Reserves vs National Guard

I agree, I truly enjoy the Air National Guard. Nursing slots in the Air National Guard can be hard to come by but it is definitely worth the search, especially if you are willing to drive or fly during drill weekends, etc. I have been in the Air National Guard for 1.5 years now and I absolutely love it. In my state when I was looking there were no avail nurse slots but the recruiter at the unit I called told me to just call around to various units and see if any within a distance I was willing to drive had a slot. After looking high and low I finally found one. We do have a state and federal mission which can require extra time away at times but we've had wonderful opportunities to hone our skills and learn in new places. In fact we just returned from our two week annual training time over seas in England. It was wonderful!

You won't find many nurses in the national guard because most of their units are combat arms or combat support oriented. They have relatively few medical units. At most they have what are known as "Charlie MED" companies who typically provide battalion aid station (Level I) medical care. This means they lack surgical support and typically have a P.A. or physician and medics. Occasionally nurses are added to the Charlie MED. The Army Reserve carries the medical mission for the different reserve components. In fact, 65-70% of the military's medical support comes from the U.S. Army Reserve. You will have no trouble finding a nursing slot if this is the route you choose. Good luck and thank you for joining the fight.

Spoke with an Army Healthcare Recruiter the other day, she was telling me the Reserves have all they need and wasn't very helpful at all.

Wonder if I should find a different recruiter?