Active Duty or Reserves

The United States Military consists of 5 separate branches with each of those branches split between active duty personnel and reserves. In addition to these the Army and the Air Force also boast National Guard units as well.

Servicemen and women who are active duty are considered full time personnel. These individuals are afforded a huge variety of missions and are the ones who are expected to answer to emergency needs all over the globe.

Reserve units are comprised of part time personnel. These individuals generally keep their civilian jobs while maintaining their military skills. National Guard units are very much like this as well, but serve their states as well as their nation. Several units in the National Guard predate the creation of the United States.

There are some obvious differences between the National Guard and active duty personnel. While Guardsmen usually get paid for the two days per month they serve over a weekend, active duty personnel sometimes resent this. On the other hand, Guardsmen do not have access to base facilities or services that active duty personnel enjoy, and often drive several hours uncompensated for their training exercises.

In situations where both Guardsmen and active duty personnel train together, these issues are often balanced out once both sides realize the benefits that the other can offer. Active Duty personnel often find that vastly divergent backgrounds of the Guardsmen offer a world of experience in a given field, or just simple familiarity with their home region. Guardsmen find that the full time active duty individuals are able to offer help with equipment or mission strategies that benefit the Guardsmen because of the significant amount of time the active duty personnel spend on these tasks as full timers.

Very often former active duty personnel find that after separation from the service, they might miss the disclipline of military life, or find that they want to continue training for a particular skill, and joining the reserves is the perfect way to balance continuing education and training while still fully participating in their civilian lives.

Find out more about the US Military at www.USMilitary.com.