# Military leave for Commonwealth employees



## OfficerMack (May 21, 2015)

Hi there!

I am quite new to this forum so I'm not sure how all this works. So pardon me if I'm not posting like how people typically do.

I currently work for the Commonwealth full-time, with state benefits. My goal is to become either a local municipal officer or a state trooper, but with the current civil service system, I find that it's almost impossible to get the golden ticket without having veterans status. Therefore, I am considering the military option. I want to join the Air Force Reserves as a Commissioned Officer, and I was wondering: are there any Commonwealth employees who know anything about military leave? Basically I need to know if the Commonwealth will grant me leave time for when I go to NCO training and then move on to tech school (I want to do security forces). No doubt in my mind I want to join, because just getting out of college, life is currently quite boring and I'm sick of the same old routine every day, so I need some variety and something to look forward to, so the military I think is my next plan of action. If this question has already been asked, I'm sorry in advance. I just didn't see it. I am quite new to this forum so I'm not sure how things work around here.

Thanks in advance everyone!


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## felony (Oct 24, 2014)

If you plan on enlisting, you must notify your employer, preferably in writing that you plan on enlisting. Once you enlist, your employer must save your position, while your in basic/AIT/OSUT etc. Once you return from your boot camp and are in a drilling status, your employer must provide you with time off to drill. Some employers provide paid military time for you to drill, others do not.

Also if you want to commission as an officer, your going to have to attend some form of OCS or ROTC. Contact a USAF recruiter and advise them of what you want to do. They will line the ducks up so that you don't loose your job or get jammed up. I do not work for the great Commonwealth so I can not advise you of what specific benefits they provide for active duty members and drilling members of the military.


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## tallcapecop22 (Nov 25, 2007)

For the Air Force in any of its three forms (Active Duty, Reserve's or Air National Guard) you will have to jump through hoops and play the very long game of commissioning if you have what is called a "general college degree," which would be a degree in criminal justice, english, education, history list goes on (assuming you have a 4 year degree) . You can commision right away if you have a degree in engineering, law, medical (nurse or doctor), physics and aeronautics. You will be more then likely referred to a an OCS (Officer) Recruiter and if your are not then contact one, you can find all the Officer Recruiter contact info on any Air Force Recruiting site for Active and Reserve. Guard is a lot different since its to an extent dual funded by the federal government and the respect state that unit is in, Officer positions are highly competitive and harder to come by since there are fewer and officers in the guard tend to stay in till there told to retire.

Going enlisted is whole other ball game, you will be subject to the wants and needs of the Air Force (even more so then getting commissioned), you can do "delayed enlistment program" DEP to guarantee the job you want (75% of the time). Just don't score TO high on the ASVAB or you wont be able to pick certain jobs like SF (No Joke, AF puts people with smarts in positions to use there brain not kick rocks and check ID's which is half of the SF job). You can always enlist and then attempt to commision as enlisted person which at times is easier since you have the experience and the Air Force will see you more as an investment since you have gone through a bunch of training by that point. In the end if your main goal is just to get veteran status well it really should not matter what do for a job, you should pick one that translates to the civilian world other then SF in case a law enforcement career does not ever happen or gets cut short due to injury this way you will have other skills and training to fall back on.

I speak from experience with the personal hell I went through trying to commision at first for SF, enlisting instead in Active Duty trying to go SF but scoring way to HIGH and being placed in Intelligence (wound up being the best 4 years of my life stationed in Florida right on the beach), being honorably discharged and enlisting in the MA Air Guard and going back into law enforcement here in MA and now trying to commision through my unit in the Guard. I can provide more information if you want on all these subjects and if I cannot I will be able to at least point you in the right direction or to the person that does just PM if needed.


