Which lifestyle is better for officers? Active duty vs. GS+ Reserve?

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 15 May 2021 12:28:01 -0400

I am okay being on active duty, but I do wonder sometimes whether it really is worth the commitment. Just like many, not being able to settle down in one place, having to wake up in the middle of the night because someone doesn't know how to figure something out, or messed up, and being away from family, a massive amount of suck-ups and bureaucracy, etc are what I really do not enjoy about being on active duty. The biggest upside with active duty is that I get to have a pension before mid-40s, but even with this, I most likely would have to keep working since the pension after just 20 years isn't that much to support my family. Just trying to hear some ideas and opinions. Please share your thoughts.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made May 15 at 2021 12:35 PM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Sat, 15 May 2021 12:35:54 -0400

Don't go Active Duty if you can't commit 100%. That is what the army needs. It does not need people who are retired on Active Duty.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made May 15 at 2021 12:42 PM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 15 May 2021 12:42:16 -0400

I've been Active, Guard and now Reserve and they are all a little different. You will run into issues with people in any organization, not just the military. Moving alot is a challenge unless you stay single or have a family that is committed to the lifestyle.
I would focus on having a plan to get off active duty the entire time you are active. If you have a plan for that it doesn't really matter if you make 20. I resigned off active duty at 17 years and took a government civilian position. It's probably the best career move I ever made. I am on track to pick up my last few years of active service and retirement only a few years behind my peers but I'll have my civilian position waiting for me when I do.

There are no bad choices here, only different ones.

Feel free to contact me if you'd like.

Response by SGT Joseph Gunderson made May 15 at 2021 2:16 PM

SGT Joseph Gunderson — Sat, 15 May 2021 14:16:09 -0400

If you must ask this, please go reserves.

Response by 1LT Voyle Smith made May 15 at 2021 2:17 PM

1LT Voyle Smith — Sat, 15 May 2021 14:17:05 -0400

I went to work as a civilian Intel analyst for the AF right out of college; a year and a half later, I took “military leave” and enlisted in the Army to dodge the draft. Commissioned a year later from the Infantry School at Ft Benning, then ten months at Ft Bragg, then a year with the 1st Cav Division, and I was released from active duty and returned to my civilian job with AF Intel and stayed with them for the next 26 years. I didn’t mind being awakened in the middle of the night; that happened in the Army and in my civilian job. That goes with the territory in a leadership position. As for separation from family, that’s the tough part. You never recover that time you spent away from them. And it’s tougher on them than it is on you. Your wife bears the burden of your service. I say, if you want a career in the Army, don’t get married until that job is done. I went in all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and came out less than three years later an old man.

Response by Sgt Jim Belanus made May 15 at 2021 4:42 PM

Sgt Jim Belanus — Sat, 15 May 2021 16:42:24 -0400

active duty is no worse than the corporate world, The same patterns on the outside as inside, butt kisser, buck passers and idiots at times as supervisors. One benefit in military you can always transfer.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 15 at 2021 6:00 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 15 May 2021 18:00:24 -0400

If you're a 1LT then you probably joined under the Blended Retirement system. Since you're fairly new it's understandable that you aren't very familiar with retirement pay yet. While the BRS pension is less than the legacy, you will still net a pretty penny in retirement. If you stay to retirement you will be an O4 at the very least. If you look at O4 at 20 years right now, that's $8574. 40% of that is $3429. Of course, that's your pretax amount. After federal taxes that is $3167 a month at today's rate. That amount will increase every year with the same pay raises as the military. That's about $35k a year, certainly not enough to raise a family for a young LT but actually more than enough for someone who has paid off their house and car before separation.

But wait - there's more. Because you will be retired after 20 years you will also receive your disability as well. Of course, you aren't disabled and there is no reason to expect you will be. But all that normal wear and tear of 20 years are claimable. It's not uncommon for people to receive 100% complete and total ratings after 20 years. 20 years of anything will take a toll on your body. What's claimable, you might ask? That rotator cuff that sticks because you didn't learn proper bench press technique. That neck injury from the jerk that rear ended you. That wrist and back pain from sitting and typing all day. Plantar fasciitis from being on your feet in boots all day. That torn meniscus from coming down wrong playing basketball with your kids. Any surgeries or injuries you have while on active duty. If they're injuries incurred during training events like NTC or a deployment there are added tax incentives as well. The pay for 100% rating with your spouse (assuming your kids are grown) is $3100 a month. 90% is around $2000 a month. It increases incrementally with more dependents. Possibly all of it tax free. So now you're looking at $5,000-6,000 a month post tax. That's enough money that you can take a job you want vs a job you need.

There are additional benefits as well. Tricare health insurance is very inexpensive compared to civilian or even GS employee health insurance. That's a savings of hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month. Depending on your rating you may even qualify for education benefits for your children. There are more compensations that go to it as well. My wife explained them to me when she was a PEBLO, but the VA has a dizzying amount of rules, formulas and benefits I could never wrap my head around all of it.

I can tell you that now that I'm at 19 years the sense of freedom I feel knowing that I can walk away to anywhere in the world and not need a certain pay level to survive. I could keep doing what I'm doing now, I could move to another country with a lower cost of living and live off my pension or I could pick up a GS job and move around the world a few times.

I know plenty of retired E7s who bought a home and paid it off before retirement, who now live very comfortably doing a low stress job they enjoy simply because of their pension. It is absolutely the best perk to the military and it can't be beat.

