What he said. It is entertaining when the "coffee mess officer" (snack-O I believe in AF speak) is an O-5. Though I guess that is not unlike CAF billets for you blue suits
I'll say that the SELRES and FTS Sailors I've encountered are generally pretty sh*t hot. A FCPO in the reserves is probably the technical/knowledge equivalent of an active E-9 in a lot of cases. Albeit the admin side isn't always as clean, but that is normally not due to your local admin FTS folk who are equally talented. Overall, I've been impressed with the caliber of folks we have O and E alike in my first 6 months of affiliation. It is too bad that the active side can't get over trying to create the "well rounded Sailor"....ie take them away from their primary duties for tour after tour, and then throw them back into the hot seat as a new CPO in MX control and watch them burn. So dumb. I know we have a lot of hot fills that aren't rate/community specific, but man.....if we just left our folks be in their communities to learn and become experts, and if we didn't underman the very important senior NCO billets, things would flow a lot more smoothly. Same for CPO/SCPO/MCPO's that are torn away from their communities and thrown into whatever needs a body at that rank. We have a TON of E7's who are literally just doing OJT in a completely new community/airframe but with all the experience requirements, and through no fault of their own, failing in leading their shops/divisions in expertise and mentorship. It is frustrating.....maybe one of the reasons I pulled chocks. All good guys/gals, but our personnel/detailing system is failing them.