Army Reserve - Seriously Considering

[Bunyip04]

Hey mate, couldn't get any info on Melb postings today, hardly had a chance to scratch my ****!! Sorry bud :(, will try again tommorro.

[thedutchman92]

No worries mate, no real hurry just whenever you have to time to have a bit of a dig. Most likely to start the process next year after the silly season anyway.

[TruBlu351]

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

The biggest draw card is that defence now use the Global payroll system to pay reservists, which means your pay is either wrong, or doesnt appear. But like the QLD health system they are "working on it".....

Tell me about it! The stupid reserve pay system has probably changed so many times in the last 3 years. Hopefully this is the last time they change things.

But the tax free fun tickets are good for engine rebuilds ;)

[Bunyip04]

Oh and with choccos, go ready reservist, much more money in it if you keep up to date with your AIRN compliancy and courses.

[bungarra]

Dutchman, if you are in Ballaratt, pop down to "Ranger Barracks" as the green machine calls it. They are currently recruiting for various roles, they can give you a heads up on what they have available and what other depots have.

[thedutchman92]

I think I would be stationed at Greenborough in the Northern suburbs though because i will be living at or near La Trobe uni for the next 2 1/2 to 3 years, only come home to Ballarat in the summer. Does ready reservist require more contact hours with the brigade or is it purely keeping up to date and qualified?

[Bunyip04]

Originally Posted by thedutchman92

I think I would be stationed at Greenborough in the Northern suburbs though because i will be living at or near La Trobe uni for the next 2 1/2 to 3 years, only come home to Ballarat in the summer. Does ready reservist require more contact hours with the brigade or is it purely keeping up to date and qualified?

From my understanding from the guys i met on course recently, they said it only requires you to keep up to date with courses and AIRN, gets you like a lump some of 12g every 3yrs tax free , and 3g every 2, from memory, we get nothing like that....

[thedutchman92]

This may be a very silly question but are more advanced courses such as parachuting available to the humble reservist?

[Bunyip04]

Originally Posted by thedutchman92

This may be a very silly question but are more advanced courses such as parachuting available to the humble reservist?

Provided you go a combat orientated role, yeah.
Or, anything to do with aviation.

Anything other than that, not a chance mate.

E.g, SASR & 2CDO have reservists, thats a whole differen't ball game tho!!

[thedutchman92]

Haha I think I'd wait untill a few good years were under my belt before I even started thinking about Special Forces

[Bunyip04]

If that is what your keen on, RAINF is the way to go hands down mate.

[thedutchman92]

If only Australia had something like the Royal Marines Commando (commando infantry without being SF) not sure I'd be right for SF it's a tough gig

[fordomatic]

Originally Posted by lotski

Reserves is the same as the fulltime army, but without the 18 months in Duntroon, and the commitment. Effectively, when my mate has his Officer stripes, he can go to fulltime, and be an Officer there.
The trainings are more full on, but there's less of them, and you reap the benefits (ie home loans, etc), you get after twice the time as fulltime.

That's my understanding anyway. I'd ask him, but he's up in Kapooka right now so I can't check.

This couldn't be further from the truth, make sure you get the facts right before posting in here as you have provided thedutchman with some very questionable words.

First off, reserves is nothing like the ARA (Australian regular army). They are a totally different ball game, but i wont get into that. You would only go to Duntroon if you sign up as an officer, not as a digger.Effectively your mate can not go straight into the regs and be an officer, there is many fulltime courses that he would be required to do before he can make the transition to full time. The training in choko's (reserves) is no where near as full on as the training that is done in the ARA. You have to remember people sign up to be reserves for a lifestyle and a change on the weekends, not for a full on job.

thedutchman92 from what you have asked mate it looks like you would like to do it to get some service time up and have some fun. There are many jobs in the army and the only two jobs that get to blow stuff up, shoot things and do all the fun stuff, is the infantry and combat engineers. Of course there are other jobs that do those things but not as commonly as these two.

I would recommend you sign up as a rifleman if this is what you want from the reserves. As a reservist you have the army at your feet, you make it work for you, they cant tell you when and where you have to do things. You can get specialist courses but it is very rare for a choko to get any unless it is required for that unit. for example, you would only get a land rover code if your unit required it for an exercise coming up. There is many budget cuts right now so reserve units have hardly any resources to use as the ARA is scrounging every cent to try and fund there training.

Bunyip is on the money for ready reserves, as long as you maintain your AIRN you will receive your payments. There is a catch though as there is an amount of hours you need to do each year to maintain the payments. i know alot of my mates that have discharged from the ARA have transferred over to ready reserves and say its easy money.

If you have any questions shoot me a PM mate, Fordomatic

[Bunyip04]

Was wondering when you'd see this thread fordomatic haha, was gonna point thedutchman your way but got side tracked.