Response by CWO3 Private RallyPoint Member made May 15 at 2021 6:17 PM

CWO3 Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 15 May 2021 18:17:23 -0400

One shouldn't join for a lifestyle, unless they want to go all in and eat snakes. It's what you make out of it, after all is said and done.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made May 15 at 2021 8:47 PM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 15 May 2021 20:47:20 -0400

Don’t think the reserves/guard side as an officer is roasy. You don’t have the support staff you have in active duty. Often times your soldiers are states away and working full time jobs as well as being soldiers. You will put in a lot of unpaid hours outside of drill weekends and deployments are fast and unplanned depending on what is going on. You also have to balance a full time civilian career often times for bosses who don’t care that you are in the military and seem to make things as difficult as they can for you to be a civilian soldier.

I know personally I would have went active duty but due to my personal family situation and a special needs child it was just too difficult. A deployment here and there are more manageable than moving every 2 years. As others have said too when you are active duty you are always on the clock in terms of injuries and life issues. You don’t have to play the line of duty game for issues and you get your retirement when you hit 20 years. Reserves you’ll wait decades for your retirement.

Either way you choose as an officer be prepared to lose a lot of personal time and unpaid hours to make things happen and be a good officer. Don’t like the sounds of it then I would pop smoke now.

Response by MAJ William Smith made May 15 at 2021 8:51 PM

MAJ William Smith — Sat, 15 May 2021 20:51:01 -0400

I think that you will find the same problems with either AD or Guard or Reserve. In the reserve components, you must also find and hold a civilian job while serving. Leaders in the reserve component do much more than weekend drill and two weeks in the summer if they want their careers to progress. Additionally, I watched a great many new lieutenants deploy over and over in the early 2000s while trying to get a civilian career started between deployments. The lesson of the early GWOT is that you can expect to deploy sometime in the next twenty years. When you do, you will leave your civilian career and family behind. Then the Army will be done with you for a period of time and leave you to pick up the pieces. However, you are not AD. You will not have the supports that the AD lifestyle gives.

I had a passion for my civilian work and enlisted intending to do one term. I surprised myself by going to OCS and retiring 23 years later. My father was an old school NCO and wanted me to go AD. I once told him that the main difference between AD and the NG is that AD is on call to deploy 365 days a year and that the NG is only on call to deploy 365 days a year.

Civilian careers can be very rewarding. Mine is. I am certainly not trying to scare you away from this path. Just be realistic.

Response by LTC Gary Earls made May 16 at 2021 2:03 PM

LTC Gary Earls — Sun, 16 May 2021 14:03:06 -0400

I had planned to make the Army my career but I and many others were riffed in 1973. I ended up in the Army Reserves and retired after twenty eight years of service. We got points for the amount of time on duty. You got four points for drill weekends. My monthly retired pay is about $ 2500. They deduct my VA disability pay from my retirement pay. I have friends who retired from active duty and then went into the Civil Service. They are now collecting two retirements. :-)

Response by MSG William Wold made May 16 at 2021 10:07 PM

MSG William Wold — Sun, 16 May 2021 22:07:31 -0400

I did 3 Active, one of those was in Vietnam. I was about to re enlist (top was going to give me his boat if I did).I’m stationed 2850 miles away from home. Anyway about that time my dad contacts me, the hometown hardware store he’s worked at since 1959 is going to be sold and if it was getting out I could live in the upstairs apartment and help him run the store. Told him I’d think about it. That evening I walked into the club and on the board was a notice; Getting out? How about a 60 day early out in exchange for one year in your hometown National Guard unit and get credit for a full year?
Next day I signed up, and by weeks end I was driving home. Surprise!
Well someone had swooped in and bought the store, and dad went to the local NAPA parts store.
So I did a semester of Diesel engines and virtually taught a portion of the course.
The instructor gave me a certificate of completion. I got a job at a fiberglass boat production company for a couple years. A couple Mil- Tech positions came up at the unit and I was accepted in December 76. Had a few ups and downs, at times I was ready to walk. But hung in there.
Retired as an MSG and GS11 in 2007. 2010 I started receiving my military retirement. Unfortunately in all this I had a marriage of 29 years and 5 children go down the tube. My ex gets $22k annually out of the two combined retirements.

Response by CSM Eric Biggs made May 17 at 2021 6:48 AM

CSM Eric Biggs — Mon, 17 May 2021 06:48:14 -0400

Sir if you’re asking this question, I would recommend paying the military back for your education and not joining at all. What you are talking about is almost everything leaders deal with. As an officer you don’t have an option, you are a leader. Yes you may have less of these things you mentioned when you are in compo 2 or 3, however you will be expected to deal with them as if you were compo 1. You simply can not get away from the irritating responsibilities of leadership.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made May 17 at 2021 1:13 PM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 17 May 2021 13:13:59 -0400

I'd like to add I've just about seen everyone in their careers (regardless of what they do) contemplate taking different paths or changing them. I don't have a solution for you or anyone, but we all face this.

What do they say?

The grass is greener?

Honestly.... The reserves can bury you as well. You have to find something that works with your civilian obligations and your reserve OPTEMPO. No one is going to be straight up with you in that regard, and on the surface you are going to be pointed toward the units in desperation for manpower to meet OPTEMPO needs.

Maybe your civilian obligations may or may not be able to work with this. Now they say, and federal laws support it that for the most your your USAR commitment takes priority. If you are self employed this will hurt you more than help you. Also, in regard to USAR comes #1, over 20 years that will eat at you. So you'll either learn to navigate in the system or not.

Every CMS, every COL I look up to has figured out how to work the USAR system best for their life situation. Otherwise, you are on your heels the whole time just trying to keep a job and relationship from straining.

You mention getting calls in the middle of the night. Well at least you are on the clock for that, and don't have another employer you are obligated to work for. You're not at your civilian work desk taking a weekly leadership conference call with your BC about the readiness of your company, and all while trying to not be noticed.

I like to say if no one is happy with the job you are doing between all of your conflicts then you are at least giving them each equal time.