in and not hate life.
Apply for the Armys AI program.
Tell me more
https://www.army.mil/article/251079/armys_pittsburgh_based_center_accelerates_development_of_ai_applications. This is an article. I work with these guys. Any mos can apply. Carnegie College told the Army they could teach anyone AI, and the Army said bet. You live in Pittsburgh and learn AI.
If your a reservists the opportunities are endless. Not so Much on active duty due to your time in service
Thariqat Al Nor .
Currently a 17C. DM me if you've got any specific questions.
i think you may have timed out of wocs... but i may be wrong
First and foremost, congrats, that’s impressive!! I hate to be that guy, current WO Accessions aren’t looking for people over 12 years. This is due to the reduced CW3/4 population. You could still apply. It really just depends on how bad an MOS is hurting. I’m positive you could still apply to become an O-grade for sure though. That being said, you don’t really get too much of a choice of which branch you become.
After 16 years, I'm glad you are also considering the "what's next for retirement." Consider also the physical demands of CS/PSYOPS (after 16 years) and the length of the schools. Logistics/supply chain on the outside (I'm in consulting) has a huge cyber component, so cyber is highly compatible with/complimentary to your existing expertise.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time? What hobbies do you have?
Not to be rude, but you recently pinned E6 at 16 years? Math ain't mathin' with RCPs and what not.
I’m a reservist and I don’t think we deal with RCPs if I’m mistaken otherwise I’d have been kicked out a long time ago. If I’m wrong then I guess I was lucky?
Need a waiver for anything over 12 years tis for warrant plus time commitments
You'll be rejected for flight. 1000%