Air National Guard Nursing

K-Ron,
I am serving with the Air National Guard and I absolutely love it. From what we're told at my unit at this time there are no mandatory overseas deployments for ANG nurses. Those are voluntary at this time and do not extend past 6 months. Understand though that ANG means serving both state and federal missions. In my state we have a CERF team which essentially is a disaster response medical team that all nurses are expected to participate in. The guard takes up a lot of time but it's worth every minute of it. I love it! MY husband by the way is active duty army and it is great to pick at him about the differences! If you have any questions please feel free to ask away!

Hi, Please correct me if i am wrong. Do ANG still takes nurses with ADN. I remember read on their page and from a health recruiter over the phone they will take as an officer. However, you will have 4 years to get you BSN.Otherwise, you will be discharge from ANG.

I'll try this again, for some reason my first reply wasnt added....what you are asking about is correct and incorrect. Some ANG units do not accept ADN nurses...it is up to the commander and chief nurse. The unit's recruiting office knows whether their units accepts ADN nurses or not. The four years thing is not necessarily true. the ANG gives what they term contructive credit for your civilian nursing experience. I believe the credit is 1 week for every 2 you have been a nurse or something to that effect. Let me see if I can make this make sense in typing...ok take my case. I have been in the ANG since Feb 29, 2008 (I commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on that date). I however have been a civilian RN since May 2007. They did their little magical computation and gave me a date of rank (or competetive seniority date in more civilian terms) of OCt 21, 2007. This means that I will have to have my BSN by OCt 21, 2011 (when I am eligible for captain). If the 4 years thing was true across the board I would've had til Feb 29, 2012 to obtain my BSN. GEt my drift? Now with the constructive credit you can earn time and rank but since you are an ADN nurse you are not authorized rank past 1st Lieutenant. The ranks of 1st Lieutenant and Captain are basically (but not in all cases) automatic ranks and are awarded every 2 years based on date of rank. With all that being said...if you have the opportunity and truly have the time to obtain your BSN while holding 2 jobs (the ANG is not as part time as most people think, and is definitely a far cry from 1 weekend a month 2 weeks a year especially if your unit participates in CERF) then go for it....the ANG is a wonderful organization. I have enjoyed my time so far and have received lots of free training and nursing certifications, been to great places to train and to work, and met many wonderful people along the way. I have nothing but good things to say about the ANG, just keep in mind that it will take up some of your time. Case in point... I have had to work at one time 18 days straight between 3 days at my civilian job before leaving for a trip, 12 days gone for the ANG, and right back to work at my civilian job for another 3 days. This makes finding time for school work difficult at times, especially if you are away at a place that doesnt have internet access or you are in a school and need to use your down time to study for the military training.