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Should you join the Guard or reserve?

If you think leaving active duty to join the National Guard or reserve means no more deployments, think again. Prior service and prior deployments won’t keep you on home turf.

But if you manage your transition from active duty to the Guard or reserve wisely, you could guarantee that you won’t head out on another deployment for at least two years.

When Army National Guard Staff Sgt. James Howard left active duty in 1997 after fulfilling his eight-year obligation to the Army, he’d had his fill of deployments.

Now he’s one of 3,000 members of the Arkansas National Guard’s 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team who received orders in October to prepare to deploy to Iraq. He’s also one of 1,600 soldiers in the brigade who have already gone to Iraq or Afghanistan at least once.

Howard served as a military policeman in the Army and deployed twice to Haiti — once for five months, once for eight — then went to Bosnia for another nine months. After separating, he entered the police academy and became a police officer in Arkansas.

But a year later, he said he felt the call to serve his country again, this time as a citizen soldier.

“Everything changed after Sept. 11,” Howard said. “My unit was activated for homeland security missions, and we deployed to Egypt. We left in October 2001 and came back in July 2002. Then I was activated again. I was sent to Iraq in 2004. This will be my third deployment in the Guard.”

Deployment track record

The Guard and reserve recorded the following stats from Sept. 11, 2001, to Oct. 31:

• More than 455,000 members deployed, and as of May, more than 575,000 had mobilized.

• Nearly 30 percent of Army National Guard and more than 35 percent of Air National Guard members deployed.

• The Coast Guard Reserve deployed at the lowest rate, less than 1 percent.

Some 73,000 members of the National Guard have been alerted for activation as a result of 2007’s troop surge in Iraq, and more than 6,000 are at mobilization stations.

“They’re going to support missions in operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, the Balkans, Multi-National Force and Observers Sinai, the Horn of Africa, Guantanamo and [continental U.S.] support,” said David Germain, the Plans, Training and Mobilization Support deputy division chief for the National Guard Bureau. “They are mobilized for one year plus 30 days’ leave and will be on the ground for different periods inside that time. ... Almost every state is involved.”

Who’s most likely to deploy?

If you’re considering joining the Guard or reserve, the formula for determining whether you’ll deploy is simple: There isn’t one.

If you’ve served on active duty, you have no greater guarantee that you won’t deploy than those joining the military for the first time. That’s because the decision to deploy units is based on what each unit does and how critically the Army or another branch needs those skills.

“There are some military occupational specialties that might lessen the likelihood of deployment, but not very many,” said Randy Noller, National Guard public affairs officer.

Noller explained that Guard and reserve members who serve in public affairs units or military bands, for example, aren’t in high demand and aren’t likely to wind up in a war zone.

Those in other military occupations should consider themselves deployable.

“Most units of the Army National Guard, with the exception of the generating force, have and will deploy on a regular basis,” Germain said. “Units such as engineer, explosive ordnance disposal, aviation and military police are actually in higher demand than the combat brigades.”

The bottom line? Unless a service member has a contractual agreement, the decisions regarding deployment and frequency of deployment are up to the adjutant general.

Two-year reprieve

Deployments may be unavoidable, but there are ways to put some distance between them.

“Some soldiers who join the Army National Guard as they leave active duty are in a category that provides for no deployments for two years,” Germain said.

The Georgia National Guard has seen 9,000 of its 12,000 troops activated since Sept. 11, 2001. Recently tapped again, members of the 48th Infantry Brigade have been ordered to prepare to deploy to Afghanistan to train Afghan national security forces.

Even so, Georgia ranks in the top three states for recruiting.

“I’m at 180 percent of my prior service accession mission,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Carden, commander of the Georgia Army National Guard’s Recruiting and Retention Battalion. “Some soldiers leave active duty because they’re seeking stability. Plenty of soldiers have been deployed three out of five years. So as they transition, we offer them a 24-month stabilization policy. Even if their unit is deployed, they don’t have to go.”

The Navy Reserve allows service members transitioning from active duty a six-month window to sign up for its two-year involuntary mobilization deferment. From seven months to 12 months past separation, prior service members qualify for a one-year deferment.

For the Army National Guard, you need to sign up before separating from active duty to get the two-year reprieve.

“If you’re out for even one day ... it’s too late to get that contract,” Carden said. “The key is to transition straight from active duty to the reserves. If a soldier has an MOS that’s not available, we’ll reclassify them and get them a new MOS.”

The Marine Corps Reserve requires that you’ve completed a combat tour in the 12 months prior to leaving active duty to qualify for its program. The no-deployment pass is good for 24 months from the date you completed active duty, no matter when you join the Reserve. The Air Force Reserve and Coast Guard Reserve don’t offer such an incentive.

In a policy dated May 15, 2007, the Army Reserve began offering a deferment from involuntary mobilization for a period of 24 months to active component soldiers who transfer directly to a Troop Program Unit; reserve component soldiers who transfer from the Individual Ready Reserve and are returning to a TPU of the Selected Reserve and who have completed their prior Selected Reserve obligation; and IRR soldiers whose last period of service was in active duty or active service incurred by mobilization orders.

Even with the possibility of deployment, Carden said prior service members join the Guard and reserve for the same reasons they initially joined the military.

“Soldiers want three things. They want to be part of something bigger than they are, and that means they want to wear the uniform. They want to get paid. And they want to be trained. This is what we give them,” he said.

Deployment, Carden said, isn’t an issue in the long run.

“I’ve seen plenty of prior-service soldiers with a two-year deployment waiver who want to go when their unit is called,” he said.