Posted on Nov 20, 2018
What do I need to do to reenlist in the Army with an honorable discharge and an RE code 3?
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Ok so I’ve been contemplating re enlistment for awhile. I’ll add my story in a minute but when I got out in 2014 I got back with my wife and daughter, fast forward to 2016 we had a son and the experience in and of itself changed me and the way I think work and live but I’ve still got this hole I can’t fill that I miss having every day which is my army family no matter the shitty pay or dumbshit that goes on in the day to day I loved it miss it and even at work think about going back. I’ve decided that I do want to re enlist even though there’s going to have to be some changes in my lifestyle and a few extra hoops to jump through. I was honorably discharged under chapter 13 pt failure, no major misconduct I got a minor art 15 for going off base and drinking away my depression while In AIT but that was it.
So I was a 20yr old kid. Married with our 2nd child on the way our first was lost due to miscarriage. We were dealing with allot pertaining to her family, the type that makes 40k a year but thinks they’re Donald trump, and because I was this white bread electrician driving a 77ford truck to they’re house I wasn’t good enough for their daughter and I wouldn’t amount to blah blah constant narcissistic x-type persona bullshit along with a sprinkle of physical and mental abuse from her dad to her. I was working 60-70 hrs a week and after my last brother finally joined the military I got this itch back that started when I was six watching John Wayne’s green beret and she wore a yellow ribbon type stuff and the anger that was still there from being a kid in school watching the towers fall didn’t help either. But I digress. So I take a day off and go to the recruiters office, my wife at first was skeptical but seemingly supportive. He takes my height and weight and immediately starts a packet for me says I’m a few pounds over weight but the future soldier program can help with that and asks me about jobs. Me being me I just said I wanted to be infantry. He checks that box we do a shitload of other crap and I leave. I come back and her dads there talking to her and leaves about a minute after I get home. Apparently he was giving her the typical mental abuse for the day as she had told him that the reason I took the day off was because I was thinking of enlisting he asked if it was as an officer and of course when she said no he reverted to oh great now he’s an even bigger piece of shit and definitely won’t be able to support you you need to leave him bullshit. We argue around for the next week or two her going back and fourth being supportive and not etc. she says she’s going to go stay at her dads for awhile and I figure she just needs space so I give it to her. finally one day after about a month goes by I come home after coming back from working out of state on a job at an ethanol plant and my brothers at the shop asks me for my keys his wife drives off in his truck and he hands me a thick ass certified letter and asks if I’m going to read it or if I wanted him too. So he hops in the drivers seat and I crack open this brick of a letter and it’s a divorce decree. Of course I loose my shit etc. after about a week of doing nothing but sitting on my porch slamming y’all boys all day and using up almost all my vacation I finally say fuck it if she wants to leave fine. I go to the recruiter and tell him that I’m ready to go TODAY. He finishes my packet sets a meps date double checks my weight and I start jumping through the hoops of the divorce so I can leave on time. My family helped me with an attorney which was a shit one but it’s what we could afford and hers got the equivalent of Johnny cock. We finished the divorce and o finally shipped 6 days after my birthday March 16th 2013. I graduated alongside 1st platoon with honors great pt scores an all that. And after like 3 days of tornado delays left ft sill Oklahoma to San Antonio Texas for my AIT on 6-1-13 as a BMET as my brother in law who at the last minute told me I needed to choose an MOS that I could bank on after I get out. With my electrical experience BMET seemed like a pretty good option. I get to JBSA Ft Sam Houston and things are going great. Soon as they could they got me in class and I was soaking it up as best I could for an AIT that had 12 courses at 44 wks long. So 4 months goes by I’m doing good on course 4 and she leaves me a Vmail. Doesn’t call me any more just one Vmail. Tells me she’s going through the police academy and has her own place, sends me a pic of my daughter and tells me she’s sorry beyond words for letting her parents get into her head and be so controlling. It starts eating at me day by day and I just couldn’t shake it. So I grabbed a higher phase battles clothes he loaned me and went down to the river walk went to Hard Rock Cafe and had a burger and some beers. Felt better and went back no issue just ghosted in and out. Did great in class the next day great at pt and started doing it daily. My friends started calling me the loan ranger cause I always went out alone so no one else would get in trouble and I always talked about how I wanted to reclassify after AIT so I could go through RAP and become a ranger like my older brother. Then she started sending me more pictures and