Hello everyone, i was wondering if any other vets could chime in on this.
I am interested in joining the USMC or Navy as a long range shooter. I have been speaking to various recruiters but also veteran friends. My veteran friends all day not to disclose anything, legal or physical, until you get to MEPS. I only have 3 things I’m concerned about, I need waivers for them. As a 15 year old a classmate and I tried marijuana in a school bathroom once but a supervisor walked by and smelled it. I didn’t get charged but did informal probation, completed successfully, and was told by the PO it was wiped. I know the armed forces can still see this stuff. This was over 5 years ago and I only tried MJ once, it isn’t worth the consequences. As a 16 yo, I was charged with a misdemeanor for making a threat for telling a security guard to stop kicking and banging on my apartment door or I would beat his ass. I did a lil juvy time and a lil Probation time but everything was completed successfully with no further incident. As a 17yo I had a subdural hematoma (head injury) but have paperwork for it and it didn’t prevent me from getting my CDL or passing the DOT physical. As an adult my record is Scott free, both driving and personal stuff. I’m a hardworking individual coming from a navy family and my actions as an immature kid never stopped my dream of serving my country and carrying on family traditions. My veteran friends say not to disclose anything until you get to MePs. I once told a recruiter everything but he didn’t give my paperwork a second thought and sent me out. I do not engage in any of the actions that got me in trouble as a juvenile, and was looking for advice from people with expirience. I didn’t practice for the ASVAB but hit a 73 on the practice test. My fastest mile is 6:35. Should I wait until the next presidency for someone that cares for America unlike Obama? What do yall think thanks for reading
Its better just to be honest from the get-go and tell them everything up front because even if you think you’ve slipped through if they find out later than you fraudulently enlisted they will kick you out and you will have wasted your time.
That’s not an actual career field in either branch. You’ll enlist for an MOS (USMC), a rating (USN), or undesignated (USN). While waiting for your application for enlistment to be approved, someone’s going to want to know why you want to be a “long range shooter”.
Your veteran friends who told you that are giving you incredibly bad advice. It doesn’t matter how minor whatever the illegal thing was, if you don’t disclose it in advance and then it’s discovered at MEPS or later, you’ll be discharged for fraudulent enlistment so fast it’ll make gods blink.
Why do you think who happens to be President at the time would make any difference to the enlistment of a random kid somewhere? If anything, a Republican who cares about America would make harsher rules to keep out hot heads who lack self control.
As a Canadian, I am absolutely amazed when I read this.
-a record for “smelled marijuana???” In Canada, from what I’ve read, less than an ounce on an adult is barely worth the paperwork of writing a ticket.
-a record for “I’ll kick your ass”?? For a minor?? Either there’s more to the story than this, or that particular state’s justice system is incredibly petty.
Finally, I would like to know whether the USMC cares about all this. One of my relatives is a retired commissioned officer from the US Navy, he apparently broke another kid’s arm during a fight in military school and was drinking like a fish by age 14. I assume the armed forces want people with a visible backbone and a bit of aggressiveness.
How does recruiting work? If you decide to be upfront with them, maybe have a chat with a recruiter and see what they say. Better to be told “don’t bother applying” rather than applying and having you name stamped “REJECTED”. Plus, if in a few years, pot is legal almost everywhere not just Colorado, it might be beneficial to apply later with one less strike.
The only other question I would have is - with Afghanistan and Iraq winding down, are the forces busy reducing numbers? Is this a good time to apply when they are shrinking and so can afford to be very picky about who their new recruits are, or is all the shrinking already done?
I’m going to go against the wind here and say - I know the government’s access to records is nothing like you are making it out to be. I’m not even sure they actually check anything but the FBI databases automatically. These kinds of criminal records may be in sealed files buried in a mountain of mouldering documents in a municipal courthouse.
