What is yall's opinons on reserve 37f vs 38b?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 17:11:10 -0400

I'm considering moving out west and re-enlisting into either a 38b/37f slot depending on NCO slots/distance away etc. Just have some general questions.

1)I've heard that a reserve psyops company is better to go to as an NCO because there is more NCO slots available, whereas Civil Affairs company/battalion are heavy on officers. Am I hearing that correctly or is that wrong?

2)Do reserve CA Battalions actually have smaller amounts of soldiers with the CA mos in them? Why do they seem to be concentrated in Battalions vs Psyop companies?

3) What other MOS is found within the Psyop Company and CA battalion? I have interest in both Engineer and MI disciplines. This is not to say 38b and 37f wouldn't be my leading MOS, just that if it came between being a specialist at either one of those or a Sgt in a different MOS, I don't particularly want to go backwards even jumping units and states. I was working on whatever the new SSD2 was and would be working on SSG. If I have to hold at SPC because all the SGT slots are filled that would influence my decision.

4)I've heard that deployments are still happening for reserve ca/psyop is that still true? I've also heard that training time is longer than typical reserve units, but I've never had just one weekend a month two weeks in the summer the entirety of my time in. And not only was that time off, it was always way off. Like a month or so at least. That wouldn't really bother me unless it is quite a bit different even from that. But even then, I'd get over it.

I originally tried to enlist as a reserve 38b way back in the day after reading Waging Peace by Rob Schultheis but eventually went National Guard because the Army Reserve recruiters were ate up and after talking with them for about a week they found me a reserve unit with the Public Affairs mos which made me shake my head and walk away. I've also read Hearts and Mines by Russell Snyder and his reserve psyops experience. Either MOS sounds good. As I'm older I'm still interested in deploying, and doing outside of the wire stuff, but not necessarily the old combat engineering type of duties. I do know that both MOS can be attached to the maneuver elements when deployed and that is fine.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 30 at 2021 11:41 PM

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 23:41:15 -0400

Psychological Operations is the way to go. You do some CA stuff in PSYOP’s but not the other way around. Not many officers, NCOs make up the 3 man PSYOP Team. Usually PSYOP‘s has more slots for Airborne, Air Assault, Pathfinder, and Jump Master courses.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 19 at 2021 7:46 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 19:46:02 -0400

1) I believe it depends on the unit and the company regarding NCO slots. (speaking for Civil Affairs). Generally there is a lot of upwards mobility. For Officers, I guess you could say we are pretty heavy on Officers, which I feel for Civil Affairs is a good thing. The presence of a an Officer gives you more credibility in the eyes of the Battle Space commander of the unit you are attached to, giving you a bit more freedom.

2) In a CA battalion, there is going to more CA soldiers in them. Like 90% of a CA Battalion will be CA soldiers, with about 20-25 in a company. I feel like I'm not understanding your question.

3)I'm not sure about other CA companies, but my unit pushes everyone to promote. They won't do your packet for you, but as long as you have all the classes and a finished promotion packet, they'll get you squared away. We have a promotion board almost every 3 months or so. We are also always sending people to schools, though soldiers with higher PT scores get priority.

Other MOS in the company off the top of my head. Signal, CBRN, Medic, Admin.

4) Yesss "deployments" haha. My unit hasn't deployed to Afghanistan since 2012. But we get yearly missions to the Philippines for Balikitan as a four man team and each company get's a turn, so every 3 years for a company. We also have yearly training rotations, for us it is usually NTC, but the last one I went to was JRTC in LA. Also, for both training rotations and Asia missions, they'll send you for 29 days and not a day over, so that they don't pay you BAH lol.

Response by SPC(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 3 at 2024 1:00 PM

SPC(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 13:00:45 -0500

Curious to learn more about this! What did you end up doing? My current contract with the Utah ARNG will end in Dec 2025 and I would like to switch to reserves CA, so trying to prepare for that as my retention NCO is starting to ask questions.