Expert: Aaron Shifferly - 8/25/2009

Question
My son is in Basic Training at Fort Knox. His wife received a short call recently to say that he would be coming home on a administrative separation. He was experiencing panic attacks at night and had also injured his knee. He told her that he would have a option to return in 6 months. Do you receive this option with this type of separation? Will he still receive his mail? We have been sending letters daily but he said he has only received 4 in the past 4 weeks. Will he be able to call his wife
again. Will he be subject to any repercussions from other members while he waits for this? I've read some terrible stories online and am very worried. Theres no way to contact him. Thank you for any information you can give us.

Answer
Ok. I'll answer them as distinctly as possible.
1. Basic training separations are generally not characterized since the trainee has spent so little time in the military. That being said, uncharacterized discharges are able to reenlist after 6 months in most cases. He will need a DD214 (discharge form that they will either give or mail to him) and other paperwork to show that his medical condition has been taken care of.
2. He will get his mail up until the day that he leaves and, afterwards he will have it forwarded to the address he chooses. As for the slow delivery, it takes a while to sort all the letters that come to a basic training unit and then get them to the appropriate person but, rest assured, people are trying and will deliver all the mail for him that they have.
3. As for calling his wife, it will be up to his drill sergeants to determine his privilege level.  He will undoubtedly get at least a phone call to inform his wife of his date of departure from Fort Knox.
4. He shouldn't be subject to any repercussions from other Soldiers because the Chain of Command doesn't tolerate things like that, and his situation is fairly routine during BCT. Also, one it becomes clear that he's being separated they will move him from a training company to a unit that specializes in preparing Soldiers to separate from the military.
5. You can look on the website www.knox.army.mil and try to find a phone number for the unit he's in and call, but I recommend against that. The unit will probably not talk about your son's situation with you as it has privacy issues.

Hope this helps.