| Army Reserves? - Click HERE for Original Thread |
| 95EagleAWD |
Alright... here goes.
I know Aaron and a couple other members have been active-duty Army.
All I hear about the reserves is the slagging from reg-force guys. They all tell me to go full time, yadda yadda yadda.
I'm interested in joining up as an NCM, Infantry. My view of the Reserves so far is much like Cadets was... class training in the week and the fun on the weekends. I want to do something fun and different (Brinks is boring me right now) and Infantry seems the way to go for the most action, as it would be. I'm in decent shape and I would consider myself smart, so Basic doesn't faze me. I've heard various stories and variations, and I'm pretty much assuming it's pretty tough.
Any thoughts, experiences?
Aaron, any reservists on your deployments to Afghan-land? I'd be interested in going overseas for sure, but I'm not entirely sure how it works as a reservist.
Anything helps, guys.
Thanks. :thumbup: |
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| STiPWR |
uhmmm, reserves gets alot of slags.. Just because they only work military a few times a week.. AKA "after supper soldiers" or "weekend warriors".. but to be honest with you...
I would say go for it. You dont have to sign a contract for 3yrs. You get similar training... and yes there is alot of reservists overseas since our infantry batallions are low on numbers.
basically you sign a temp contract for 6months or whatever and you go do all the workup training and get attached to a reg force company and do exactly what we do. You can also get summer postings as a reservist to any base across canada, and get paid full time like a reg force pers.
Also you can get a taste on what its about.. with no real commitment.. Its not what alot of people think it is... And your basic and battleschool will be shorter/different than reg force aswell. Saying you are going infantry.
Going to afghanistan now is quite the experience.. I wouldnt say I enjoyed it, but I dont regret it either... kind of a messed up feeling. Keep in mind that the infantry takes the most casualty's physically, and even more mentally....for obvious reasons.. and the risk you would be commiting yourself to. Its not for everybody.
I would check out the LER's .. Loyal edmonton regiment.. I think they meet up near nait. So i'm going to say go reserve before reg force. Most of the courses you take in the "mo" can be transfered over if you decide to go to the regs. |
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| dtjohnst |
I spent some time with weekend warriors, they don't deserve much of shit that's thrown at them by reg force. There's some definite advantages to it.
As an example, I knew a guy in the Sigs Reserve who was a Radio Operator, and for his civilian life, he fixed radios for the city police. Good guy, knew his shit. And the ONLY RadOp that was on a reg force deployment who could troubleshoot and repair them adequately.
The old CO of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles was a city cop, and if anything came up regarding interrogation, or treatment of prisoners, he helped members of his unit (and other units when he was attached) keep out of trouble.
What I'm saying is, a reservist will probably never be as good as a reg forcemen at his specific trade, he won't have the time or training, but his civilian training can be an asset in situations. Besides, they give up their weekends to do this shit, so they're heart is in it. If they didn't really want to do it, they'd spend time with their kids.
When a roto comes up, it'll be tasked to reg force units. So for example, 3 RCR will get the roto with 1 ASU providing support elemts, members from 435 Tac Hel for air support, etc. So every trade will have a reg force unit responsible for filling the spots. The reg force tallies everything up and finds out they need 28 more infantry, 13 engineers, 4 drivers, 2 cooks, 2 MPs, 3 clerks, and 1 medic in addition to the reg force personnel. Orders are sent out through the various reserve commands to ask for volunteers.
At that point, if you volunteer, your CO gets your name. Lets take my example, 28 infantry needed. If 35 guys from your unit offer to go, your CO will recommend the top 28 in his opinion based on your record, training, attendance, etc. His commander will take the names submitted from all the units under his command and submit 28, and so on, until the command staff of the roto pick the top 28. It only takes a month or so for all the to happen, you get the word to make arrangements, you fill out all the paperwork for your Class A contract (more pay and whatnot), and you get all the details. This way, if anyone backs out, there's a list of people to go behind them.
Ship off for work-up (you'll do some before you join the reg force to make sure you're at least close to their standard), then do the rest of your work-up with them. Like Aaron said, you might do 6 months, maybe 8, maybe the full length of the roto, depends what they need and what you can offer.
On that note, they can never force you to go as a reservist unless the War Measures Act is enacted, at which time anyone who's been out less than 5 years can be called back up.
Watch out for Recruiter bullshit though. They'll tell you you're guaranteed summer employment and all kinds of other shit, you're not. They do their best, but the budget isn't the greatest for reserves.