[TruBlu351]

Gotta go the Air Force reserves and take it easy ;)

[Bunyip04]

Originally Posted by TruBlu351

Gotta go the Air Force reserves and take it easy ;)

Cos the normal airforce isn't already easy enough... ;)

[TruBlu351]

Originally Posted by Bunyip04

Cos the normal airforce isn't already easy enough... ;)

lol........haven't dug a gun pit for a while!

damn it.....the ice cream machine is broken in the mess

[Bunyip04]

Originally Posted by TruBlu351

lol........haven't dug a gun pit for a while!

damn it.....the ice cream machine is broken in the mess

Was just down in Amberly doin G wagon, Ice cream machine rocks!!!

[fordomatic]

Originally Posted by TruBlu351

lol........haven't dug a gun pit for a while!

damn it.....the ice cream machine is broken in the mess

now if you guys had to work friday afternoon along with this ice cream atrocity im sure you would all die

[AdamL]

Is any consideration given for people with relevant experience in regards to the position they'd receive?

I'm always in Unimog's and Mack's. I've also got an AS4, M1A1 and M88 drivers ticket. I'm also M1A1 and M88 maintenance qualified.

[thedutchman92]

It is easy to transfer between brigades (Greensborough to Ballarat) over summer for example?

[chamb0]

Originally Posted by thedutchman92

It is easy to transfer between brigades (Greensborough to Ballarat) over summer for example?

Choc training is on 'standown' over the summer break, b/w early/mid December and late January.

[thedutchman92]

Ah excellent! That solves that then

[Lotte]

Originally Posted by fordomatic

This couldn't be further from the truth, make sure you get the facts right before posting in here as you have provided thedutchman with some very questionable words.

First off, reserves is nothing like the ARA (Australian regular army). They are a totally different ball game, but i wont get into that. You would only go to Duntroon if you sign up as an officer, not as a digger.Effectively your mate can not go straight into the regs and be an officer, there is many fulltime courses that he would be required to do before he can make the transition to full time. The training in choko's (reserves) is no where near as full on as the training that is done in the ARA. You have to remember people sign up to be reserves for a lifestyle and a change on the weekends, not for a full on job.

I was going on what I was told, by him, which has filtered from his own interest and questioning of his seniors (as he's completely keen on being a fulltimer, but has 5 kids, so isn't sure about the commitment).

clearly, this was wrong.

Until one reads this, direct from the officer info page
"Army Reserve (ARES) Officer Training

Both the GSO and the SSO courses can be undertaken on a part-time basis (Army Reserve - ARES). The topics studied by regular and reserve officers (GSO and SSO) are the same, except in the case of reserve officers (who undertake the Ares GSO FAC – Army Reserve General Service Officer First Appointment Course) there is a need for more flexible study and learning arrangements in order to achieve the same level of competence as a regular First Appointment officer."

So unless I'm reading that wrong (which is possible, I'm knackered), he'll be doing exactly the same training, over a more flexible period of time, to gain the same qualifications as FAO.
What would be the point of doing that training again?

[fordomatic]

Originally Posted by lotski

I was going on what I was told, by him, which has filtered from his own interest and questioning of his seniors (as he's completely keen on being a fulltimer, but has 5 kids, so isn't sure about the commitment).

clearly, this was wrong.

Until one reads this, direct from the officer info page
"Army Reserve (ARES) Officer Training

Both the GSO and the SSO courses can be undertaken on a part-time basis (Army Reserve - ARES). The topics studied by regular and reserve officers (GSO and SSO) are the same, except in the case of reserve officers (who undertake the Ares GSO FAC – Army Reserve General Service Officer First Appointment Course) there is a need for more flexible study and learning arrangements in order to achieve the same level of competence as a regular First Appointment officer."

So unless I'm reading that wrong (which is possible, I'm knackered), he'll be doing exactly the same training, over a more flexible period of time, to gain the same qualifications as FAO.
What would be the point of doing that training again?

yeh no worries mate, i get what your saying, it's what he told you. But he has told you wrong information, one thinks because he wants it to sound cooler than it is. When he is trained as a GSO, he has no specialty course. He also needs to do other courses besides his corps course for the transition. He wont be redoing any courses that he has a ROA for, but there are FT courses that would not have been covered. to be honest i cant be bothered going into on here as that's not what this thread is about.

[Lotte]

Hmm. Fair enough then. Thanks for clarifying.

[thedutchman92]

Just as a side question (for interests sake) has anyone done the SFDRS and does it still exist today?

[b2tf]

Originally Posted by fordomatic

now if you guys had to work friday afternoon along with this ice cream atrocity im sure you would all die

11:59am at RAAF Forest Hill is like a traffic jam

[glavas]

Just go full time mate. its only 4 years. Full timers hate chocos. So many stories of chocos getting bashed cause they were acting cocky thinking they know better then us.

4 years in the rainf will fly bye you will love it. Just have a 2nd thought about it okay champ!!!!

[thedutchman92]

I'm still at uni though mate, GRES is the only option at the moment