I've noticed that, despite having at least a month between drills, no information is put out until ~48h before first formation - and sometimes not even then.

Is this the way most units operate?

It may sound petty, but I'd love to know if we're heading to Hood for ranges, or staying at home station for maintenance, or really any idea of what to expect.

It was like that for us in 1/112 cav. (Been out 2 years) Keep in mind that most of the idiots calling shots are fulltimers who don't have to deal with the inconveniences, and they fully believe the absolute nonsense that employers and families can and must adapt to their incompetence.

[This message has been edited by chosin (edited 6/6/2013 4:33p).]

Wow, that's pretty bad, not trying to get into a interservice war, but my unit in the Marine Reserves normally had our next month's drill notice and itinerary ready before we were dismissed from our current drill, I think the latest I ever got one was 2 weeks prior to drill. I had to use these in College as an excuse letter for work and class so I can only imagine how much of a pain it would be to not know what's going on until 48 hrs before.

Aviation - so a tad different - but if you're crew or a full timer you usually have a weekly schedule whether or not you are flying. If regular m-day non-flyer...you'll know what's going on next drill but the schedule/itinerary is out out the week of.

Ranges at Hood are scheduled out way in advance. Guard or not, that is simple communication to folks. The command is required to have a long term calendar even if it is only a 50% solution that is going to change at the last minute...since some individual Guard unit swap out at these ranges...at least you should know what to FRAGO from.

[This message has been edited by Fly Army 97 (edited 6/7/2013 7:37a).]

Sounds like your company commander is not doing a good enough job. What is your rank/unit, Nav?

Have you started calling up your chain of command yet? I'm going to assume you are a junior enlisted so I suggest calling your first line leader. If he doesn't know keep calling up.

Like FlyArmy said, those ranges were set a long time ago. Now, NG units can be kicked off of ranges by deploying active units at Hood, so things change and if they do it will be last minute.

I am junior enlisted, correct. With my MOS/plt size, we don't really have team/squad leaders. Everything comes down from the PSG. Generally, he's pretty good about passing down what he gets - or seems to be, based on the headers from forwarded emails.

Luckily this weekend doesn't seem to be that big an issue; we are doing a whole lot of nothing.

As of now, I'd rather not post the unit.

Figured you were Junior EM by the way you were talking. If I knew the unit it would give me a basis for understanding your yearly training schedule and how things are supposed to happen, albeit in peacetime, non-deployment mode. Are you drilling as a separate Det or does your armory/drill station hold your entire company/battery and/or other company/batteries/dets? Your normal drills and how info gets passed around is largely a function of who is drilling around you on any specific MUTA4/5. If you are stuck out in a Det someplace that can get kinda hard to communicate stuff.

I understand the frustration with 'full-timers'; some are better than others. I could tell you some stories that would curl your teeth over things I put up with over the years. Not always easy being an M-Day soldier. But I think you already grasp that. Anytime you need to PM, I am here for you. I am retired now so nothing you talk about will go anywhere past me.



[This message has been edited by WBBQ74 (edited 6/8/2013 7:27a).]

Try not to get upset, but the Reserve components (NG and USAR) are full of GS wonders that truly don't give a **** about the reservists, and most of the reservists are there for free food and some weekend cash. Communications will remain pretty crappy in the guard and/or reserve. That's been my experience.