notaclue

So those of you who know me through my journey will have guessed that I am in the emergency services. I recently lost a BIG job and have just about landed on my feet with a new job (Part time, more pay, with better full time benefits than last job!) but I am now looking at pursuing a career in law enforcement, particularly at a federal level - FBI, ATF, USCIS etc.

I do not need to become a citizen in a nearby state for 'regular' police, but in my home state and another in the tri-state it is required.

I'm reliably told my colleagues and the police officers who share our building that the national guard would be an excellent opportunity as an MP to start this career and ofcourse, the benefit of citizenship at the end of basic training.

Has anyone went through the national guard?

BritInParis

Seems like a smart move to me. From memory the minimum obligation is one year so that's a small price to pay for expedited citizenship to fast track the start of your federal law enforcement career.

notaclue

Just one year? I was of the impression it was 3 or longer. I guess the only risk is deployment or being away from family for 20 weeks!

S Folinsky

As an aside, the national expert on the military and Immigration law is Margaret Stock, immigration lawyer extraordinaire. She is a retired Army Reserve Lt Cool who was commissioned in the Military Police.

BritInParis

Sorry, you are correct, it's three years. It's a year of 'peacetime' service to qualify for naturalisation. At the moment that doesn't apply as you can apply at the end of Basic. Still remains a pretty good deal IMO given the experience it will give you.

ddsrph

I spent 33 years in Air Force, Navy, and Navy reserves and retired as Navy Captain. What most people don't realize is when you sign up it is for eight years. That is a point I was hoping would come to light when little George got free flying lessons and became too busy to complete his obligation. I think joining is a good idea but also look at Army, Navy and Air Force reserves. The eight years is not as bad as it sounds because much of that time ends up only as a paper technicality. For example if someone joins active duty Army for a three year active duty commitment. They get off active duty and are placed on inactive reserve status for the other five years. Which means they are civilians unless some politicians decide to start WW3 then they could be recalled. Even then very unlikely as there are enough active duty and active reserves to call upon. In cases where they spend 500K training you to become a fighter pilot the years following your active duty will be active reserves where you have drill weekends and summer active duty for two or three weeks.
If you are joining only to be a active reservist then your active duty period will be basic training plus any required technical training for your speciality. The remaining time on the eight year total will be divided between active and inactive reserves.

plasticbag_uk

The National Guard is supposed to be about homeland defence but in this area it seems to be a way to get young kids to go to the Middle east and die in action, several kids from the Vermont National Guard have gone and lost their lives.

ddsrph

I think the decisions to deploy National Guard units are made on national level ( except for use in state by governor ) depending on skills needed. There has been a big reliance on National guard in the past several years due to a smaller active force. Tennessee units have also had casualties in recent deployments. In 1990 I was the Dental officer for a Navy reserve CB unit and we got recalled for 6 months in Saudi Arabia. That was to be expected and the reason they had been paying us for the past several years.

Rete

Same here in Hattiesburg, MS which is the home of Camp Shelby. A deployment went out to the Middle East just last week. They were both regular troops and national guardsmen and women.

penguinsix

Since Vietnam for a variety of political and budgetary reasons, the National Guard is now a core part of any military deployment overseas and no longer considered merely a disaster-response force. Over 38% of the US military is Guard or Reserve (over 50% when you consider just the Army) and at one point there were more Guard Combat Brigades in Iraq than active duty units.

The target for Guard (and Reserve Deployments) is once every five years, but many units report 1 in 3 is much more common. Specialist units can see even more deployments than that.

If you are going in as an MP, you should probably consider one long deployment like in the next 3 to 5 years plus one or two shorter emergency disaster deployment (MPs often get called in post-disaster to police the area until law and order is restored).

I think the minimum obligation is actually something like 8 years, but several of those years you can serve on IRR (Individual Ready Reserve) which is basically non-drilling reserve duty (though even IRR folks have been called up since 2001).