The process of joining the Air Force Reserve

hey guys what's going on sergeant mccourt again checking in with you tonight we're going to be talking about the process of joining the air force reserve i want to go over the process the timeline of what that looks like and really just talk to you about how the air force reserve can be beneficial to you whether you're looking to leave within the next 30 days or the next 12 months so a common question that i get when i'm people encounter me whether it be in the street or giving me a call is hey i've always wanted to join but i don't know what the process of joining the air force reserve is so um the process itself starts off with a phone call that initial phone call is the beginning of the recruiting process um during that initial phone call we are going to talk about a lot all right the first thing that i want to cover is uh as a recruiter for the air force reserve i want you to see me as more of a guidance counselor or a mentor to you okay my goal is to get to know you my goal is to understand what your goal and vision is for the next couple of years or projecting out to about five years you know i really want to see if the air force reserve can be of benefit to you and whether or not serving your one week in a month and two weeks a year um is going to be beneficial to your situation and whether or not we can help you achieve the goals you're looking to achieve um by adding the air force reserve into the plan so um now that we got that straight when during that first phone call i'm going to ask you questions like i said to really understand why it is you're calling me why are you interested in the air force reserve it's probably the hardest question i ask everyone um some people have never put thought into that and that's okay but we're gonna ask those tough questions really understand what your goals are and uh help guide you and mentor you to make sure that this the air force reserve is the best option what i can promise to you is this okay this is my fifth year being a recruiter for the air force reserve i've helped 150 plus people join the air force reserve and i've been able to do so by being upfront honest and providing the proper guidance and mentorship so over the last four years um i've definitely met with more than 150 people and i've been able to mentor and guide the folks who haven't joined the air force reserve maybe maybe to a different option that worked better um for their situation whether it would be you know if you're telling me that you're looking for full-time work to pay the bills the the air force reserve may not be the best option you may you may want to look into active duty for example so although the air force reserve can help almost everybody who comes in there are certain instances where somebody may be looking for a full-time option or something that they're not aware that the air force reserve does not offer so long story short the first step of that process is that phone call very important we get to know one another we understand and identify your goals then the next step of that phone call is to confirm that you are eligible for the air force reserve so we'll ask you a series of questions to pre-qualify you before we talk about the next step so i'm going to ask you are you a u.s citizen or a permanent resident okay the requirement to be eligible for the air force reserve is that you have either u.s citizenship whether it be by birth or naturalization or a permanent residency having an ims 551 otherwise known as a green card that is valid for more than 24 months normally those cards are issued for a 10-year time period if you have a permanent resident card that's only good for a two-year time period unfortunately that specific situation would require that you renew your residency after the two-year period and would not be eligible to move forward in the process until you've completed the two-year probationary period and have been granted permanent residency the next question is whether or not you are a conscientious objector most people don't know what that word means and that's okay because i'm going to explain it to you a conscientious objector is an individual who has a firm or fixed belief or has received training whether it be religious uh in nature that uh you have a sincere objection towards participation in military service or participation war efforts as you can imagine a conscientious objector is not qualified to join the air force reserve the next question is in regards to your legal background history we're going to ask you questions and about any prior arrests charges if you've ever been held or questioned by a law enforcement agent again we take every situation into consideration speeding and parking tickets will not get you disqualified unless of course you have an excess of them but anything that has led to court charges arrests anything of that matter we will have to look at that on a personal uh one-on-one basis to determine whether or not you would be qualified or if a waiver would be warranted for your situation the next question that we look at is your age right so the qualifying age is 17 with parental consent from both parents um or i'm up to 39. so the good thing about the 39 is you can join all the way up to your 40th birthday once you turn 40 you are no longer qualified so you can join all during the 39 year up to and leading to your birthday once you turn 40 you are no longer eligible to serve in the air force reserve now there is one exception if you've previously served in any branch of the military we have what's called an adjusted age so if you are let's say 45 but you served for 10 years we will subtract 10 from your current age and your adjusted age is now 35. as long as your adjusted age is less than 40 you are permitted to come back in so um for example if you were 43 years old and you served for four years you are 39 years according to the adjusted age subtracting 4 from 43 and you will be permitted to join from there we will look at your physical and medical background to make sure that you can make both height and weight basically we have a height and weight requirement based on your height we will have a max and a minimum weight that you will be required to meet we do not have a physical examination for you to complete prior to going to meps you will not actually do a physical training test or a pt test actually until you get to basic military training so as long as you can pass the height and weight you meet the general eligibility requirement medical history pretty much any surgery any hospitalization or any any medical condition uh we'll be taking a look at as a recruiter i am not a doctor i'm not a medical professional so we will have you fill out a medical pre-screen form when if we meet during our interview and any medical condition that is disclosed we will get medical records for and have the military doctors take a look at that and determine eligibility from there other than that we do look at marital status and independence [Music] and then any prior drug use so those are questions that we will ask you and we will go through your qualification history thoroughly to make sure that you meet the eligibility requirements so that is the long-winded explanation of that first phone call it's definitely important because it leads to the next step the next step of the process is referred to as an initial appointment during the initial appointment we will re iterate what we spoke about over the phone we will identify any goals that you're looking to achieve and it's my job to basically understand what you're looking to achieve and help you understand how the air force reserve can help you obtain whether it's an education whether it's extra money we have a plethora of different benefits and opportunities all of which during that fun that interview we're actually going to determine what of the plethora of opportunities that we have how we could specifically help you to reach your goals all right um there will become a point in that interview where um we've discussed your interest we understand and we've confirmed that you're eligible you're going to bring your documentation so everything