Expert: Cynthia Bedell - 1/27/2010

Question
I Was having personal problems while i was enlisted in the Navy. I kept having flashbacks of when my mother passed away in 2005, and my roommate also tried committing suicide while he was on watch one day. I made a mistake and ended up getting caught on a drug test with THC in my system. I used THC to just get all the thoughts out of my system a couple times. I got discharged from the Navy in June 2009 with an Other Than Honorable discharge and a Re-Enlistment code of RE-4. I was wondering if there was a way that either the Coast Guard or Army would give me a second Chance.  

Answer
Dear Geoffrey --

With your current discharge characterization and re-entry code -- no service will take you.

If you could convince the Board for Correction of Naval Records, that you did not deserve such a discharge, and you got your DD214 changed, you might be able to enter the Army or Marines with a waiver.  You are unlikely to get such a waiver with either the Air Force or the Coast Guard.

However, none of the services are granting a drug use waiver at this time.  All services are getting sufficient candidates that they do not need to approve such waivers at the moment.  Recruitment success varies from month to month.  If the economy gets better, the services will begin offering more waivers to gain additional recruits.

Good luck to you.