I dunno what you did in cadets, but if you were Air and did SLC, BMT's joke. Standards have really declined due to wavering numbers. On the upside, Battle School will still push you I hear. Plus your SQ (Soldier Qualification after BMT) will be a bit more of a bag drive too.
All in all, anyone I knew in reserves had nothing but good things to say about their experience. Largely because if they didn't like it, I would assume they'd quit. That's the beauty of reserves. You can walk away anytime you want without penalties. So if you aren't sure, it's a good out.
Plus since you're looking at LEO, it looks good on your application. Following orders, operating within specified boundaries, working on little sleep, shift work, etc it's all stuff they like to see.
In fact, I'm thinking of signing up for the infantry reserves before the summer, so I might see you on BMT.
EDIT:
Oh, and about transferring regs, your rank will transfer as long as there's an opening at that rank. And if you decide to become an officer (God forbid, unless you go pilot or something, then I understand), you get a nice pay bump right off the bat for experience in.
There's also opportunities for full-time during the year in reserves too, but they can be hard to snag, if you wanted to go that route. |
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| STiPWR |
| you repeated alot of what I said but meh.... good post.. more than I cared to type out. |
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| dtjohnst |
| Yup, I did. I just gave more details on the same thing. |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
As an Ex reserve, it was a blast, normally they "garentee" you summer work because your off on QL training and such.
I loved the "scare tatic" they tried during the "interview" after the aptitude tests and the medical. Saying stuff like you know you probably will have to kill somebody or many people in the line of duty. I think I gave a could answer "Obviously I don't like to kill otherwise I would be in jail, I if the situation allowed for it I would prefer to incomasitate reather than kill, but I think I could kill if required" Or something to that extent.
Basic was a blast, mine was cut short 4 weeks compareed to 6, so they worked the shit out of us, but they needed to to make sure we could be shipped off to BC for QL3 for the course being run.
In my experiance, some reservists where in it purely for the bragging rights "I'm inthe army" Some just to play around witht he "toys", etc, some actually cared about why they where there. To be honest I went to one of the "open houses" and figured eh what the hey, looks like fun, during my basic I got a good appreciation for it.
When I was in I could drop out the day after I was sworn in. Once in basic the CO said he wasn't gonna let anybody drop out til atleast half way through just to make sure everybody gave it a shot and just didn't get scared out. I dunno how many people found ways to drop out early...one guy smashed a cinder block on his foot multiple times....
My unit had parade on Wednesday nights at 7pm - 10pm and saturday 8am to 5pm. Then we went on training ex's when ever we could, summer Christmas break. Like I was on the back of a ML on the way to wainwright bright and early Dec 26. |
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| 95EagleAWD |
Thanks. I'll pick up paperwork next week and give it a go.
I attended the last open house that had and had a blast. I outshot everyone with the C7 simulator they have there... that electronic range.
Outshot everyone, including the reg force guy next to me. :)
6 cm groupings at 100 yards. I was pretty pleased. |
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| huntsean |
| Hello, speaking from the point of view of being through basic & 3 years in the Navy, don't be worried. Only be worried about how disorganized everything is. One reason that I left the military. Also, there is a lot of repetition, & most of the time you are not doing the "fun" part of the trade. A lot of work & sleep (at least when you're working on a sailing ship). Ever watch Full Metal Jacket? Basic is nothing like this at all. It's only training, & not all that bad. Nothing to be worried about whatsoever. Hope this helps. |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
LOL, I can't remember what mine was... but at griesbach(sp) my unit was right next to the mini range so we went shooting quite a bit, well only the C7's it was a small range so anything else coulda/woulda been dangerous.
Also when it came time to do the yearly 13/km or whatever ruck mark it was interesting making 2 laps around the base, acroos whatever the west road is, down 153rd, then 97th, tehn 137th, full gear, ruck, webbing, helmet, rifles....
*sigh* I miss the reserves. Walking around downtown(I changed at school for Wednesdays, and took the lrt to Belvedere then drove to the base, people lok at you different when your in full uniform and wearing it properly... your not just some punk kid(I was 17).
You know kinda off topic, but thats one of my pet peeves, ingorant punk kids who wear peices of the cf uniform and wear it wrong. Shoot the other day at work, at a university, one of the web guys comes in wearing the baggy green pants and baggy green shift, so darn near full combats, but he looked like a slob. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
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| SilverNeonRacer |
quote:
Originally posted by huntsean
Hello, speaking from the point of view of being through basic & 3 years in the Navy, don't be worried. Only be worried about how disorganized everything is. One reason that I left the military. Also, there is a lot of repetition, & most of the time you are not doing the "fun" part of the trade. A lot of work & sleep (at least when you're working on a sailing ship). Ever watch Full Metal Jacket? Basic is nothing like this at all. It's only training, & not all that bad. Nothing to be worried about whatsoever. Hope this helps.
