Careers: Military--Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard/Thinking about Reenlisting

Expert: Cynthia Bedell - 7/2/2008

Question
I got out of the Navy about a 1 1/2 years ago and have thought about joining the reserves. I had an honorable discharge and have an RE code of 1. However, I received a 3rd degree misdemeanor in 2002 while on leave in the service. I told my immediate chain of command at the time and I ended up only paying a fine and went back to work as usual. After that I never really thought about it but now that I may be coming back a friend of mine that is active duty said that my department may of kept it to themselves and when I get my new background check it might be the first time the Navy "officially" hears about it. I am going to bring it up with reserve recruiter before anything gets started but this seems like an odd scenario and I wanted to get an idea of what may happen.

Answer
Dear Ryan --

Unfortunately, your friend is right. If your charge and conviction was not expunged from your record, you will likely need a "morality" waiver to re-enlist.

You have a couple of options. You could go back to court to get your record expunged, if you completed all requirements of the terms of your conviction. Or you could just try to enlist with a waiver.

You will be a higher quality recruit, if you get your record expunged, but that can take up to two years depending on your jurisdiction and their expunge policies. Going in with a waiver, may be okay, as long as the military occupational specialty you want is open to Sailors with waivers.

You do want to return to service before three years has passed, that way you will not have to re-take basic training.

Your plan to talk to a recruiter and tell them the whole story is good. A recruiter will have more details about your options both with a waiver and if you have your record expunged. Remember to report your misdemeanor on your security clearance application. Bad activities explained are not as much of a problem as questionable activities left off the application are.

Thank you for your prior service. Good luck with your plans for future service.