After Commission...Guard or Active Duty?

Question

I am currently in my college ROTC program serving under the SMP program for the Army National Guard. I really do enjoy the guard and what it has had to offer me, but i am beginning to wonder what the pro's are to being an officer in an Active duty environment in comparison to remaining in the NG. Any help would be great.

Thank You

Answer 1

If my son's experience is any judge (he was NG, and died when his squad was ambushed with a roadside bomb) serving in the National Guard gives you something to do every other weekend when other folks at work are fishing or chasing tail.  One drill weekend is usually at the local armory, the other with the rest of the division at the divisional armory.

If you like NG work anyway, it sounds like a good posting.  Just don't count on your unit not being Federalized and sent somewhere horrible with lead in the air,  All that stuff on TV about the Guard and Reserve components being the backbone of the Armed Forces turned out to be true.  

And if your location suffers from hurricanes or other severe weather, look forward to wading through lots of rain and snow.  My son's unit got called up by the Governor every time a hurricane landed.  NG units wind up doing a lot of "consequence management" after disasters.

Oh, after 9/11, the nation's NGs wound up guarding all the big airports, oil terminals and refineries, power plants - anything Homeland Security figured was a high-value terror target, until it became obvious that Obama bin Laden had turned his attentions to the Persian Gulf, Southern Asia and the Sulu Peninsula.  Just be warned, that could happen again.

Answer 2

in active duty, u live on or near base and attend your daily activities: running,drilling, cleaning weapons, etc. NG u start off with a tour of duty, and then once a month your states' guard division meets at an armory or barracksa and drills for the weekend.