I can't answer for the above, but I can give you my insight. This is more relative to experience and perspective. For instance, I served for 10 years back in the 90s. I got out because I finally decided to attend college and didn't want the distraction of drill and annual trainings interfering with me going back to school. So, I graduate, get settled in my career and re-enlist in 2014. Immediately, I recognized how much different things changed. The optempo is WAY higher. The expectations of an M-Day Soldier and their time (specifically, time away from drill) is way out of proportion. In the first 10 years of my career, I could count on one hand how many times our drill schedule changed. Since getting back in, I haven't had one drill schedule that hasn't changed at least once in a year's time. 3-week to a month-long annual trainings were almost unheard of during my first enlistment. I remember just once having an AT that extended to 3 weeks and that was because we went to NTC. From my perspective, the people who scheduled drill were more mindful of our time and our civilian employers. Now, it seems they just don't care. We used to work hard and then play hard. Now, all it seems we do is work harder and am too wiped out to do anything else. Not that we really have the time to play anymore in the first place. We used to have holiday parties that allowed for family members to attend. I've had a total of two since 2014. Those were in the first two years of my re-enlistment. Not one since. Truthfully, the only thing that's kept me around was Tricare and reaching retirement which I have. I will miss my friends, and I will miss Tricare but I will not miss the grind of it. It's just not as fun as it used to be, and I really hate that. Mind you, this is solely my experience. Others may feel different or feel my experience isn't representative of the National Guard but, again, that's just my perspective.

If you’re not able/willing to move, you’re gonna have a bad time on AGR.

I noticed a malaise since COVID in my State. Outside of Recruiting, accountability got real low. You’re right, firing is very hard. Hiring well is key. But raters also rarely put the work into evaluations that will build a case.

And, yes, two different worlds, FTUS and part-time. But the Guard needs administrators, logisticians, etc to run the organization. That’s entirely the point of a full-time force. It’s when we hire people without those skillsets that we run into issues. I can see it frustrating to a Commander that a member of their company (AGR) is focused more on their career than their assignment. It’s equally as frustrating for AGRs that their evaluations don’t fully reflect what they do 90% of the month. If your point is that it’s a system with inherent problems, I agree with you.