Expert: Howard Lorenz - 1/26/2008

Question
My son joined the Navy 6 months ago. Went through boot camp and was very excited. Asked by the Navy to serve in the Honor Guard, hurt his back and was placed on hold at Andrews AB waiting for his A-School for the Seabees.  After a month he said he was nothing and going nowhere in the Navy and was very unhappy wanting out, said I can do at home what I am doing here.  Hanging with the wrong people and too much idle time, he did the worst thing, he smoked weed with others, had positive urine test, is in the process of receiving an Administrative Separation.  He is 18 and very highly thought of by his peers, who were very disappointed in him, one Petty Officer even gave him his phone number and wants to keep in touch with him because he said my son was the best worker he had.  I feel my son could have been a good Navy Sailor had he got to his A-School.  At 18 you make mistakes that later you realize you were young and stupid.  Will he ever be able to go back to the Navy?  The CO that talked to him said some of the boys lied, but Jeremy owned up to his wrong doing and the CO said he was honorable for being truthful, does this help him at all.  My disappointment in my son is unbarable and I only know he could have been very good in the Navy had he just not done this.  His Petty Officer said he would give him a letter of recommendation if the Navy would not take him back and he wants to go to the Army.  I want him in the Navy Seabees and not the Army.  Is there any hope for this boy in the Navy??  Any hope at all??  He is still at AFB in Maryland waiting for the final paperwork to come back and then he will be coming home.  Thank you for your time.

A brokenhearted father
Gus Preite

Answer
Gus,

A lot will depend on what type of discharge they give him and what his RE code is. The RE code is the re-entry code and this tells recruiters if he is eligible for rehire basically. What you boy is going to have to do is get a good job, get some education and then retry it later. He put a healthy bruise on is military career buy doing drugs. The DoD has a no tolerance policy for drugs. The letters of recommendation will help, have him get as many of those as he can with the contact numbers as well.

HW