Expert: Matt - 10/8/2009

Question
my son has been trying to enlist in military for several weeks. he had a misdemeanor on record as a minor. he was charged with breaking and entering when he was 20. he is now 21 when he went to hearing he said he wanted to go into military, that's what he wanted. they dropped charges pending enlistment. he got all paper work ready when reviewing documents wouldn't take him because of "pending paperwork". he has been going back and forth and has gotten no where. is there anything he can do or will no military branch enlist him? he scored very high on pretest and graduated high school.

Answer
It sounds like a breakdown in communication to me...from what I understand his misdemeanor will be dropped if he can produce enlistment documents, however the military will not let him enlist as long as he has legal documents pending. The only way around it is to be honest with the military recruiter, tell him the story, pick one branch of the service and stick with it. Dont use the military as a way to stay out of jail, actually show the recruiter that he wants to be there for the RIGHT reasons and I can see no reason why the recruiter won't work with him on his enlistment. Once he gets those papers, then he can go back to the courthouse and show them his papers of enlistment.