For new Air Guard members, the commitment involves working one weekend a month and a few weeks a year at a minimum for a period of 6 years. They must attend Basic Military Training at Lackland AFB in Texas for approximately 8 1/2 weeks, followed by Technical School for the career field they have chosen. Tech schools range in length from 6 to over 50 weeks, depending on the job.

One of the primary benefits of joining the Air Guard is being part of your Hometown Air Force. Ordinarily, a person joins the unit closest to where they live, and after the initial training, they return to begin working the one weekend a month and a few weeks a year from that location. On occasion - typically during the annual training periods (two to three weeks a year) - units try to travel to varied locations to complete a more comprehensive training program. When this occurs, all of our members are provided transportation to and from that location as well as room and board.

Those interested in joining the Air Guard having never served before must be between the ages of 17 and 34. They are required to pass a written examination called the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) as well as an Entrance Physical Examination. They must also have limited law violations and pass a background check. All of this is performed as part of the screening process before a person actually joins the Air Guard.

Once a person completes the screening process and is determined eligible to join, they will begin the job selection process. During this process, the Recruiter and interested individuals discuss areas of interest. Using the results from the ASVAB test and physical, the local recruiter reviews positions available within the local unit to match the person with some areas of interest. Once a job is selected the applicant is then scheduled to enlist and actually join the Air Guard. Everything prior to swearing in is just preliminary processing and does not obligate a person to join.

There is always the possibility of being tasked for deployment. The current posture for the Air Guard is to support the needs of the Air Force on an as-needed basis. It is almost impossible to predict or determine whether, when or for how long a person may be deployed, but every effort is made to use volunteers first, and in some cases a person is tasked to deploy when volunteers are not available to meet the mission’s requirements.