What are the pros and cons of going Regular Army vs AGR?

To add to what 1SG (Join to see) said... AGR is a whole different animal. You don’t get to reenlist for your duty station of choice. You don’t have as much control over your future. Not so say you have no control, but it’s different. The AGR philosophy is “If you don’t like what we’re offering you can GTFO because someone else will take it. It’s crazy to see RC personnel competing over a position that AD would snub their nose up at if you put them side by side.

AGR is a great program when you’re coming at it from the right direction. You’re not an NCO, you’d do better in AD or else in the RC first and becoming an NCO. Don’t carry that mentality that everyone is chill because most of those chill NCOs on AGR have earned their stripes on deployments and hard work. It’s a common misconception that AGR is laid back and does nothing. On top of that AGR is very competitive. It’s usually not as simple as just applying. If you aren’t ahead of your peers in some way, you probably are not competitive.

My experience with AGR is that some were douchey, some were excellent, most were more experienced than their AD peers. All that I met were ahead of their peers in some way or other. Usually degrees, years of experience, or just excellent performers. If you’re not one of those, it’s probably not your route

I wouldn't say there are less shenanigans in the USAR. I caution against AGR. I saw desperation of the AGR program keeping many sub par soldiers in positions because simply there are not soldiers there to replace them.

I proactively mentored a Jr NCO AGR I had who was newly MOS trained as a 42A and thrown right into the fray. I could see the system constantly beating him down. He was the hardest working guy I had. I constantly had to keep reminding him the piles and piles of taskers are simply never going to end. There is absolutely no way you are ever going to catch up. Trust me I said. Focus on the ones that are being given priority at the current time, and eventually the lesser items will simply be forgotten. If you eventually get to them, great, if not, oh well. The best thing the system can do to you is fire you.

The best way for soldiers to get out of the system without ruining anything in the future was to drop a WO packet. Two of my AGR's played this card to get out. I had my entire AGR staff turn over in a 2 year period. The ACE of playing this card was getting picked up for Officer or WO makes them TPU's again.

Then if you land in a TDA unit that doesn't deploy and doesn't have any property on the MTOE is going to be a different world than landing in an RFX unit with hundreds of millions in equipment with a training OPTEMPO that simply never stops.

I am a TPU 1LT that drove 800 miles round trip for four years to my place of duty (2+ years spent in command), and finally put in a voluntary transfer request at the end of 4.5 years. Remember, I was TPU 1LT seeking transfer to a TPU position 5 miles from my home into a primary open vacancy of CPT in a Branch I was qualified for into a position of upward development. It took the actions of one LTC, two COLs and a Brigadier General to finally action that transfer.

Now........ I'm in a non equipment MTOE TDA unit and there is a full time AGR supply SGT in the unit and their life is MUCH different than the AGR Supply NCO I left behind (both getting the same pay check). One with a property book of $0, and the other with a property book of $50,000,000.

Same goes for the S1 and S3 I left behind. I left 160+ soldiers behind dominated by 100 warehouse clerks between E1-E4. So the S1 issues for that 42A AGR are going to be much different than the one I am now at with only 90 soldiers who are mostly Field Grade Officers and E6+.

Then my current S3 doesn't have to plan anything for us beyond getting us to our training events and DTS reservations. Yes, I understand it's not THAT simple, but we are not moving vehicles by rail, having equipment fall apart in the field with no way to get it back home, or having to make sure we have plans in place when we get broadsided with our mission once on ground.

One day you can be in a sweet AGR position, and then next you can find yourself in something completely on par with an Activity Duty OPTEMPO, but as mentioned, you don't have nearly the support behind you because of the 160 soldiers in the unit, only 5 of them are full time. Your commander is 400 miles away, and clueless, and your 1SG isn't full time either.

I’m guessing anyone leaving it up to the system to choose your duty station is probably not going to be put in a TDA non equipment MTOE unit.

Does AGR perform super critical jobs beyond the capability of civilians? They have to be way more expensive than a civil servant.