Military Reserves and Federal LEO Positions

[cowbucs]

First of all I am a current LEO with 4 years of experience. I served 2 years in the Army Reserve and 4 years active duty in the Marine Corps. I am currently in the process of applying for federal LEO positions (DEA, FBI, NCIS). I am thinking of joining the Coast Guard Reserve as an LEO.

Here is my dilemma. As I mentioned I am currently applying for federal positions. If I do join the reserves, will the weekend and yearly drills supersede any the duties of a federal position or vice versa. In other words, if, for arguments sake, the DEA hires me an I am required to attend training over a period of time that laps with reserve drill dates, will conflict arise? Basically my priority is a federal position followed by the reserve.

I guess my best bet is to call the recruiters for both the federal positions and the reserve, but any help for now will be much appreciated.

[ELCID02]

The only agency I knew of that forbid agents from being in the reserves was the FBI and I heard that has changed and the FBI along with the other major agencies allow you to join the reserves. They follow the same law as civilian employers as far as I can tell and must allow you to complete all of your reserve requirements w/ out negatively effecting your employment status with them. If you are set on being a reservist I would try and be a IMA. This program is very flexible and allows you to do your time basically when ever you want. For instance you can lump all 24 days together and do them like that or do two sets of 12 days or whatever. This way you can plan your time way in advance and avoid ****ing off your agency. Just my .02.

[GreenLine]

I am a reservist and my unit is extremely flexible regarding civilian work duties. On the flip side, my agency is also flexible - partly because they have to be, by law: if they allow me to serve, they have to allow me the opportunity to get a satisfactory drill year. If there's agency training that you can't miss, it's very common to do multiple drills at once or makeup drills. If you deploy, the agency has to let you go. I haven't yet run into any scheduling problem that couldn't be overcome.