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Question
My daughter recently joined the Air National Guard and is in Tech School. She wants to join Active Duty Air Force, how can this be done? Is there a waiting list or period to do this?
Hi Angie,
I'm sorry, but it's pretty much not possible. For details, see my article at: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/guardandreserve/a/reservetransfer.htm
Guard/Reserve members who wish to join active duty are in the same category as prior-service, who compete for a very limited number of active duty slots with active duty re-enlistment candidates. The Air force is simply not having any problems finding enough active duty members to reenlist, so are therefore not accepting any prior service applicants (including current members of the Guard/Reserves), unless they are qualified in a very few, critically-needed active duty jobs, such as linguist, combat controller, or pararescue.
I'm sorry, and don't mean to sound "harsh," but if she wanted full-time active duty, she should have applied to join the active duty Air Force, in the first place. To be blunt, the Active Duty Air Force is currently overmanned (they have too many people, right now), and are being very picky about who they accept, and "prior service" (including members of the Guard and Reserves) are not on their "priority list."
Hope this helps!
Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com
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Answers by Expert:
Rod Powers
Expertise
Rod Powers is considered one of the premire experts about U.S. Military career information on the planet. He has more than 30,000 articles about U.S. Military career information on the About.com U.S. Military Careers Information website at: http://usmilitary.about.com. Additionally, he is the author of "ASVAB for Dummies," "ASVAB AFQT for Dummies," (available in Dec 2009), and "Veteran Benefits for Dummies," all published by Wiley Publishing. He is also the author of "Barrons' Guide to Officer Candidate School Tests," published by Barron's Educational Series.
Experience
Rod Powers is a retired Air Force first sergeant, with 23 years of active duty service, 11 of those years as an Air Force First Sergeant. He has helped thousands of military members, recruits, and military applicants since he took over the About.com U.S Military Careers Information site in 1999. He has a reputation for "telling it like it is," so questions may not be answered based on "what you want to hear," but will be answered based of the bast available information, concerning the service/situation.
Education/Credentials
Rod is a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Noncommissioned Officers Academy, the Air Force Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy, and the Air Force First Sergeant Academy. He also holds an Associates Degree in Personnel Administration from the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF).
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