Life After Army Life: The National Guard

In a previous article, I wrote about the pros and cons of getting out of the Army. We had only been out of the Army for about three months and my husband decided to join the National Guard, inactive National Guard, but a form of the Military none the less.

In this article I will be updating on the benefits pros and cons, and how things have changed or have not changed since getting out of the active duty Army. Here we go!

1. Medical insurance: Through the National Guard you can get the Tricare Reserve Select plan. It's expensive and better than most plans but not free like in the active Army. The Tricare Reserve Select, costs $180.00 a month for the entire family. Not bad.

2. Dental: Good for him, however for the family it is $75.00 a month for the coverage and you still pay a certain percentage of the cost. His dental is an additional 12.00. On active duty you pay around $25.00 a month for the whole family.

3. National Guard drill weekends: these weekends are nice because when your spouse is active duty, you are not used to them being around all the time. The drill weekends allow you the time apart that you are accustomed to and a tad bit of extra money too. We think of it as a way to pay for the health coverage. The extra money that you make for drill weekends is dependent upon rank and prior service members usually keep their rank, so long as they join within a certain amount of time.

Also, the husband gets to do "military stuff" so they won't miss the active duty as much. Well, for some, the training may cause them to miss it more.

4. Montgomery GI Bill: Not wanting to wait for the new GI Bill to take effect in August of 2009, my hubby opted for the old one. The Montgomery GI Bill allows my husband to go to school full time and get paid for doing it. This is an awesome way for any soldier or veteran to earn a degree for pretty much anything they would like to do.

5. Military ID: You get to keep your military ID and stickers for your car so that you can get on post. This is awesome because you still retain your commissary privileges, which are super nice to have.

Other than the normal adjustment to living in the civilian world, it has been wonderful having my husband around more to help raise our children. In a nut shell, I was scared to leave the umbrella that the Army put us under. It was safe there, but it's not so bad out in the rain either.