Can my son fight being chaptered out after drug use and DUI?

Unfortunately, sir, your son is a grown man. He has to live his life; you can't live it form him. He made these choices and now has to suffer the consequences. Does that sound harsh? It should. He needs to be held accountable for his actions. He may not have succeeded in the military, but that doesn't mean he can't succeed in civilian life. Don't enable him. Now he needs to learn that when one door closes, another one opens and where he goes is up to him. Not you. Him. It hurts you and you feel badly for your son, but he needs to learn from this. Not you. Your son.

So military service shouldn't be viewed as an opportunity for a career path, but rather an opportunity to protect our country. If a Soldier demonstrates behavior that could be a determent to our country's security, then he/she should try something else. There are plenty of other people that can handle this responsibility.

With the services downsizing, if command said he will be chaptered then it is going to happen...Sorry.

If he would have self referred he would have had a better chance.. the way the military sees it 2 tops incidents so close together, they probably think he has ni respect for military rules, guidelines and standards. Im pretty sure there arent too many NCOs that wanna get tasked with having to ensure your son stays in tje atraight and narrow, or having to escort him around to historical ngs, many times causing NCOs to lose personal time with their families and such.

Simple answer - NO. Consider himself lucky he is only being chaptered and not facing UCMJ first.

He had his second chance. Now it’s time for him to suck it up and take what’s coming to him.
In my career I escorted more than one “good kid” to the front gate and waved goodbye. I don’t feel bad about a single one of them. You only get so many chances in life and you son burned through his. Time to pursue another path.

@ Anonymous Okay I am going to answer the initial question and go forward from there. Yes he can fight it. But it is going to be costly and I will BET he loses. Several things are not being said so one can only guess at outcomes and decisions and chances given. He was found using illegal drugs. The punishment Minor. In thanking the people that went easy on him in less time than his punishment would take he went out and made a second poor choice. Then being given another chance a transfer and a substance abuse program. Now they are telling him he will be chaptered Out. Chapter out after being put into a substance abuse program generally means He was failing the Program for one or more reasons. It appears some information is missing here. Then again somethings may be not as they seem.
His chain of command may have told him in writing on the first poor choice that if any thing remotely close to Illegal happen again he would be chaptered, Then in two weeks he gets a DUI for warned is for armed. Now the Military will spend the money to try to rehab him and it is not going well and so they will either chapter him after finishing and or failing the program. However he may be chaptered while in the program because of additional events.

It would be prudent at this time to realize that his bad conduct far out weights His good in cost and in man power. The Military has something called cost effective, at this point I would think it is not cost effective to keep him in rehab programs and hope he will become a productive Soldier. Let us remember while he is in this situation he is no longer an asset to the Military he CANNOT Deploy because other Soldiers need to Depend on him and he has already made it clear that has an ability to be un trust worthy at this point. Time for him to move on to something that he can be better at. Regards

Not likely. You son did learn from his first mistake and must deal with the consequences of his poor decision. As a retired Colonel I wouldn’t give him a second chance after he took drug. The Army has rules for reason. I hope he can get some help when he discharged. Hopefully he won’t get a dishonorable discharge.
COL J

Unfortunately, he will probably be given a General Discharge Under Honorable Conditions that will limit some of his VA benefits. He can apply for a discharge upgrade through the VA after 6 months and he will be able to receive all of the benefits that he’s earned.

If your son decides to figtg this it could turn into a courts martial which would give him a federal conviction on his record that will haunt him the rest of his life as well as a dishonorable discharge which will stay there and limit his ability for employment as the conviction will be fot substance abuse. I had a young man that pretty much was in the same position try to fight a chapter and wound up in a federal pen for substance abuse he was only 19 at the time spent 5 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge so be careful in what and how he goes forward as it could piss off the commander even more and get escalated to courts martial.