with each picture it was like I was watching her grow up without me, without her daddy who didn’t even get to hold her as she left before she was even born and didn’t even tell me when she was born. Wasn’t until the divorce hearing that I even knew she had been born, with that I progressively started drinking more and becoming more and more depressed. Around that time we had a change of command. Real hardass former infantry co who had the concept that regardless of office job or infantry we all were going to have 300 pt scores when he was done with us. At that time and place I was in in my head I was 2drinks away from eating a bullet in all honesty. I went from being on track for a promotion and being told that I was a great leader to finding whatever way worked just to get through the week so I could ghost out to the bar again and forget about the fact that I couldn’t ever see my daughter again. I know dumbass mentality but at the time as a young private E-2 I was on tunnel vision. To wrap it up I ended up literally breaking down on the final stretch of the 2 mile might have passed if I didn’t I don’t know but I walked the last1/4 mile and gave up. Told the NCO scoring for me when he asked that I was done didn’t give a shit about it anymore and that was that. The last time I went out a couple of privates saw me walking to a taxi with a fifth of jack and the next morning 1st sgt came through with my platoon sgt and tore apart my room and bagged all my beer whiskey and cheap rum along with some civies I bought. I got an art 15, lost rank and pay and did my extra duty and started to see a light again as I was being mentored so to speak by one of the greatest platoon sgts is ever seen. He had 4 or 5 art 15s and told me not to take it to heart as I wouldn’t be good NCO material without atleast 1. And we talked about family and my situation allot but by that time it was to late as the commander had already started my packet for chapter 13 unbeknownced to myself and my platoon sgt. About 2 weeks later I was on a plane back to fort couch April 29th 2014. Some time went by and I met up with my ex wife and found that she had matured allot was an officer and I started being that father figure in my daughters life. Forward to 2016 and I’m back to work no depression and have a son in my arms and it’s like I finally got to experience everything I missed the birth of my child the late nights and starting into my sons eyes wondering what he’s going to grow up to be. Forward to 2018 and I’m scrolling through pics of the good times pics with my Platoon sgts at warrior leadership events they took me to to learn about what it took and how to get there along with other pics like our company football games as I was on the company team as a linebacker before all the madness. Now I find myself having a deep driven desire to go back and start over and achieve everything that I wanted to that I was on my way to achieving. Not asking for sympathy or a pat on the back or whatever but it felt good to put allot of that shit out there to probably the only people that would give a damn.
So the question is I have an honorable discharge and an re code 3, I need to loose some weight but I’m driven to do so and to re enlist so aside from height and weight what do I need / need to do. And what can I get into as far as MOS. I’m wanting to achieve minimum RAPs to become a ranger, possibly SFAS if I can get a contract to do so. This was my dream and my passion so long ago and I’ll be damned if I’ll just give up and let it die. I’m 26 yrs old 71” could still knockout a decent ASVAB and have no prio criminal history or drug history. I also don’t have any major medical conditions. ?
So I was a 20yr old kid. Married with our 2nd child on the way our first was lost due to miscarriage. We were dealing with allot pertaining to her family, the type that makes 40k a year but thinks they’re Donald trump, and because I was this white bread electrician driving a 77ford truck to they’re house I wasn’t good enough for their daughter and I wouldn’t amount to blah blah constant narcissistic x-type persona bullshit along with a sprinkle of physical and mental abuse from her dad to her. I was working 60-70 hrs a week and after my last brother finally joined the military I got this itch back that started when I was six watching John Wayne’s green beret and she wore a yellow ribbon type stuff and the anger that was still there from being a kid in school watching the towers fall didn’t help either. But I digress. So I take a day off and go to the recruiters office, my wife at first was skeptical but seemingly supportive. He takes my height and weight and immediately starts a packet for me says I’m a few pounds over weight but the future soldier program can help with that and asks me about jobs. Me being me I just said I wanted to be infantry. He checks that box we do a shitload of other crap and I leave. I come back and her dads there talking to her and leaves about a minute after I get home. Apparently he was giving her the typical mental abuse for the day as she had told him that the reason I took the day off was because I was thinking of enlisting he asked if it was as an officer and of course when she said no he reverted to oh great now he’s an even bigger piece of shit and definitely won’t be able to support you you need to leave him bullshit. We argue around for the