Straight talk

[mnaalbritton6]

I am prior service. I have been thinking about going back in. I have thought about just so to speak "throwing my name in the hat" and if I get deployed so be it. I have 8 years of service about half of it Guard time. My 10th wedding anniversary is coming up and I wanted to wait till after then to do anything about my guard thoughts. Especially with the real possibility of deployments. We already have a 7 day cruise planned out and paid for. I do not want that messed up in any way. I called a recruiter up the other day just to ask a couple questions, i was upfront with him about my anniversary plans, he told me there is a Unit at Camp Blanding that is non-deployable, the only way you can get deployed from it is to volunteer. He said you could sign up now and still not have anything interfere with your plans, he said we would make the chain of command aware of it so drill weekend would not interfere. I was in one unit the whole time I was in the guard. They were pretty understanding about make up drills etc... The only place we deployed was to fight fires. I am by no means "Wet behind the ears" and have delt with recruiters before. I am simply uninformed as to policies and procedures in regards to deployments. I have never heard of such a thing as a non-deployable unit. According to him this unit keeps Camp Blanding going so to speak. Is this guy blowing smoke? Is there any way my anniversary plans could get ruined? Should I wait till after the anniversary to sign up to avoid any conflicts? Please only reply to this if you have answers or have experience with something similar or you are a recruiter etc... Thanks

[PARecruiter11B24]

I am prior service. I have been thinking about going back in. I have thought about just so to speak "throwing my name in the hat" and if I get deployed so be it. I have 8 years of service about half of it Guard time. My 10th wedding anniversary is coming up and I wanted to wait till after then to do anything about my guard thoughts. Especially with the real possibility of deployments. We already have a 7 day cruise planned out and paid for. I do not want that messed up in any way. I called a recruiter up the other day just to ask a couple questions, i was upfront with him about my anniversary plans, he told me there is a Unit at Camp Blanding that is non-deployable, the only way you can get deployed from it is to volunteer. He said you could sign up now and still not have anything interfere with your plans, he said we would make the chain of command aware of it so drill weekend would not interfere. I was in one unit the whole time I was in the guard. They were pretty understanding about make up drills etc... The only place we deployed was to fight fires. I am by no means "Wet behind the ears" and have delt with recruiters before. I am simply uninformed as to policies and procedures in regards to deployments. I have never heard of such a thing as a non-deployable unit. According to him this unit keeps Camp Blanding going so to speak. Is this guy blowing smoke? Is there any way my anniversary plans could get ruined? Should I wait till after the anniversary to sign up to avoid any conflicts? Please only reply to this if you have answers or have experience with something similar or you are a recruiter etc... Thanks

It is very possible that the unit the recruiter is talking about is called a TDA Unit. They are units that support other units and posts and do not have a lot of equipment. They are units that typicly do not deploy. Best thing to do is talk to your recruiter and if you feel you need to get the name and phone number of the unit and call them up and ask them about the unit. I am not saying don't belive your recruiter. There are units like he is discribing. Give him a chance. Not all recruiters try to do shady deals. Most if not all are upstanding NCO's.

[VTguard]

While it is true that there are units that are considered non-deployable assets, that does not mean that the soldiers in that unit are not deployable. Here's an example:

In Vermont there is an aviation unit that is a state asset. (Det 2 A/1-224th Security and Support Battalion). Their missions range from Search and Rescue, to Surveilance and Counter-Drug operations. They assist local , state and federal law enforcement agencies in performing their duties. While the unit is not deployable, each unit member holds an MOS that could be needed by another unit and that soldier could be attached to the deploying unit to fulfill manning requirements.

I would recommend asking to speak with the commander of the unit you are considering being assigned to and ask the hard questions about the possibility of deployments if that is something that concerns you.

[teachermike]

Married 14 years...I would wait until after the anniversary. Why chance it? An angry drill Sgt. is one thing...an upset wife is quite another. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[mnaalbritton6]

In advance I would like to thank you all for the input. Perhaps the way I worded my post sounded negative towards recruiters. I apologize for that, I did not mean to label all as bad. There are a few out there. I would agree that most all of them are good folks. Due to the type of job they have they can sometimes be kinda "salesmen like" in their approach, that was all I was meaning. Thankyou again for the input.