He's thinking infantry, so it's probably a little different than Navy. I was Field Engineer - Secondary role of a field engineer is infantry.
With the reserves it's different then reg force probably because you there so much less.
Basic they beat it into us the obey without thinking, just do(unless it was safe... Ohh wait most of what cf members do and train for is "unsafe" duh)
Shoot I still do it, I'm told what to do by somebody who out ranks me, I do it, normally no questions asked, unless I need instructions or more information.
The other thing with the basic, or mine atleast is they try to break you emotionally, and get you into shape physically. Shoot I dug trenches for 3 days straight no sleep, ok me and my firing team partner did, we traded off, one centry, one digging for 3 days. In that 6 day period we where in the "field" I think I managed to get 4 hours sleep the second night. They tried to get us to experiance sleep deprivation, and still made us think and move, the 6th day of this "exercise" we ran a battle simulation, gas masks rifles, light machine guns, blanks, etc. The 7th they had us do a 17km ruck march in 35 degree weather down a black highway.
On parade days, teh weekend and after dinner stuff we where constantly learning, one week wednesday radios, saturday we did the practical usage, field maintenance type dtuff, next week a certain rifle or gun.
It was fun, they had us just doing not thinking, like they would blind fold us, jam a rifle, hand it to us like we where firing, and give us 3 seconds to clear the jam, ok, if it was longer than 3 second we had to do it over and over and over til we could clear anytype of jam that didn't require disasembly of the rifles.
Then they has us doing field strips of the c7 in 30 seconds, detailed strips ina minute, then they had us doing field strips and re-assemblies blind folded(you know incase you have to do it in the dark.
Reg forces did look down at us because we where reserves, but hey, we each have our reasons for not going reg force. A couple guys from my unit dd mountain man, couple guys after 2-3years switched to reg forces. We also ade a few reg forces guys cranky, when we did our srawww(I think I got that right, the carl-g) training, we got actual rap rounds and heat rounds, not the normal training rounds(sure only a few, but still)
Sorry for the novels, just posting my experiances so 95EagleAWD has lots of information. |
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| oliek |
hey man all i can say is go reserves first, then you can see if you like it. its all in what you make of it. i went infantry in the reserves loved it but then you look at trades or what its good for when you want to get out it gets a little harder. i took a trade when i went reg force and have seen all of europe and afgahanistan and a few other places. go for it and rember basic is not what its always like alot of people quite after basic but give it a chance first
and good luck |
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| robyn402 |
i was in the reserves for nearly two years and now regs for just over three... both infantry
the reserves is fun you meet up once a week and on weekends hang with your buddies shoot the shit and drink especially when a mess dinner comes up, then go out maybe once a month for a weekend to the feild its kinda fun cuz you can have a life on the side and be in the army,
now reg force infantry different ball game, your life from 7am till 4pm belongs to the army while your in garrison you bascially sit on your thumb all day wishing you were at home unless your on some sort of course. and when you go to the feild its usually for 2 weeks or more...
as for action you can't be at war everyday, the infantry is fun when your actually doing shit like urban warfare and stuff like that but when your not its pretty goddamn boring
so here it is if you wanna go full time infantry be prepared to do alot of make work shit and sit on your ass unless your gettin ready to deploy for either afganistan or some exercise or a course
honestly if i had it to do over again i'd pick an actual trade in the military rather than infantry...
DON'T BELEIVE THE RECRUITERS.. well too much
and if your curious after three years the pay is decent i'm making about $1400 every two weeks after all my taxes and shit come out...
:thumbup: |
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| 92_WhItE_H23 |
| little tip for you, bring 2 toothbrushes and razor to basic, use one for show, and the other for your teeth aha. sleep on top of your sheets so its not such a pain in the ass to remake. |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
quote:
Originally posted by 92_WhItE_H23
little tip for you, bring 2 toothbrushes and razor to basic, use one for show, and the other for your teeth aha. sleep on top of your sheets so its not such a pain in the ass to remake.
We did that for everything in my basic, we never touched our locker, the underwear, deoderant, everything was for show, the actual stuff we used was stowed in our foot locker. I even had 1 pair of boots for show and 1 to wear.
We made our beds, and where forced to "sleep in them" sometimes the NCO's hung out til we where under covers. If not we slept on the floor or on top of everything(sheets/fireblanket).
