Expert: John L - 9/28/2008

Question
Wow, this must be like the strangest thing that I ever seen happen in like EVER, in the world of recruiting, even to my own family! I found this out like yesterday!  This is going to be a lot to read, but please read it! PLEASE HELP!! I still want to get into the military and I don’t want THIS to EVER happen to me  and get ROYALLY SCREWED like what I’m about to disclose -
Okay, check this out - My stepsister just got kicked out of the Marine Corps Boot Camp in THIRD PHASE (She was sooo freakin' close to graduation! Two days before the CRUCIBLE! What the hell?!), because they claimed that she didn't report Spontaneous Pneumothorax (Lung Collapse) and one incident of Syncope from three years ago and when she was also in the same hospital as I was (go figure) and stayed with me and that foster parent cop by CPS, too! I don’t think they tried to stuff meds down her throat like they did me...lol. We are about the same age, give or take a few months (I’m older…hahaha!)
Anyways, she said after BAS looked at her medical records (What’s BAS mean?), and saw her medical records with all of the three things that were ALREADY RECORDED AND IN THERE and said ‘there’s no waiver’, she said she was getting dropped for fraud anyway and the Recruiting Command from Parris Island pulled her from her Platoon TWICE to write statements about the events that occurred that lead her to Training. She let me read her stuff…  She wrote 8 pages about everything her recruiter did to get her in and what he did to her, too. (They didn’t know about the latter part until she said that she told her Series Commander later during some interview that her recruiter touched her more than once. She said she was scared to tell because she thought she would get in trouble if someone found out and because no one would believe a Recruit to be PFC over a Marine Sergeant anyway! I think that commander found out though a hunch or something. My stepsister said that the lady pointed to a sentence in the written statements that was a “Red Flag” to all Battalion staff that read it that something else was going on, other than a blotched enlistment… SO, it sounds like they coaxed it out of her…) R.C. pulled her again to write another statement. Well, the Recruiting Command people or whoever found out, though cross-examination of everything she wrote, that she was actually TELLING THE TRUTH! (HOW THE HELL DO YOU GET KICKED OUT FOR SOMETHING THAT’S ALREADY IN YOUR FILES AND YOU ALREADY TOLD A BUNCH OF PEOPLE ABOUT IT THAT DETIRMINE YOUR MILITARY CAREER!!)  
She said that papers were missing from her files, he refused to include medical records from her file, (but did fax them to MEPS after yelling at my stepsister over the phone; at the last minute, but she was delayed to ship by a day) and he bullied her into dropping out of college to go to training sooner! She even said that he pushed her into leaving the Reserve slot and go active, I don’t know what they mean by that… (She did not want active duty – But she would come home and say that, “He is scaring me, I don’t know what to do…I want him to stop scaring me… I don’t think anyone can help me…) The recruiter sounded desperate to push my stepsister into the military. (My stepsister told a Gunny at MEPS about school and R.C. talked to him too later and he said that was true about the school part. She said that he said that she came in his office at MEPS looking sad and told that guy that her recruiter wanted her to drop out; That Gunny probably was mad about that….She was thinking that that Gunny was feeling that something was wrong about the recruiter. His suspicions will soon be correct). She said that her recruiter even got written reprimands from the guy in charge of him and she saw a ‘letter of reprimand’ and read it one day when the recruiter parked in front of a high school and left her in the car with her service file. She said it was on top of her folder. She said that the recruiter was going to get kicked out of his billet if he kept f**king up.  Here’s the thing though, how can she be kicked out for lying, if she told the truth? She showed me what a DD-214 looked like and she said her narrative was ‘Fraudulent Entry into U.S. Military Service’ or something like that… She said that two codes on the form are very important to get back in and that the re-entry code and Separation Code is very important (She got a RE-3P and a JDA1).  It even says that she didn’t get discharged as a recruit, but a PFC. I would think that ‘Recruit’ would be in there, because she didn’t graduate - I don’t know, I’m an Air Force brat, I don’t deal much with Marines…  
(The Twist!) Get this though, she still wants to get into the military, but we both found out that her recruiter that got her in got arrested a few months after she got discharged. He is going back to court soon as we speak! He is being charged with 5 counts of some felonies in two counties and the Marines were already investigating him because of some of the things he did to my stepsister, enlistment and all. The news said that he did things to some applicants as well.  Does this girl really have a chance at getting back in? I mean really, I SAW her recruiter on TV – IN COURT for God’s sake – Shocked and surprised the hell out of both of us!  Your answers helped me in getting a chance with the service, but now, I’m wondering if this girl STILL has a chance, even with her recruiter arrested,  despite the Fraud thing, the R.C. believed her! (San Diego and Parris Island were exchanging notes. Heck - They called me and asked me about if I knew stuff about her recruiter! My Stepsister is from Cali’, too!). Does her recruiter being arrested give her any leverage at all? Can she do anything legal wise? Does she even HAVE a chance PERIOD! I know she told the truth because I WAS THERE AT MEPS! PLEASE HELP!  

Answer
In short, she has to wait a waiting period of 6 months to a year after discharge to re enlist.  A waiver is authorized but not guaranteed.  Just make sure she tells about everything and she should get back in.  If the Marines won't, then have her try the Army or national Guard.  If she has documents form her discharge, that should help.

Good luck