First off, DoD is currently mandating ChinaVirus shots for EVERYBODY - including Guard. OK has said they won’t enforce it, but I haven’t seen yet if NGB is going to cut them off completely from the Federal side - which means funding is 100% State, and any schools (E5, E6, airborne, pathfinder, fuel handler, etc etc etc) that OK doesn’t have, they likely won’t have access to. Abbott in TX has said no one will be fired in the State from not getting experimental shots, BUT TXARNG is still kicking us out - drills and AT is federally funded from NGB, so while TX won’t ‘kick you out’, you don’t get paid for drills so you count as AWOL so then Texas WILL kick you out for “AWOL”, not for “shot refusal”. If you’re in any other State, I haven’t heard anything about them fighting this. So, getting in now WILL require the shot, unless he wants to wait until 2025FEB, once Trump or another Repub takes over the executive. Or the courts kill it, but I’m kinda doubting they’ll have the stones to do so.
First, you’ll have a couple days where you go into MEPS, and do some basic medical and other paperwork. Usually overnight at a hotel, then they run you through the next day. Everything goes good, sign your enlistment contract, and after that you’ll get a date set to leave for basic. Basic training is about two months, assuming he gets through everything fine, no key fails or medical issues. He’ll then get a date set for AIT, so home for a bit, then 68W is I believe ~5 months. Not sure if there’s other medical MOSs that are shorter. 68W miiight be OSUT (Basic/AIT mashed together), I know most combat arms MOSs are, so your break in between is a weekend, instead of days or weeks.
Then he’ll get to his unit, and from there it’s pretty much two days a month, two weeks a year. Many units mix it up, so you may have two months of three-day drill, then skip a month. Four days one, then a month off. AT is usually summer-ish, and is 15 days but units often mesh the start or finish with monthly drill so it’s a bit longer straight through. Any schools he might get sent to will take from a couple days/a week (fuel handler, full CLS, drug test peepee watcher, etc) to a couple weeks or months (E5+, airborne, pathfinder, etc). Most of these schools are decently optional, but never a good idea career-wise to pass up (BLC/ALC/etc is required for promotions past E4).
State missions will come up - hurricanes, tornados, winter weather, etc. These are often a text saying so many people (or the whole unit) has to report by 1800 tonight/midday tomorrow, generally minimum 4-hr notice to be at the unit, but can come at any time. Sometimes you’ll get a warno if they’re expecting some really bad weather, or go in before it hits. These can last anywhere from sitting around for a day or two and doing nothing, to longer - we were stuck at Harvey for about a month, and some other guys were there longer. The Dems’ DC show-of-strength was a couple months for some. TX’s border mission is currently non-volunteer, and is anywhere from 6 months to a full year. CoViD orders were on a mostly volunteer basis, and have gone past a year for some people (think they elected to stay longer though, it’s good pay/active time).
Overseas deployments do happen, but have been pretty slow since Obama/Repub sequester and cutbacks. These usually vary from 9 months to a year. If you want to go on them, most units are short and will fill slots from other units based on needs - ranks, MOSs, #bodies. But where it used to be 2-3 years between a unit’s cycles, it’s now a good bit more.
If he’s in school - this can vary. I don’t know if ROTC accepts graduate students, but if he can do that, ROTC puts him in a non-deployable status (even for most natural disaster missions). But ROTC has other time commitments, varying from school to school. And as Guard, you’ll be 09S/09R - still doing monthly drills and AT with a unit on top of ROTC stuff. If he is NOT in ROTC, you can still do school and command will usually work with you to try to avoid forcing you to miss school, but you don’t have the same deployment protection as a contracted cadet.
OCS is another option if he already has a degree: two(?) months over summer and he commissions as an officer. Better pay, and best to do this quick if you plan to stay in a longer time. Not sure what the requirements are to be an Army physician (and not just a medic or med tech) in MED command, but he’d definitely need to be an officer. Also, I don’t know if he can go straight OCS - he may have to enlist first and go through basic/AIT before then doing OCS.
Another option besides tuition assistance, is to enlist AFTER school - SLRP is a loan repayment program, that can pay off I think up to $60M of existing student loans. However, he wouldn’t get any TA or other benefits during school doing this. If he has bachelor/masters loans, he could do this now, and then get TA/stuff for the graduate stuff, but he’s be stuck enlisted for I think six years for SLRP. Could always do OCS after that though.
If he’s medical, they sometimes have odd duty times - he may get multiple ATs in a year, or have extra callups if he’s in a med command, for the purpose of running other units through pre-mob, de-mob, annual medical, or other stuff. These can be long/depend on other units coming through and how many. If he’s in a regular support or line unit, that extra stuff wouldn’t apply outside of what the rest of the unit does.
wow thanks for the very long and detailed response - lots to think about, but I will pass all the information along.
Overall it does sound like enlisting after graduating is the safer bet - but not my decision, just helping to collect the pros and cons. Thanks again.