Careers: Military--Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard/Joining A Different Branch?

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Expert: Rod Powers - 6/26/2006


Question
I am not proud to say that I have been generally discharged from the Army for Erroneous Enlistment. I was still in-processing when I was questioned about it. Now that I am back home I've been thinking about joining the Air Force, can I do that? also, if I talk to a USAF Recruiter can he/she enroll me into a program that can help get me a GED? Thank you.  

Answer
Hi Jon-Jon,

I'm very sorry to tell you that the Air Force is -- by far -- the hardest service to qualify for.  For every 10 applicants the Air Force gets, only one gets in.

In your case, three problems:  First, the Air Force doesn't take hardly any prior service, unless they are already qualified in a job that the Air Force considers "critical," such as Pararescue, or Combat Controller.  That means, before the Air Force would even consider you as a "prior service" you would have to have finished training as Army Special Forces or Army Ranger Training (as these are the only two MOSs which equate to Air Force Pararescue or Combat Controller).

The second problem is the Air Force doesn't accept prior service enlistments, unless they have an HONORABLE Discharge.  "General (Under Honorable Conditions)" isn't good enough.

Finally, the Air Force does not accept any applicants unless they have a high school diploma. They accept very, very, very, very, very few GED-holders (I'm talking about a handful per year, Air Force-wide).  If you don't even have a GED, then the chances are absolutely impossible.  If you do have a GED, the chances are 1 in 500,000,

Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com  

Careers: Military--Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard

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Rod Powers

Expertise

Rod Powers is considered one of the premire experts about U.S. Military career information on the planet. He has more than 30,000 articles about U.S. Military career information on the About.com U.S. Military Careers Information website at: http://usmilitary.about.com. Additionally, he is the author of "ASVAB for Dummies," "ASVAB AFQT for Dummies," (available in Dec 2009), and "Veteran Benefits for Dummies," all published by Wiley Publishing. He is also the author of "Barrons' Guide to Officer Candidate School Tests," published by Barron's Educational Series.

Experience

Rod Powers is a retired Air Force first sergeant, with 23 years of active duty service, 11 of those years as an Air Force First Sergeant. He has helped thousands of military members, recruits, and military applicants since he took over the About.com U.S Military Careers Information site in 1999. He has a reputation for "telling it like it is," so questions may not be answered based on "what you want to hear," but will be answered based of the bast available information, concerning the service/situation.

Education/Credentials
Rod is a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Noncommissioned Officers Academy, the Air Force Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy, and the Air Force First Sergeant Academy. He also holds an Associates Degree in Personnel Administration from the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF).

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