Aircrew reservist

[FlyNavy]

Originally Posted by Redfishbluefish

Hi everyone!

I made it through MEPS with flying colors and landed the rating I wanted! I'm beyond excited for April to get here but still left with lots of questions.

I can't seem to get any information from the recruiters or google about how the training differs for a reservist. It certainly doesn't make sense for the Navy to spend what appears to add up to over a year of training just to let me go back to my regular job and train once or twice a month...

I realize the specialty schools (the A school?) come after NACCS so I wouldn't know which specific school I would get til then but they seem fairly similar in length.

That being said, looking through the rating cards it looks like it's basic, NACCS, the specialty school, SERE, then an undetermined number of weeks in the flight squadron? Yes? But from talking to an aircrew physical trainer today he made it sound like I'll be skipping out on a lot of this because I'm not active so the Navy has no reason to give me all that training... More like I'll be a flight attendant of sorts with the least training they can give me.

Does anyone have any experience with how all this works for a reservist? Wish I could go active but the family is barely tolerating this decision. =(

Really appreciate it!

The vast majority of reservists will go to VR squadrons and help out with things like cargo and passenger (aka Pax) flights, typically on C-40s or something similar. Flight Attendant is a crappy term for it; they're usually responsible for getting the aircraft ready to go and managing the passengers and cargo.

You won't be doing anything like P-8's, EP-3's, or things like that. A very select few of FTS reservists got into the P-3 Flight Engineer program for reserve squadrons, but it doesn't sound like you're FTS.

It's not a bad gig at all though. Hopefully you make it through the pipeline and Haasino and I will see you in the air! Fly Navy!!

/r
CTT1

[Redfishbluefish]

Thanks for the encouragement!

As soon as I posted that I see someone else asked very similar questions a few years ago. Im in a similar spot as him in that I definitely don't live anywhere near a naval air station (upstate NY). Most of the aircrew related training I'll be doing will probably be contained mostly in the 2 weeks where I travel to an air station to train with them. Is that correct pretty much?

I was really hoping during my time in the Navy I'll get at least one deployment! I have no idea how the process works but I'm told you can submit something saying you volunteer to be deployed. (Not just deploy if your unit does). However the aircrew trainer I was talking to said it's probably unlikely in general that I would deploy as an aircrew reservist. Is that pretty consistent with what you've seen?

[FlyNavy]

Originally Posted by Redfishbluefish

Thanks for the encouragement!

As soon as I posted that I see someone else asked very similar questions a few years ago. Im in a similar spot as him in that I definitely don't live anywhere near a naval air station (upstate NY). Most of the aircrew related training I'll be doing will probably be contained mostly in the 2 weeks where I travel to an air station to train with them. Is that correct pretty much?

I was really hoping during my time in the Navy I'll get at least one deployment! I have no idea how the process works but I'm told you can submit something saying you volunteer to be deployed. (Not just deploy if your unit does). However the aircrew trainer I was talking to said it's probably unlikely in general that I would deploy as an aircrew reservist. Is that pretty consistent with what you've seen?

Training for you will probably just consist of Boot, NACCS, and A-school. I don't see them sending a reservist to SERE, since you're mission doesn't require it. Bear in mind sending someone to school costs thousands and thousands of dollars, so if you don't absolutely need it for something they usually won't send you. They might let you go later on, but I wouldn't bank on doing it during your initial pipeline.

As far as deployments go, in the reserves they are referred to as "mobilizations" or "mobs" (pronounced 'mobe', like the beginning of mobilization) for short. The reserves don't deploy units like the active duty side does, they deploy individual sailors (unless you're a Seabee; they're kind of special but still different). So for you to deploy, an active duty command would advertise the need for someone of a certain rate/rank/NEC to come to location X to do a certain job. If that interested you, you would contact your chain of command, who would then route that interest up to the mobilization coordinator, who would then make the decision on who goes. As an aircrew reservist the chances of you getting tapped for one unwillingly is highly unlikely. However that doesn't stop you at all from applying to ones that are advertised that interest you. The opportunities also range from your own aircrew type duties to other things like going to help with a military exercise, forward deployed support, or whatever they might need. There are a lot of opportunities that aren't rate restricted.

A mob listing will look something like this (totally making this up for an example though; it's not real):

INTELLIGENCE ANALYST
Rate/Rank: CTT/E4-E6 (will also accept IS or CTR)
Location: Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti
Training Time: 95 days
Boots-on-ground: 275 days

Duties: Member will support intelligence tasking in support of AFRICOM and expeditionary operations.

Interested parties please submit your request through your chain of command to your regional mobilization coordinators.

/r
CTT1