greetings,

i am in the process of trying to re-enlist into the Marine Corps Reserves.

I need some intel on what a Reservists life is like.

I am in touch with prior service recruiter as well, but i wanted to get a more realistic picture from someone who is there already.

what is a drill weekend like? is it an actual weekend? is it longer? (i wasn't sure how rifle qual would work)

i understand about the very real possibility/inevitibility of being activated/mobilized and deployed. from what i gather, the deployments are 7 months long but the mobilization period is closer to a year. is this accurate?

what about pay? it's not a big factor, but does this include allowances for dependents etc?

anything else i should know?

thanks in advance.

Well what MOS are you looking to get into?

If you go grunt you'll be there working at least friday night to sunday late afternoon. It really depends on the unit, I've talked to guys in other battalions who had to go in thursday night to sunday.

I hear the recon units do a quarterly 5-day drill, which is smarter in my opinion.

I've talked to guys in support units who only have to go in on sat. morning, get off sat. night and are billeted in hotels, and then go back in sunday.

Rifle qual-
Get there Fri night, draw weapons, get on bus.
Sleep on bus, wake up at range, bzo (which is also prequal), qual, pull butts, get on bus at night, back to htc, clean/turn in weapons, go home.

So basically 1 day of pre/qual for the company
if done on drill weekend or like 3 days if done during AT.

thanks for the initial info.

I'm actually trying to get back into my old MOS which is now 0622. (was 2532-MUX)

I'm trying to get on with MWCS-48 at Miramar.

I know you might not know specific details of what a drill weekend is like for my MOS, but I figured just some basic info on how it works would help.

thanks again. any advice is appreciated.

When I was in the IRR and thinking of going back in the reserve, I went and actually visited the unit during a drill weekend to see what it was like. The PSR worked it out for me, and while I don't know if yours would do that or not, it really gave me a good insight on the training tempo of the unit.

Good for you on heading back in (and smart to do it while you still can).

I enlisted in the reserves and it took me 5 years to augment to AD. In those five years I was mobilized twice, once with my unit, once as an individual. Both times I was given the option of demobilizing early, and when my mob orders were up (1 year), I was given the option of extending. When I was drilling, there were many ADSW (active duty, special work) billets I got to pick and choose from.

I know we are different MOS's, but I hope this sheds a little light for you...

as far as the mobilization period, if i'm mobilized for a year, it basically means i am active and functioning as an active duty Marine for a year, right?

what kind of active duty billets were you offered?

all this info helps. my prior service recruiter has been a lot of help as well, but i'm trying to get more perspectives on what i'm trying to do.

thanks again.

When you get mobilized you will be an Active duty Marine from the time it says on the orders till the stop time.

I was activated in 06 and it was a year, meaning Workup, deployment (7months), and demob all in that one year time span.

Depending on the needs of your unit and it's funding, you may get offered or can ask to go to whatever special schools (Mos helping) that you wingers do.

thanks for the info everyone.

i'm still waiting on my records from HQMC. i guess from there i'll go to MEPS.

I'll keep you all updated so that maybe someone else will learn from this experience as well.