Expert: Aaron Shifferly - 7/23/2010

Question
If my son who is in enlisted in the National Guard was arrested for theft a Class B misdemeanor for shoplifting out of Target, can he be discharged and be ineligible for his GI bill money?

Answer
Possibly. There are a lot of factors that go into this to include: Was he on active duty at the time? Has he had other discipline problems? What is that unit's policy on petty crime and such? Does his job require him to have a security clearance that could be revoked?  It would be doubtful that he gets kicked out and loses his benefits for this one instance, but that's all I can say without more specifics.  Also, each state's NG does things slightly different so he'd have to look into his state's regulations on this kind of stuff. Bottom line: he probably won't lose his benefits and may not even get kicked out.  If not, he should definitely learn from the mistake because the Army probably won't tolerate a second issue of this type.