Anyways, it sounds to me more like
a. If they find out, whether you told them or not, you ain’t getting in - 3 waivers needed.
b. If you keep your mouth shut, they may not figure it out. If you get through MEPs the first time they probably never found out.
The government isn’t some all seeing monster - they will only be able to find out if these records are in computers that they can easily access.
I can think of at least 1 low risk way to go about this. Tell a recruiter you’re interested, ask him to check what records are actually visible in the system. Recruiters understand quite well how all this works. You remember getting in trouble, but you may not remember if they actually went to the trouble of convicting you versus a half dozen other ways to dispose of juvenile cases. Instead of telling on an official form all the stuff they might know about, ask a recruiter to find out what is actually visible. It isn’t lying on enlistment documents if you haven’t actually signed them yet - you do that at MEPs.
Good advice your the first one to take this seriously. What if he says he doesn’t have access to background, and that’s a MEPS thing? Are 3 waivers that bad? Will presidency change anything? I said what I said about Obama because he just cut 40000 jobs out of the armed forces. Which branch has the lowest standards? navy? I’ll be going back to my recruiter soon, but he’s looking into only 2 waivers at the moment, I wonder if I could get a third in there
All of the particulars here aside, the experience I’ve had with several kids (family, close friends, etc.) is to tell the recruiter absolutely everything and let him/her decide what needs to be recorded and sent on. Since recruiters usually have quotas and an eager volunteer is an asset (to them, professionally, as well as all the other ways) they’re going to be motivated to make sure the candidate is qualified, ready and won’t get disqualified for stupid reasons.
Hiding stuff is bad. Always has been, unless your goal is not long-term success.
Sorry, but this was not an arbitrary move, but rather dictated by budget cuts by the legislature, along with 17,000 civilian layoffs. If sequestration happens, they risk losing another 30,000 billets for the Army. Perhaps your criticism is misdirected.
I needed a TS/SCI clearance while in the USAF. The special background investigation turned up a couple of things: That I had an outstanding arrest warrant in California, which the suits told me to clear up next time I was in California; and that “someone” said they saw me smoke marijuana twice, and it took me hours to convince them not to throw me in jail for that (BTW, when I was reported to have smoked marijuana, it was still just an infraction in Oregon, [sup]$[/sup]10 fine).
I always thought that was a strange difference, 30 days in jail next time I crossed into California was okay, but stiffing Oregon for ten bucks damn near got my clearance application disapproved.
That warrant is still outstanding in California, and marijuana is legal in Oregon
My buddy says a question on MEPS is similar to “have you ever smoked marijuana” and if I get a waiver for disclosing my juvenile probation time to my recruiter (not a charge), is answering yes an automatic disqualification, or should I put no ? I don’t think actions as a juvenile should inhibit anything you do as an adult, especially while maintaining a clean record.
I think the actual question has a time limit, like “ever smoked marijuana in the past 7 years”.
That subdural hematoma - I can say pretty confidently that *that *won’t show up. That is, they do not have any way to get access to your medical records unless
You tell them. Tell them, and they will demand a copy of those records. That’s how they get them.
Your choose a job that requires top secret or higher, where they *might * be able to figure it out. Probably not. The medical records system in the USA is such a colossal mess that it’s almost impossible for the government to find out even if they want to.
I suspect the misdemeanor threat against the security guard is the only thing you have to worry about. You can get 1 waiver for a misdemeanor, probably.
The only way the President might affect things is if a Republican starts another major war. Lindsay Graham, a candidate, was actually talking a lot of trash about he would go to war against Iran to stop them getting a nuke. Iran has triple the population of Iraq and a substantially more powerful military, so they would take massive casualties in such a war and would probably approve a lot more waivers for recruits, similar to what happened in the last set of wars.
You don’t want to go to war. You want to get in, get stationed somewhere decent with a fun job, get laid in the local town, and enjoy your time off in the barracks playing video games or other fun activities. Wars aren’t any fun for anyone but the defense contractors who supply the weapons and expensive services.