Expert: John L - 8/7/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hello and thank you for taking time to view and answer my concerns. I am in hopes of joining up with the ANG, AFR. My main concern involves my acceptance into the unit. I am currently 32 years of age with a strong employment history, letters of reference from a Major in the US Army and one detailing my time involved coaching youth sports in my local community. Unfortunately I have skeletons in my closet that have haunted me on paper for the past 13 years. One is a possession of marijuana. The other involved me being in possession of stolen property-this infraction occurred 14 years and 3 months ago. These were decisions involving very poor and immature judgement on my part. I have overcome these troubles to be a responsible father of two with a strong and steady work history. Ultimately, I am hoping that the individual I am today coupled with relevant work experience will outweigh my past faults and the Air Force would give strong consideration to a waiver. Your thoughts or experiences with similar circumstances is greatly appreciated.

ANSWER: Your posession of Marijuana conviction bans you from the military roght now with no waivers authorized.  It does not matter when they happened, it is a rule they put in place to slow down enlistments becuase too manypeople are trying to join and they have more than enough qualified people without issues in their past to worry about.

I think it is wrong to exclude people for some mistakes, but that is the ruling as of right now.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Would a pardon from the Governor of my state make any difference? That is currently in process. If I were granted said pardon would it still be detected in the federal background investigation? Thank you again for your time.

Answer
A pardon does help, though it still shows on backgriund checks and you still have to claim it happened, but it can not count against you.  I wouldn't count on a pardon unless you have great political connections.  Even low level crime pardons usually do not happen until like 30 years after the fact on average.  By the tme it comes thru, you would be too old to join,  The limit is 35 years old.