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## OfficerMack (May 21, 2015)

tallcapecop22 said:


> For the Air Force in any of its three forms (Active Duty, Reserve's or Air National Guard) you will have to jump through hoops and play the very long game of commissioning if you have what is called a "general college degree," which would be a degree in criminal justice, english, education, history list goes on (assuming you have a 4 year degree) . You can commision right away if you have a degree in engineering, law, medical (nurse or doctor), physics and aeronautics. You will be more then likely referred to a an OCS (Officer) Recruiter and if your are not then contact one, you can find all the Officer Recruiter contact info on any Air Force Recruiting site for Active and Reserve. Guard is a lot different since its to an extent dual funded by the federal government and the respect state that unit is in, Officer positions are highly competitive and harder to come by since there are fewer and officers in the guard tend to stay in till there told to retire.
> 
> Going enlisted is whole other ball game, you will be subject to the wants and needs of the Air Force (even more so then getting commissioned), you can do "delayed enlistment program" DEP to guarantee the job you want (75% of the time). Just don't score TO high on the ASVAB or you wont be able to pick certain jobs like SF (No Joke, AF puts people with smarts in positions to use there brain not kick rocks and check ID's which is half of the SF job). You can always enlist and then attempt to commision as enlisted person which at times is easier since you have the experience and the Air Force will see you more as an investment since you have gone through a bunch of training by that point. In the end if your main goal is just to get veteran status well it really should not matter what do for a job, you should pick one that translates to the civilian world other then SF in case a law enforcement career does not ever happen or gets cut short due to injury this way you will have other skills and training to fall back on.
> 
> I speak from experience with the personal hell I went through trying to commision at first for SF, enlisting instead in Active Duty trying to go SF but scoring way to HIGH and being placed in Intelligence (wound up being the best 4 years of my life stationed in Florida right on the beach), being honorably discharged and enlisting in the MA Air Guard and going back into law enforcement here in MA and now trying to commision through my unit in the Guard. I can provide more information if you want on all these subjects and if I cannot I will be able to at least point you in the right direction or to the person that does just PM if needed.


Thank you for your informed response, sir/ma'am. To clarify, I do have a degree in criminal justice. And I was thinking about enlisting then throwing my name into the hat to become an officer. The main reason why I want to go officer, is mainly because I don't want to be stuck with a bunch of kids who are fresh out of high school during basic. I would like to be in a position that is more leadership than anything.

One question I do have: I assume that you are a police officer, my apologies if you are not, but does being in security forces feel the same as being a civilian police officer? I used to work on an Air Force base as a civie and saw the SPs doing almost the same things as a regular municipal police officer would do. Thank you again.


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## smitty1369 (Jan 2, 2013)

I know you said Air Force, but if you score high on the ASVAB you could always see what the Army will offer you. I scored an 89 with a 124 GT score (GT score is the one they really care about) and they offered me a Ranger contract but I was stubborn and only wanted to do law enforcement. 

Reserves isn't bad but make sure you understand what actually will give you veteran's status in MA. I believe it is 180 days of active duty service not including training, which basically leaves you hoping for an unlikely deployment or to get activated stateside, which 99% of the time NG does anyways, so that also doesn't really apply to the AF.

Regarding Security Forces, from what I understand they mainly check ID's at the gate. Nothing wrong with that but as an MP on my German base sometimes I'm required to help the German guards we have to check vehicles and ID's at the gates for an hour during shift and an hour feels like an eternity. Not saying you wouldn't have to check ID's in the Army, but we outsource that job a lot of the time and there's plenty of law enforcement duties on an Army base. In joint Army/Air Force bases such as Lewis-Mccord in Washington, both exist but the Army MP's are the primary law enforcement there I believe.

All in all it's up to you. If you absolutely don't want to go active then I would recommend Army National Guard MP as they get activated for blizzards, disasters and civil unrest, and they deploy as much, if not more, than an active duty unit.

P.S. unless you've been there try not to judge the "kids right out of basic". I enlisted at 21 and had two years of college already and I learned a lot more from some of those 18 year olds than I did from any butter bar out there. If you hate teenagers try to go to basic in the middle of a school year, if you go in summer it will be a bunch of guys who just graduated. There are more older guys than you think in a regular basic training.

