First of all welcome but I can't believe I'm welcoming you I haven't been here for soooo long. But anyway, what is your son's rate? When I first came on board as a mother which is about 5 years my son's contract will be up soon as an active reservist at 6 years. It sounds like you were told the same thing we were many years ago. Which is if you join as a reservist and go through A school then C school you could "possibly" go/change over to active then. Well it depends on the rate and the billets they nee to fill and right now the budget. Debbie Downer here I've been disappointed as a mom that he was able to choose active vs. reserve without my advise but it is what it is. He has had a couple voluntary deployments but you have to be very proactive and search for those. Like I said his contact is almost up and he has had no mandatory deployments his rate was IS he went to A school but not C school so he switched to bosenmate