Marrying into the reserves

[SaltySailorIAmNot]

Hello everyone!
I am very green when it comes to anything military! My sister joined and has been trying to help where she can, but she is currently in Bahrain with a 6 hour time difference and we don't talk near as much as we want! My boyfriend joined and is currently in San Antonio for A-School. We have been together for about 6 years now, through the good and the bad and now we are talking about getting married! I'm just very unsure of how we go about all the paperwork. His recruiter told him he had to sign as a reservist but he wants to be active, I know that is a long process to go through! He may just have to wait until he reinlists, but I'm wondering as a reservist, am I able to relocate with him? He wants to go to Bahrain and it looks like I am able to go, but what is the red tape going to be!

I know this site is saying for moms, but I can't seem to find meny other groups caitered to the Reserves, if I ask around in enough places someone has to know!! :)
Any and all advice is hugely appreciated!

[Bonnie P]

Someone may have better information but here is what I know.  My son is a MA Reservist.  He signed a contract that is no longer offered that gave him two years active and then he was told he had a choice to stay active or go into the Reserves.  It was a Reserves contract and no one told him he would have to get their approval to stay active.  The problem is the Reserves are undermanned and so he was not allowed to stay active.  I know of only a couple who managed to do so.  I am afraid at this time while they are cutting back that he will not be able to go Active.  As a Reservist he may be deployed to Bahrain but he will not be stationed there.  To my knowledge wives do not get to go with them when they are deployed.  Best of luck to you and maybe someone else has more information.

[SaltySailorIAmNot]

That is what I am hearing from a lot of people. His recruiter wouldn't sign him as active and told him he could just apply for active after he got back from a-School with no problems. The reality is turning out to be much different!! He is training for MA now and I'm hearing that this rate especially isn't needed in a high enough demand that they offer contract changes. Do the reserves offer a lot of job oppertunities at least?
And thank you so much, it's really hard finding information!

[FireTeamLeaderWife aka FTLW]

Reservists cannot "just apply for active...with no problems" Dang I hate it when they are told that. To go from the Reserves to Active duty...it is not a "contract change". You have to separate/discharge from the Reserves and Reenlist into Active duty. Yes, go through the whole enlistment process again. It's not that simple either, you have to be released from your Reserve commitment , permission from your command and there are other factors as well. That's just the basics of it. It is VERY difficult to do and rare. Once you enlist in either active or reserves you have to honor that commitment. Even though it is "all the Navy" the two are actually "separate entities" so to speak (this is true for all branches) Reservists can be attached to an active duty unit or in a Reserve component in and of itself. Reservists have FTS (Full time Support - Reservists acting in a full time capacity to handle the admin and training etc. for Reservists (FTS is not available for the MA position the last time I checked.) Many enlist this way. Pay is drawn from a different pool.

Most Reservists have a "real job" and then their military commitment as Reserves. Most drill fairly close to home...some don't. (My son had to apply for a unit and one was four states away from home . He is a Seabee, and the unit he is in is four hours away)  Reservists drill one weekend a month , typically...-there can be variations with this depending on the Unit and rating that they are in...and then do their two week active duty once a year (this two weeks is not the same as a Deployment...but it is a requirement). They have a certain amount of Duty days that they have to do each fiscal year (the military Fiscal year is Oct 1 to Sep 30)  in order to get a "good year". In other words to have it count as a year served. They get points for the year to calculate that (towards retirement as well). There are also other factors required to receive a "good year". PFA's (yup, not over after BC...they have two a year and have to pass them, Medical and Dental compliance (on their Drill weekends...civilian med checkups and dental do not count), continuing education requirements if needed etc.

I digress, so, he has to do his requirement BUT as far as getting "extra days" (If that is what you meant by job opportunities), that depends on the Unit he is with. EX: right now, my son couldn't get extra days if he paid them! LOL In fact, he did not go to drill one month as he already had enough up to that month and would have "gone over" based on the rest of the Fiscal year.

Now, on a positive note...he may get into a very active Unit that may have more opportunities for extra days...not a guarantee. There may be Deployment opportunities (as well as mandatory call up)...and no as Bonnie P said, you may not go with him.

 

[SaltySailorIAmNot]

Lucky the base he drills at is only 20 minutes up the road, and I have finally found a source about the drilling twice a month and he said he can have a choice where he goes for his 2 weeks which is cool! He is still being told though that he is going to have unlimited opportunities to deploy and the deployments could last up to a year. Is there anywhere we could read up on this a little more though? He is in a-school on an afb and surrounded by people who are active with limited knoledge of reserves. I tried contacting his recruiter but he is not the most helpful! All I'm getting are rather vage answers, very frustrating!!!!

Thank you so much for information!

[FireTeamLeaderWife aka FTLW]

What exactly do you want clarification on? That he will have unlimited deployment opportunities? The length of them?

Unfortunately, those are vague. He won't know until he gets into a Unit as far as the opportunities.