MVisser

RayRN87, I am currently serving in the reserves as a 66H. I didn't take any bonus or tuition reimbursement, so I can't speak to that part. I do drive about 190 miles one way to my unit and know of multiple others that drive 300+ miles to drill. My unit does at least have the lodging-in-kind program so we don't have to pay for lodging. I also get reimbursed through the IDT program for mileage, so that helps a little. I have been in the reserves for a little less than 2 years and have enjoyed my time overall. During drill weekends, I do no actual nurse work. Rather, it is mostly required army training that all soldiers would be required to complete. What you do may depend somewhat on the type of unit you are a part of. If you have any other specific questions let me know and I will try to answer them.

Congrats smsoftball08! I am currently waiting to get a seat in BOLC. I commissioned into the reserves this past Feb and am hoping to go to BOLC in April if my unit can get me in. There is an online BOLC portion that needs to be completed before you can get a seat for the second part and that can take a while to complete depending on how much time you have available outside of battle assembly.

Sick-call, I just completed the phase 1 portion of BOLC. I submitted the forms needed to get paid for it because several people in my unit told me that currently they will pay for it. But, that isn't always the case because I know others in my unit didn't get paid.

I just transferred to a new unit and have also just joined the reserves. I work every third weekend, but my employee has been very understanding with the fact that I will need to get off for whatever weekend my reserve unit has drill. I expected to have to make those weekends up but the hospital is actually just going to let me skip my weekend at work if they coincide with the reserves. I'm sure being gone for a couple weeks will be inconvenient for your employer while you are gone to COT, but like jeckrn said, you likely aren't the only one in the guard/reserves that has worked at your facility.

Glad to hear it went well overall.

I went to MEPS three months ago and didn't bring any records with me, although I have nothing abnormal that they would want records for in regards to waivers. They also didn't ask anything about immunizations.

The comments and information posted here have been helpful to me. I'm in the process of joining the reserves and like several others have never gotten a great answer from those I've talked to as far as what nurses do in the reserves. Looking forward to experiencing for myself what Army Reserve nursing involves.