Just need to watch for the moron who listens to the NCO that your rifle bolts need to be black, and the moron uses boot polish on his to make it black. Ours we tagged, put in a ammo box and the NCO's locked the boxes up. So by morning all the bolts where covered in polish. |
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| Invalid Zero |
quote:
Originally posted by robyn402
and if your curious after three years the pay is decent i'm making about $1400 every two weeks after all my taxes and shit come out...
:eek: Thats not decent. |
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| 92_WhItE_H23 |
quote:
Originally posted by Invalid Zero
:eek: Thats not decent.
2800 a month for part time is decent haha
question for the other post
how did your bolts get black by just locking them up? |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
quote:
Originally posted by 92_WhItE_H23
2800 a month for part time is decent haha
question for the other post
how did your bolts get black by just locking them up?
Buddy put his boot polish coated bolt in the ammo box with the rest, then due to the base we where on, got carried for about a block, tossed on a shelf, then carried back a block. so the polish spread, he didn't buff it after applying the polish, he just applied and tossed in the box.... |
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| Invalid Zero |
quote:
Originally posted by 92_WhItE_H23
2800 a month for part time is decent haha
question for the other post
how did your bolts get black by just locking them up?
Oh shit I just realised that was for reserves. Not bad then.:thumbup: |
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| robyn402 |
u mis-read i'm reg force, Cpl zero pay rate
quote:
Originally posted by 92_WhItE_H23
2800 a month for part time is decent haha
question for the other post
how did your bolts get black by just locking them up?
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| STiPWR |
| As a Mcpl 3, I was clearing 1520 every 2 weeks. |
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| dc2696 |
quote:
Originally posted by STiPWR
As a Mcpl 3, I was clearing 1520 every 2 weeks.
Thats what sucks about the military...For your sacrefices of time and having a life (/risking your life), you get pride, no money and barely any better job oportunities after you quit...I can't seem to convince myself to go join rather than stay working...Guess thats why its not for everyone. |
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| robyn402 |
| depends if u get a tech trade u got tons of civialian skills |
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| 92_WhItE_H23 |
| oh, nm then that isnt very much..i make that much as a 2nd year apprentice and i dont have to risk my life =S |
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| dtjohnst |
You can tell if someone has slept on top of their bed instead of in it very easily. Our Warrant gave us 1 warning, a bunch of people were busted it for 'cause they thought they were smarter then him.
Your weight presses down and the marks from the springs came through (on the shitty beds I had at least) so you could see them on the top blanket. Only way around it was to actually get in them.
Though I don't see what the fuss is. It takes 2 minutes to make a bed according to the regs. I also used my toothbrush, iron, rotated my boots every day, wore clean clothes, use my razor, etc and still managed 4/5 on inspections the first day. By the end it was a game: the Sgt and Warrant used to come see if they could nail me on anything and never could. (except that one time, but that wasn't my fault and the warrant new it).
Anyways, what else are you going to spend your time doing, studying? I've done both officer and recruit. BOTC they make you study and read and do assignments (like write memos and shit above and beyond memorizing technical data on weapons and equipment and principles of marksmanship and all that) and there was still plenty of time to get everything done AND officers get individual rooms that have to be completely cleaned out. There was even plenty of time to help out your mates and clean the common areas and still sit around doing nothing but shoot the shit every night.
It's the military for Christ's sake, it's not rocket science.
Infantry is pretty dead end when you get out. As are most of the combat trades. Clerk isn't so great unless you want a generic clerical job at $12/hr. Medic has good oppurtunities. They're really highly respected in the civilian medical world. Any of the tech trades are alright. Things like Traffic Tech are pretty useless but they lead to real useful civilian jobs (tough it out as traffic tech, do your loadmaster training then go work for First Air at $75k/yr). MP is absolutely worthless because the military keeps downgrading garrison policing training. As it stands you MIGHT be able to get a waiver for Depot IF you did 8 month MP TQ3 and can convince an RCMP recruiter to go to bat for you, but probably not.
But something that can't be overlooked is the experiences you gain. It might not mean a lot on paper, but everyone I've known who's gone through the CF (except the crazy lunatics who wanna kill people) are more well rounded than those who didn't, and I reason that's a direct result of the experiences gained in the forces.
