To begin with, let me say that I am not thinking about going back in the service. At my age, physical and mental condition, I’m sure our armed forces would only let me in as a hostage (pause and allow time for a collective sigh of relief by the entire American public).
The situation is my editor wants a treatment so…
First - If a former officer (say a 1st Lt. in the Army) goes back into the military after leaving (honorably discarged and all that) and goes back in another service (Navy) can he/she refuse to be commissioned the second time? And if so, can he/she go in as something higher than the lowest seaman or must he/she start from the bottom and work up?
Second - When I was in the service (my family contends, so long ago the two sides threw rocks at each other and carried clubs) the way to rejoin the military not your own service was to go by way of the reserves although I did know one guy who actually rejoined by way of a recruiter and they even waved most of basic for him. If you are recently out, will they wave basic training if you have not been long out of another service equally tough.
It looks like for #2, you can re-join without going through basic again, if you meet certain requirements.
Special Operations, url=http://www.af.mil/news/Mar1995/n19950327_267.html]
general Air Force, and Air Force Security Forces links. Best way to get your answer is to head down to the Recruiting Station nearby. If you are the media, they may LOVE to have you write up something so they can reach a lot of people who are thinking along those lines. I had a Marine Corporal who had been a Sergeant in the Army, but I’m pretty sure he did boot camp. Different services MAY have different requirements for Prior Service members re-treading.
Until a better answer comes along, my understanding is this.
If you were a commissioned officer, you probably had to resign your commisssion to leave the service.
If you were a non-commissioned officer, you simply had to wait for your enlistment to be up.
When rejoining, you are not required to accept a commision and become an officer again. Even in time of war, being commissioned without the person’s consent is extraodinary. The new branch might not even have a need for additional officers.
When entering another service, the new service will look at your former MOS and rank, in order to make the best use of any training and experience you may have already received. Depending upon the needs of the branch, you might be returned to your former rank, or a lower rank, or even a higher rank. Depending upon the branch, you might not need to return to basic training. The new branch would probably mike an effort to attract an experienced soldier/sailor/marine - everyone likes to have someone who is familiar with the military and is willing to re-enlist. They usually count your prior enlistment for such things as retirement and other benefits - after all, everyone works for Uncle Sam.
I do know of people who have gone from the Navy into the Army, and from the Navy into the Marines. In the first case, he re-enlisted after being out for about three months. He chose the Army because he did not like living aboard a ship. He was not required to take basic training, but was sent to some sort of two week class, similar if not the same as they gave some reservists.
The sailor who became a marine did so while still on active duty, and it took a good deal of paperwork, signatures, and explaining, but there was not real opposition. All the Navy people thought he was crazy, but he said that was the common perception of the marines anyway.
I had a guy come into my platoon from the Navy, now that I remember. He was an E-4 in the Navy, went to Parris Island, and came out an E-3, but picked up E-4 VERY quickly. He was a Stinger Team Leader with very little experience. I put him with a Gunner who knew his stuff, and Cpl Eads, the former Navy guy, was smart enough to listen to the more experienced LCpl.
For your second, it depends on skills. In the CG, we routinely receive prior service. Some go through basic all over again. Not too long ago, prior service had an abbreviated 4 wk basic, although i think that’s gone. Some folks, like cooks for example, can lateral over keeping their paygrade, with no basic required. They just get some uni’s and orders to their first unit right from their recruiter. We see alot of cooks come into the CG this way, usually from the Navy, that I’ve seen.
It really all depends. I left one service as an E-4 after 2 years, then, 18 years and a couple of academic degrees later, joined another as an O-3. They didn’t care one way or the other about the prior service. But I sure did, my starting pay was O-3 over 6 (I got credit for 4 years inactive reserve) rather than O-3 over 0. Just the difference in pay between O-3 over 6 and O-3 over 0 over the course of the first few months amounted to more than my total earnings over 2years as an enlisted person.
Since your OP referenced an officer and you have lots of responses about the enlisted side, here I go:
I guess it could happen, but I’m not quite sure why. From what I gather, your editor is interested in something like an Army captain who has been out for a while joining the Marines as a private. Why else would you voluntarily go back on active duty but refuse a commission? I would think that this would be difficult, but depending on the needs of the particular service, not impossible.
In the early 90s the Air Force was RIFing people (Reduction In Force - you involuntarily lose your job). Most of the officers who got hit were Navs, and a few of them got offered a chance to stay in until retirement as an NCO. These guys were VERY close to retirement, could not be higher than O-3 (Captain) rank, had to have prior enlisted service, and were sent to units far, far away where no one who knew them as an officer would run into them as an NCO. Very unusual circumstances, but at least the guys got to stay in for 20.
Since 9-11 a lot of pilots have gone back on active duty (all the furloughs at the airlines, you see). Many of them have switched services when they did this. One year ago the Air Force was so hard up for U-2 pilots that Navy helicopter guys were getting sent out to Beale. Everyone came over with the same rank as they had in the other service. Get a pamphlet on the AF rank and organization, get the new rank sewn on your flight suit and you’re good to go.
The service academies also allow a limited number of cadets to cross-commission into other services. I have a friend who graduated from the Air Force Academy but took a Navy commission and is now a SEAL. Go figure.