Joining the Military: Active Duty vs. Reserves

So you want to join the military. Whether you feel called to serve your country, service runs in the family, or you are largely drawn by the many potential benefits of joining up, deciding how to participate is a major decision. Besides which branch to serve in, you can also choose whether to be on active duty or in the reserves—and your choice will be life-defining.

Here are the major requirements and benefits of each.

Basic Requirements and Expectations

You must meet specific minimum requirements to join the military, whether full-time or part-time. You must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident at least age 17, and if you're not yet 18, you need parental permission. You need a high school diploma or GED, but entrance is more difficult with a GED.

You'll need to achieve a minimum score, which varies by branch, on the Armed Forces Qualification Test and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test. Also, you must pass a military entrance medical exam and background check. Upon acceptance, you'll attend basic training (also called "boot camp" or "recruit training"), which lasts 7.5 to 13 weeks, depending on your branch. If you have a four-year college degree, you could apply to attend Officer Candidate School (basic training for officers). From there, you'll attend job-specific training.

Both active duty and reserves have maximum age restrictions for who can enlist, but these differ by branch, as do physical fitness requirements. For example, to join the Air Force, you can't be older than 39 and must pass the Air Force Basic Military Training Fitness Test.

All service members must adhere to specific physical requirements for weight, fitness, hair, nails, piercings, tattoos, and attire. In general, you must maintain a neat, professional, and natural appearance.

Time Commitment

A typical active-duty service term lasts eight years: four years of active duty and four years of inactive duty. A typical reserve-duty service term lasts three to eight years, depending on your branch and job. You don’t need prior military experience to serve on active duty or to join the reserves. The military will train you.

Active duty is considered a 24/7 job, but you can generally expect regular work hours and weekends and holidays off. Vacation days, known as “leave,” total 30 days per year, accrued at a rate of 2.5 days per month, and must be approved by your command. You will also get time off, called “liberty,” of 24, 48, 72, or 96 hours for weekends and holidays. Sick time must be approved by medical personnel but is not counted against your leave time.

In the reserves, you will usually serve within a 90-minute drive of your home at least one weekend a month for unit training, plus a two-week field service exercise per year. The rest of your time is yours.

Whether you sign up for active duty or the reserves, you’ll be legally bound to complete your minimum service requirement. Enlisting means giving up a great deal of control over your life. Read your contract before you sign it. Make sure you understand the full scope of your commitment.

Career and Lifestyle

If you don’t know anything about the military, you might think active duty means putting yourself in the line of fire, while reserve duty means being next in line for combat if there aren’t enough active-duty service members to fill a need. It’s way more nuanced than that.

More than 200 jobs are available to active-duty personnel, and more than 120 jobs are available to reservists—and that’s just in the Army. There are jobs in mechanics and engineering, science and medicine, support and logistics, and many other areas besides combat arms.

When you join the military, you’ll speak with a service enlistment counselor to determine your career field, while your specialty is generally awarded to you after you finish basic training. Your preferences matter somewhat, but ultimately, your specialty will be based on the service needs, available jobs, your ASVAB test scores, and the job’s physical requirements compared with your physical ability.

For example, you could be a financial management technician in the Army as an enlisted soldier or a reservist. Someone who holds this job as a reservist might be an accountant or financial planner in their civilian job.

On active duty, some branches allow you to list preferred locations to serve in, but ultimately, the service will station you wherever it needs you, whether in the United States or overseas. You will live on or near a military installation. You can expect to move every two to three years.

When you join the reserves, you're typically joining the unit closest to where you live or can move to. You can live anywhere in the United States, but you might be on the hook for part of the travel to your unit if you live too far away. If you are called to active duty or deployed, you'll be required to travel to your unit for deployment training or preparation.

Deployment

A deployment is a unit or individual event that takes you away from your usual duty station. How often you get deployed, where you are deployed, and what you do during deployment depend on your military branch, your occupation, and the military's needs. A deployment can last anywhere from a few months to more than one year.

When you're deployed, you might find staying in touch with loved ones back home challenging. However, it depends on where you're deployed and what is set up. People in some career fields might have more communications, like email, internet phones, and video services; others might only have a radio or satellite phone that allows them to communicate with their command.

Active-duty service members are first in line to deploy, but reservists may be deployed when the need is high. It’s more likely that they will be activated, which means filling in for active-duty service members who are deployed. The National Guard, and sometimes Reservists, may be called to serve at the scene of disasters in the United States. Active-duty personnel are more likely to go overseas but have also been sent to assist in natural disaster zones.

Pay and Benefits

Pay as a reservist is per weekend drill plus annual two-week training, which increases based on rank and years of service. In 2023, pay starts at about $380 per month for someone with the lowest rank and least experience, based on the typical service of one weekend a month and two weeks a year. You also earn base pay during basic and job training.

Active-duty pay is salaried and also depends on rank and years of service. An E-1 (enlisted), the level at which most people start, earns a base pay of $1,773 per month in 2023. The base pay for the lowest level officer, O-1, is more than $3,600 in 2023.

Active-duty service members are eligible for full benefits, including medical and dental care, educational benefits, a housing and food allowance, and a retirement plan. Reserve-duty service members (excluding individual ready reservists) earn partial benefits.

Benefits for reservists include healthcare for themselves and their families through the TRICARE Reserve Select plan, where you are responsible for annual premiums, a deductible, and cost-sharing; educational assistance through the GI Bill with at least six years of service; and eligibility for the military’s Blended Retirement System pension and thrift savings plan (TSP). Reservists who are activated or deployed become eligible for active-duty pay and benefits.

A Third Option: Civilian Service

You can also serve but not be on active duty through the Air Force Civilian Service, Army Civilian Service, Navy Civilian Careers, or Coast Guard Civilian Careers. Civilian service can help military spouses get and keep jobs thanks to preferential hiring and easy job transfers from one installation to another.

The Bottom Line

Joining the military is a significant decision. You can’t easily break your commitment; attempting to do so generally has serious consequences. Furthermore, whether you join the active-duty service or the reserves, you could be deployed, though your chances are greater on active duty. Both part- and full-time duty offer many benefits, but these come with the potential for major sacrifices that will affect you and your loved ones, so it’s something to consider carefully.