Air National Guard - Help!!!!!!!!

[BeerNear]

Howdy ya'll,

I was recently hired by a guard unit. During the interview, some of the board members tried to explain how the guard works (i.e. pay, leave, UTE days, etc...). After a 30 minute dissertation(sp), I realized that I understand Taro cards and chicken bones better. Does anyone have info or resources that I can look at to get a better handle on this? Thanks for your time.

Take care and fly safe,

BN

 

[AlbieF15]

Blind leading the blind..

BearNear,

I was in a similar situation this spring, and here is sort of what I figured out.....

Typical fighter unit gets 36 MPAs, 48 UTAs, and 48 FTPs each year, along with 15 AT training days.

AT days are the "2 week drill" period. UTAs are the "drill weekends". FTPs are additional flight training periods (for aviators).

MPAs and Training days are paid at 1/30 of your base pay, plus all the appropriate allowances, housing, flight pay, subsistence, etc. As a 14 year O-4 that equals about $235 (gross) per day. You may use ONE MPA or AT per calendar day.

Based on needs of the unit, more MPAs may be authorized than the basic 36. As an example, with Noble Eagle operations many guys have been authorized up to 270 MPAs, with more likely to follow as those days are used up.

A UTA is pay for a drill period, and an FTP is additional drill training for flying. Each pays 1/30 of your base pay, and the FTP includes 1/30 of your flight pay for the month. Good news is each drill period is considered 4 hours, so a typical 8-10 hour day at the unit pays 2 of these.

Again...math with a hacksaw, when I fly using these days I get appox $170 (MPA) + $190 (FTP) for about $ 360 (gross).

Some other gouge:

You basically have 4 MPAs and 4 FTPs per month, but you may use up to 16 of your annual allotment in one quarter. However, only 4 FTPs per quarter may be used when you don't actually fly, and then only for specific non flying duties (ie...stan/eval tests, mission prep. SOF does not count!)

In many units, most guys will try to burn UTAs and FTPs first, then work into their ATs and MPAs. However...someone told me (and I may be wrong on this) that FTPs/UTAs don't earn retirment points, so they tend to lean on using ATs and MPAs first. With 14 years of active duty already and a bunch of additional MPAs that I have been authorized, I don't sweat having enough retirement points so I generally prioritize knocking out the higher paying UTAs/FTPs instead first.

Also...I'm in an ANG unit imbedded in an active duty squadron, so my situation may be different than yours. I'm sure there are plenty of Guard bums who know the ins and outs of the pay options to help you get off to a good start.

Welcome to the total force and thanks for serving!

Albie

 

[bssthound]

AFTP/UTA Retirement Points

I was Air Guard until '96, when I transferred to the AF Reserve.

"Mandays" are Guard/Reservespeak for active duty days.

AFTP, also known as FTP means "Additional Flying Training Period"

UTA stands for "Unit Training Assembly." Weekend drill consists of four UTA periods, two on Saturday, two on Sunday.

AFTPs and UTAs are classified as "inactive duty." They count for a maximum of 90 retirement points a year. If you do all 96 of your FTPs and UTAs only 6 won't count. For years only 60 inactive points counted toward retirement, then it was 75 for a few years.

All MPA days and annual training days count as retirement points except:

For you Guard Guys, any annual training days past 15 don't count
as retirement points since they are "state days" as opposed to "federal days" which MPAs are classified. That is the one real difference between the Guard and Reserve. Since the Reserve is Federal and NOT a state entity all Reserve Mandays are federal and, thus, count as retirement points.

We're authorized a yearly total of 139 MPA days, waiverable up to 179 total. Any more than that and the member ("heh, heh, he said member!") will be counted against active duty manning.

There are also inactive pay periods known as Proficiency Training (PT) in the Guard and Reserve Manning Period (RMP) in the Reserve. These CANNOT be performed in conjunction with any other pay period in a day, unlike UTAs and FTPs, which can be done together (2 UTAs or UTA period/AFTP). A member can perform a max of 24 PTs/RMPs per year.

There are a few other obscure paydays, such as UTTP. I don't know the particulars and have only scored one in my 16 years of learning/working the system.

Bottom line: If you're at the unit you should be getting paid. Keep a record of each day you're there and what pay status you were on. Just about anyone at your unit will be willing to help out. Listen to the bums and fulltimers who bummed for years before finally landing a full time slot. They know the ropes. I've bummed for 7+ total years of the past sixteen and have learned a lot of this the hard way.

 

[NWA-AirGuard]

UTA's and AFTP's are combined on your points summary as IDT (inactive duty training) of which a maximum of 90 points count towards retirement but the 15 membership points count in the 90. So really only the first 75 UTA's and AFTP's count for retirement. Of course you get paid for all 96. Annual training is not state active duty at my unit. Every year I do more than 15 AT days and they all count. I know because I check my point summary on vMPF. State active duty days(which don't count for retirement) are primarily Army Guard activations for floods, riots, guarding airports, etc. If your going to a heavy unit(C-130) they don't talk about authorized MPA days for local training because the trips you do come with MPA days and you can do as many in a year as you can get( I did 244 active duty days last year). I think fighter units talk about authorized MPA days for local training because they don't do all the trips a heavy unit does. The biggest key to bumming in a heavy unit is how trips they can put you on a month.

 

[Slim]

As a recently retired Army National Guard type, I can only add one thing to what bssthound said.

NEVER, EVER discard your LES (leave and earnings statement)! I had one year of service which combined three months of active duty (Air Guard), four months of drill weekends and another three months of active duty (both Army Guard). The retirement point accounting system never managed to combine all the points together for a good retirement year. Persistence, all the orders and LESs and retirement point summaries finally resulted in that year being included for 20 good years and retirement.

Good luck...fly safe!

 

[RichO]

The guard get's automatic MPA day's? Hmmm, cool.....but I still probably worked over 100 or so active duty days in the reserves.....key things in the heavies are to do JAATTS......free man days......

 

[BeerNear]

Gracias Amigos

Ya'll,

Thanks for the info. I reckon I need to really pick at the knowledge of the bums in the unit. Take care and hope to see you guys or gals in the system.

BN

 

[DHPope93]

Another quick question

Fellas,
Good info. Had another question in this vein. I was told that if you join a Guard unit in ,say, October, you can still make up all of the UTAs you "missed" that calendar year. Anybody familiar with this?

Peace,
DP