Reenlistment; is it ever possible to back out after signing?

The DD Form 4 Series is the legal and binding CONTRACT that is an agreement between the reenlistee and the U.S. Government that the reenlistee agrees to voluntarily commit more years of service to their respective branch and the United States of America. Whether a ceremony occurred before or after the signing of these documents is irrelevant.

Unlike an ENLISTMENT contract where there may be a "delayed entry option" before actually being sworn in to the active component, generally speaking there is no provisions to "change your mind", "back out of the contract", have "buyer's remorse", etc. When you sign the contract and it is valid, you are legally bound to uphold your obligation.

You are not ever committed. There is always a way out. It might not be honorable, but there is a way out. If he signed papers promising to defend our nation for X amount of year, and he is willing to ditch that for a higher paying job, he should not be in the military right now to begin with. He never cared about defending our nation, he just wants a job.

Though I left the Army after my initial enlistment, I never tried to weasel my way out of what I signed up for. I made a deal with the United Sates of America. As much as the job was not fun at times, I am a man, and I am only as good as my word. I have little to no respect for someone who tries to weasel their way out of commitments they agreed to.

Not uncommon to sign before the ceremony/oath. Sorry but more then likely out of luck.

If the paperwork he signed was for the Delayed Entry Program (DEP) [which in my experiance is the only time I have known people to sign paperwork before the oath at MEPS] then, yes he can back out.

Anyone can request release from DEP and it is current DOD policy to allow that without issue, though he may get the runaround for awhile with the recruitment officer.

He is almost certainly out of luck.

Sorry to break it to you mate - but the ceremony is just a formality - the minute you initial and sign the contract, and your commander signs his part - you have a contractual obligation.

He'd need to check with legal. He probably could but would get an RE-4 discharge code.

The ceremony should be done before the paperwork. When the Officer signs they are signing that the oath has been sworn before me. If the oath has not been done yet then why were they signing the document?

I always found it funny that a contract needed to be signed for whatever length of commitment in an all volunteer military. Sort of invalidates the whole "volunteer" aspect of it in my humble opinion.

In nearly every other job out there, if a better opportunity presents itself, you are free to resign your position and move on, usually with a two week notice. The only time this is not the case is when your company has paid for certain training, certifications or degrees and requires a length of time commitment from you in return. You are still free to resign your position but usually you are responsible for reimbursing the company the monies they paid out on your behalf.

The same thing goes for those who take on employment, then find that they are completely unhappy with the professional choice they've made. They are free to resign their position with little or no consequence.

Our all volunteer military, on the other hand, doesn't allow for for this, at least for enlisted members. It's my understanding that an officer, once their initial commitment based on their commissioning source is fulfilled, is free to resign their commission at any time and move on if a better professional opportunity presents itself or they just want to leave service. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Enlisted are afforded no such latitude, with the exception of senior enlisted I believe. Many times, when an enlisted member want to leave service, for whatever reason, they are held to the contract they were required to sign for reenlistment. This sometimes results in a soldier becoming resentful, then doing what they feel they need to do to be removed from service, often ending in a dishonorable discharge. The command, as I've seen in the past, tends to drag out the discharge process for as long as possible while the senior enlisted make life as miserable as possible for that soldier in the mean time.

I've blabbed on enough. I guess what I'm getting at is that this soldier may now end up becoming disgruntled because he will be forced to honor a service commitment that he volunteered for and give up a professional opportunity because of a signature. I hope this doesn't happen and wish him the best of luck.

I think the key here is: What "PAPERWORK" did he sign?

I never saw someone sign the contract until the actual ceremony took place. Now is all he signed were the request to reenlist and it went up the chain of command, that is not a binding contract. I think we need to know exactly what he signed.