Expert: Rod Powers - 12/20/2007

Question
Hello Mr. Powers,
I was in the Navy for 1 month and 3 days, I was another young and stupid kid who did not think of the later recourse of my actions.  I had legal troubles (traffic violation), family stress (parent's messy divorce and mom's illness), and was not handling stress that well.  I was very dumb in my reasons for going Navy, I did it cause my friend did, I wanted the Air Force, not saying anything bad about the Navy.  Well, to get to my point sir, I went to church in RTC Great Lakes, told God I'm gonna try hard and went back to the compartment.  The RDC's called me up to chief's office and said "You wanna kill yourself don't you."  I was like screw it, I never made an attempt, but I said sure.  I was sent to psych, and given a Sep. Code of JFC, Admin sep, erroneous entry (other), RE-4 re-enlistment code.  I really would like to join the military again, because I want to.  I already sent a DD149 to BCNR about the legal issues and now sent two psych evals with a fairly clean bill.  Is there anything else I can do to better my chances with BCNR and show that I've learned the errors of my ways and also what is the chance of changing psych RE-4 codes if you know???  Thank you so much for your time.
Very Respectfully,
Brad

Answer
Hi Brad,

You've done all that you can do. The only way to change an RE Code is through the appropriate records correction board.

I have to be honest here. You can hope for the best, but the chances of getting a psch RE Code 4 changed are not great. The RE Code reflects your reenlistment eligibility *at the time* of your discharge, not subsequently. At best, your two new psych evals show what your mental health condition is now, not what it was at the time of your discharge.

I wish you the best of luck!

For more information about the United States Military, feel free to visit my U.S. Military information site at: http://usmilitary.about.com

Hope this helps!

Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com