Good Luck and pm me if you have questions


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## tallcapecop22 (Nov 25, 2007)

First Question, yes I am, I was before I went active duty and I am again now after getting out of active duty.
Second Question:
Well IF your trying to avoid a bunch of high school kids I can tell you right now young officers, those who got commissioned right out of college or those going through OTS right after college are honestly just as bad if not worse at times then the "high school aged" enlisted personnel. The function of SF various from base to base, the main things are security so ID checks and perimeter checks and building checks, then when it comes to law enforcement it will vary from base to base, squadron to squadron. Some bases has designated SF guys who only do LE and others that only do the Security function, then you have some bases where they have DoD Police (GG Job) so you will work the gate and they patrol since they have more law enforcement training or a combo of both, again it various from base to base.

Tech school for SF is only 12 weeks long and touches on all the basics on the laws, patrol, handcuffing, stops etc along with security function such as base is under attack to convoy stuff, less then that for Officer's for tech school that's only 6 or 8 weeks long. An SF Officer does NOT do the same function as a enlisted, you will not be out on patrol as often as you want because you are a "Leader" at that point so a lot more paper work, yes you will get trained in it but that's not what expected of you, you'll have other work to be doing. You wont get to do really any of the cool shit either like k-9, atv, boat patrols depending on the base I know Hurlburt Field and Eglin AFB due that since those bases are basically on the beach in FL.

The leadership role your speaking of, can help but honestly doesn't matter in my opinion at least in this state what matters is having the Veteran Status. I know E-6's and E-7's who are Captain's and LT's in PD's and I know two AF Officers who are just patrolman in a PD. Smitty1369 is right, your time in Basic Training (BMT for the AF) or OCS plus your tech school will NOT, I repeat WILL NOT count toward veteran status contrary to popular belief if you go Reserve or Air Guard. Then once you get back you'll have to OJT (on the job training) orders for your base so they can get you trained up to there standard, those are orders but those do not count either toward veteran status. After all of that you will either have to pick up a set of orders to work 180 or more days at your base or believe it or not at any other base in the country or internationally. Orders come up from the active duty side all the time to the Reserve's or Air Guard for people to help fill sport temporarily, I met a few people when I was active duty that there entire National Guard Career consisted of constantly taking orders. So if you chose Reserve or Guard be prepared to have to spend some time working toward Vet Status. Since your already working for the Commonwealth I'd say just go Guard, you get a lot of extra benefits example even though you have a degree you can get the 9/11 GI BIll for going to basic and tech school but then you can have State Tuition re-imbursement so you can use that for a master and save the 9/11 GI bill to give to your spouse or kids after 10 years of service. 

You have options, do the homework make and informed decision, and most of all take any experiance with the a huge grain of salt. If you hate it in the end just tough it out and get that status and nobody says you would have to re-enlist again. Good Luck!


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## militia_man (Mar 27, 2005)

Vet status is fairly easy to earn as a member of the Air National Guard. As TCC said, you can voluntarily go on active duty orders for 180+ days once your training has been completed. There are always bases looking for reserve or guard guys to fill in. Your duties will depend on what type of base you work at. Large bases will have the opportunity for law enforcement duties. Small bases may only have security type duties. Some bases have civilian guards on the gates, so you may never have to work a gate. It all depends. Working a gate isn't bad and it gives you the opportunity to meet a lot of people. Especially women that live or work on base. 

Mass Air National Guard Security Forces have done various state and inter-state missions as well. Such as, during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, security along the Mexican border, security at Logan Airport, security in Boston during the manhunt for the marathon bombers, and security for the subsequent marathons.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## felony (Oct 24, 2014)

If you enlist in the Massachusetts Army National Guard as a MP, you will attend OSUT which is 20+ weeks long at Ft. Leonardwood MO. The Guard has several MP units, however these positions are tough to get and competitive. If you want to attend OCS in the Army, you will enlist as a 09S and attend drill dates at RSP, until you're selected for a OCS spot. OCS in the Army is competitive and you get billets based on class ranking. Meaning you can't pick or choose your MOS until those senior to you have selected. Good luck.


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