Pros
- Having to show up one weekend per month gives you more time to family and personal needs. - Summer training gives you active duty pay, which is usually worth more than your Nat. Guard annual salary. - Can oftentimes makeup drills or even annual training if conflicts arise (better tell your chain of command as far in advance as possible, though).
Cons
- Pay is rather pitiful if you have bills to pay. - Army is heavily dependent on ranking for how others are treated with respect, so don't expect any when you're below an E-4. Even then, you might be treated differently than the long-term E-4s in the unit. - Driving a truck for long hours can sometimes result in your not returning to home until 2AM (situational). - You'll be bored with little to do at the unit, but given a mission, you'll either sweat to death at Ft. Stewart or choke on someone smoking in the truck with you. - As long as you're not, at least, an E-5, expect to be shredding paper for someone or endlessly copying documentation (which you'll likely end up shredding anyways). - No matter what your orders are, expect to do things in the most complicated and unnecessary way possible.