Best job in the Forces right now: AVN tech. 2 years of full time training (even if you go reserves) and you come out of it allowed and ready to challenge the civilian AME exams. If you stick around, AVN techs have some of the sweetest postings next to Pilots and military Air Traffic Control/Flight Advisors. Aviano, Italy, postings to Germany (only 2 trades left in the CF that can go to Germany), Israel, Dominican, etc. Anywhere Canadian forces aircraft make routine stops, even if they're just overnights (like the Dominican), there's a few AVN techs on hand because it's cheaper to refuel it ourselves. Plus, you challenge the civilian exams, have the experience, and you're a top level AME. Put in a few years at $60k+ doing that as a civvi then get a job in the Big House in either Winnipeg or Calgary working for Air Canada or Westjet. AME's get paid better than 1st officers and if you rise to the top you're making about what a junior caption of a transcontinental widebody gets...which is over $150k/yr. Plus full benefits and pension. And you can always stay in reserves and take some sweet 6-12 month postings to Italy whenever you want a vacation. |
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| STiPWR |
quote:
Originally posted by dc2696
Thats what sucks about the military...For your sacrefices of time and having a life (/risking your life), you get pride, no money and barely any better job oportunities after you quit...I can't seem to convince myself to go join rather than stay working...Guess thats why its not for everyone.
Its not about the money.
I can Die in my bed 70 years from now and tell myself that I made a difference in the world. May not have been anything big, but helped in the greater scheme of things. (whether its mopping out taliban in Afghanistan, fighting fires in BC, Doing security at the G8 summit, Helping out with the Floods etc.)
I'm not going to Die thinking I was just a consumer of the earths resources, without assisting in the betterment of society. (REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOUR PERSONAL VIEWS ARE)
I've also learned what I'm capable of, physically and mentally. Do you know your break point? I know I can go 4 and a half days without food or sleep, with a rucksack on my back. Its nice to know what your body can withstand, and how you can better it.
Infantry may be dead end compared to other trades,when you get out of the army, BUT its the most respectable trade in the military. Always has been, always will be. You learn discipline, rank structure, respect, leadership, work ethics etc. Which IS beneficial to ANY job out there.
I didnt join the army for career opportunity's when I released. You join the army to find out what YOU are made of, and what YOU can do to make the World/Canada a better place.
I released because I had done my time, and I was at the point of my career where I was teaching more than doing. Which wasn't were I wanted to be. I did what I wanted to do, and have no regrets.
The life experience I have gained, alot of you will never understand.
I've seen places and things that the majority of you will never see, and done more traveling than most people will ever do in a lifetime.
So there's some reasoning to try it out.. haha. I'm done this propaganda shit. |
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| SilverNeonRacer |
Nothing against StiPWR,
But if you join up and go infanty or Field engineer you'll notice a small rivalry..
The stereo typical infanteer thinks they're hot shit, cause they think they're first in.
Field Engineers have a saying first in last out, they clear the mines, build the bridges etc, etc so infantry can go in. Also the secondary role of an Engineer is infantry.
Now STI was in much longer than I, and I was only reserves, but to see the little fued ot what not was kinda funny. Also I dunno the infanteer side of it.
I thought infanteer could be fun, but my major choice was drive big trucks(armoured) or blow shit up.... I choose to blow shit up :P Not much use for that training in the civi market.. well there is some.. It scares some of the people I work with I'm trained in the use of C3, C4, etc... heh Or I was.. and I still rememebr some :P
The biggest thing I got out of the service well 2 things, is breaking points like STI said.. I've gone 6 days without food and only a 2L of water during a Winter Indoc, so I was freezing my ass off while working like crazy while carrying a 120lbs ruck, and a big radio pack. During my Basic I found I could go 6 days without sleep if I really really needed to. Ok, I had a 5min nap every 12hours or so.
Also is stress tolerance... I work in a IT dept of a University, people are alwayts stressed,taking the small things way to personally and seriously. It takes alot to stress me out, I get anxious(sp?) about things now and then, like bills and such, but I don't get stressed. |
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| dtjohnst |
quote:
Originally posted by STiPWR
Infantry may be dead end compared to other trades,when you get out of the army, BUT its the most respectable trade in the military.
Most respected among infanteers....
Most non-infanteers I know think the majority of infanteers are a joke. In my experience, Medic is the most respected. Rarely does anyone have anything bad to say about Medics......except that the girls have diseases, but since the rumour is they're also easy they end up breaking even. I even know doctors who would rather work with a military trained Medic than an actual nurse any day.
The problem you run into is that infanteers are quick to pounce on anyone who isn't infantry. Being an asshole to people because of the job they do is a good way to not be respected. And even you can't deny infanteers are pretty critical and insulting when other trades are involved, especially when there's drinking involved, which there usually is. And I'm not just saying that because I was an MP, everyone hated us equally. :D Even the service Wogs and cooks bashed us.
Just seems everytime I go somewhere, the infanteers are talking about how they're the cock of the walk of treating everyone else like shit. |
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