Expert: James Bell - 11/30/2007

Question
Hi james, I want to join either the air force reserve or air national guard. Could you tell me the ups and downs of each one. My other question is i want to join as a load on a c-5 or c-130. Which one deploys more and do they both travel all over the globe? How much time a month do i put in at a reserve or guard unit as a loadmaster? And after basic and tech school, how long is ojt training? Thanks alot for any input.

Answer
Greetings Charles -

Wow, you managed to ask questions that each could fill a book.  I will attempt to answer all your questions, but realize I spent 24-years on active duty, so my experience with the Guard and Reserve is pretty limited.

Starting with the basics, the Air Force Reserve is a national organization that falls under the Department of Defense and is therefore under the President's direct control.  The Guard is a state unit, able to be called upon by the state governor if needed for state emergencies.  Of course, you also work for the President, so you have the ability of working for two bosses.

As far as deployments, each unit is on the chopping block for heading overseas.  You would need to know which unit you are looking at joining, and where they are in the rotation.  You may be looking at a unit just gearing up for an 18 month activation, or one just coming back from one.

C-130's, because of their short landing ability, are great for inter-theater deployments, and tend to spend more time in deployed locations than C-5's.  Due to the size and maintenance requirements of the Galaxy, they tend to spend less time overseas for extended periods of time.

Both aircraft will show you the world, but you will probably see it a bit faster in the C-5.  I used to fly missions that would go from the States to Hawaii, Guam, Japan, the Indian Ocean and Middle East, all in a week.  In a C-130 you would tend to fly to a "home" location, such as Japan, and fly inter-theater missions to Korea, Guam, Alaska, etc.

As far as the time a month you spend on duty, you have the standard two weeks a year and one weekend a month, but most loadmasters tend to pick up missions that go from three days to three weeks.  There are many who enjoy the job so much they volunteer for as many missions as they can, pretty much making it a full-time job.

Your total training time will be approximately one year.  After your tech schools, survival school, etc., you will enter mission upgrade training with your unit.  Depending on your training schedule, you could be in training between six and eight months.  During that time you can transit hostile fire zones, but until you are mission ready, you are non-deployable.  Once you have completed your mission ready check-ride, you will be fully qualified and subject to deployments.  You will also be qualified to perform your aircrew duties unsupervised.

That was a down and dirty answer to all your questions.  I hope I covered most of them.  If you have more specific questions on the Guard or Reserve, you would probably have to ask that to the unit you are looking at getting into, as my responses would be fairly generic and not tailored to those you may be interested in joining.

Good luck on your future.

Sincerely,
James Bell