that we ask you over the phone we're going to ask you to verify that when you come in right so we're going to have you bring a driver's license we're going to have you bring your driver's license birth certificate high school diploma and a social security card all right we're going to review those documents we're going to reinforce that you are qualified so once once we get to that point where we've we understand that the air force reserve is something you want to do you're qualified now we move on to the next step we discuss scheduling maps meps is a acronym for military entrance processing station basically it's a fancy long uh drawn out acronym to say qualification center at the meps in boston um that's where all of our folks take the asvab test which is another acronym for armed services vocational aptitude battery again fancy drawn out word for written tests and you will take a medical examination so when i say i pre-qualify you you know i ask questions you bring in documentation but it's really up to the meps facility to confirm your eligibility with an asvab and a medical exam doctors will review your medical pre-screen thoroughly and of course you'll take the written test and that'll determine the steps that come after maps so really that initial appointment we schedule maps we send you to the meps and uh you will take your tests and do your medical right now what comes after meps is this the exciting part of the whole process because that's when you're able to discuss with me your recruiter the jobs that you qualify for and um you're able to accept the job that day it's pretty exciting just coming back you have an exam that you just took you did well on it you're medically qualified you walk home with a piece of paper that says you are qualified to join the armed services so it's definitely an exciting time pick a job with you and that's exciting as well because we're going through a couple of options based on what we discussed during that initial appointment really taking into account what job is going to be the best fit for you and of course there's no secret we're also looking at what is a good fit for the air force reserve as well right so uh where we are different from the active our active duty counterparts is the air force reserve sends our members to take a written test and a medical exam but you will not take any oath you will not do the oath ceremony you will not join the air force reserve the day you go to maps you're simply going to go there you're going to take your medical and your written tests you're going to come home to your recruiter this guy and you will discuss jobs a security clearance will be started and uh you'll pick pick your job and now for the most exciting and most rewarding part for both you and for me the last step is your enlistment uh basically once once you've completed the initial appointment you've gone to meps and gotten qualified you've picked a job now you're in listening during the enlistment you sign your contracts now again signing your contract and taking an oath into the air force reserve does not mean you're leaving that day okay and this is where what i was referring to earlier about fitting timelines so when you take an oath with the air force reserve almost i'm gonna say everybody joins into a we call a development and training flight which is a new terminology for what we've called for years are delayed enlistment program right so you enlist let's say on november 30 if you come in here you complete your enlistment you are not shipping to basic military training on november 30th there will be a three to four month period where you will attend the development and training flight you will you know learn how to be a member of the air force reserve we will teach you drill which is another fancy term for marching work out um and really get you ready for basic military training but here's the plus side some folks want to leave as soon as they can all right figure you're not leaving for probably 60 to 90 days at a minimum some people also come in and really want to do this but they don't want to leave right away because they have a job or they want to finish their school semester and that's fine we do offer flexibility where you can leave as part of the delayed enlistment program or development and training flight up to 12 months after you complete your enlistment so to be clear you do have to take your oath and join the air force reserve in order for us to be able to guarantee a job and any of the benefits whether it be an incentive bonus or whatever comes with that job the only way to lock in those benefits and the job itself is to commit to the air force reserve through enlisting signing your contract but we don't like to call it a commitment like to call it an investment because it's the beginning of your career the beginning of your future and uh we've already determined through the phone call and sitting down that this is an option that's gonna you know really add value to you as an individual into your future and help you obtain the goals that you're trying to obtain so again want to reiterate if you enlist november 30th of 2020 you do not technically need to leave until november 30th of 2021 to basic military training so there's a lot of flexibility you control the process because we once you pick a job on meb's day you're also going to pick your dates for training so we'll i will show you a spreadsheet of available dates you'll be able to pick what works best for your personal situation as long as you can leave within the next 12 months after you complete your enlistment so just to summarize i know we went over a lot today basically the process of the air force reserve should not be seen as intimidating that first phone call is really just to get to know one another make sure that you're qualified and eligible as well as that this is the air force reserve is a good fit for you right because if it's not a good fit then the process ends there no harm no foul there's no commitment by picking up the phone and calling me to discuss your interest to see if this is something that's going to work out okay step one call a recruiter step two meet the recruiter step three go to meps and get qualified step four come in and enlist and there step five down the road will be leaving within the next 12 months [Music] so basically like i said earlier i want um everyone to see me as a guidance counselor as a mentor somebody who is available to you to ask and answer questions someone who is going to help you to obtain the goals and someone that's going to guide you to meet to meet those uh goals that you've set for yourself if you are interested in finding out more information you can definitely give me a call at any time my my phone number is six two three seven two seven one again that's four zero one six two three seven two seven one um there's really so much that we could talk about i'm going to continue sharing videos continue sharing information that i find may be valuable to you to answer some of those questions that that may be barring you from picking up that phone and calling me so if you have any suggestions for topics that you'd like for me to cover drop it in the comment section be more than happy to cover any topic that you'd like for me to answer today's topic was simple the process what the process looks like there's definitely more i didn't want to get in the weeds but basically it's a four-step process pick up the phone talk to your recruiter call the recruiter and meet your i mean meet the recruiter go to meps and take your asvab and your medical and the last step uh being coming in to start your adventure with the air force reserve i really appreciate you guys taking the time to watch my video hopefully like i said i'll be sharing more exciting information and anything that you would like for me to cover drop that in the comments section hope you'll have a great rest of your day and i'll be talking to you soon bye

Channel: Anthony McCourt

Views: 10,727

Rating: 4.9770117 out of 5

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Id: I_as-_OmB1U

Length: 18min 49sec (1129 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 03 2020