next week or two her going back and fourth being supportive and not etc. she says she’s going to go stay at her dads for awhile and I figure she just needs space so I give it to her. finally one day after about a month goes by I come home after coming back from working out of state on a job at an ethanol plant and my brothers at the shop asks me for my keys his wife drives off in his truck and he hands me a thick ass certified letter and asks if I’m going to read it or if I wanted him too. So he hops in the drivers seat and I crack open this brick of a letter and it’s a divorce decree. Of course I loose my shit etc. after about a week of doing nothing but sitting on my porch slamming y’all boys all day and using up almost all my vacation I finally say fuck it if she wants to leave fine. I go to the recruiter and tell him that I’m ready to go TODAY. He finishes my packet sets a meps date double checks my weight and I start jumping through the hoops of the divorce so I can leave on time. My family helped me with an attorney which was a shit one but it’s what we could afford and hers got the equivalent of Johnny cock. We finished the divorce and o finally shipped 6 days after my birthday March 16th 2013. I graduated alongside 1st platoon with honors great pt scores an all that. And after like 3 days of tornado delays left ft sill Oklahoma to San Antonio Texas for my AIT on 6-1-13 as a BMET as my brother in law who at the last minute told me I needed to choose an MOS that I could bank on after I get out. With my electrical experience BMET seemed like a pretty good option. I get to JBSA Ft Sam Houston and things are going great. Soon as they could they got me in class and I was soaking it up as best I could for an AIT that had 12 courses at 44 wks long. So 4 months goes by I’m doing good on course 4 and she leaves me a Vmail. Doesn’t call me any more just one Vmail. Tells me she’s going through the police academy and has her own place, sends me a pic of my daughter and tells me she’s sorry beyond words for letting her parents get into her head and be so controlling. It starts eating at me day by day and I just couldn’t shake it. So I grabbed a higher phase battles clothes he loaned me and went down to the river walk went to Hard Rock Cafe and had a burger and some beers. Felt better and went back no issue just ghosted in and out. Did great in class the next day great at pt and started doing it daily. My friends started calling me the loan ranger cause I always went out alone so no one else would get in trouble and I always talked about how I wanted to reclassify after AIT so I could go through RAP and become a ranger like my older brother. Then she started sending me more pictures and with each picture it was like I was watching her grow up without me, without her daddy who didn’t even get to hold her as she left before she was even born and didn’t even tell me when she was born. Wasn’t until the divorce hearing that I even knew she had been born, with that I progressively started drinking more and becoming more and more depressed. Around that time we had a change of command. Real hardass former infantry co who had the concept that regardless of office job or infantry we all were going to have 300 pt scores when he was done with us. At that time and place I was in in my head I was 2drinks away from eating a bullet in all honesty. I went from being on track for a promotion and being told that I was a great leader to finding whatever way worked just to get through the week so I could ghost out to the bar again and forget about the fact that I couldn’t ever see my daughter again. I know dumbass mentality but at the time as a young private E-2 I was on tunnel vision. To wrap it up I ended up literally breaking down on the final stretch of the 2 mile might have passed if I didn’t I don’t know but I walked the last1/4 mile and gave up. Told the NCO scoring for me when he asked that I was done didn’t give a shit about it anymore and that was that. The last time I went out a couple of privates saw me walking to a taxi with a fifth of jack and the next morning 1st sgt came through with my platoon sgt and tore apart my room and bagged all my beer whiskey and cheap rum along with some civies I bought. I got an art 15, lost rank and pay and did my extra duty and started to see a light again as I was being mentored so to speak by one of the greatest platoon sgts is ever seen. He had 4 or 5 art 15s and told me not to take it to heart as I wouldn’t be good NCO material without atleast 1. And we talked about family and my situation allot but by that time it was to late as the commander had already started my packet for chapter 13 unbeknownced to myself and my platoon sgt. About 2 weeks later I was on a plane back to fort couch April 29th 2014. Some time went by and I met up with my ex wife and found that she had matured allot was an officer and I started being that father figure in my daughters life. Forward to 2016 and I’m back to work no depression and have a son in my arms and it’s like I finally got to experience everything I missed the birth of my child the late nights and starting into my sons eyes wondering what he’s going to grow up to be. Forward to 2018 and I’m scrolling through pics of the good times pics with my Platoon sgts at warrior leadership events they took me to to learn about what it took and how to get there along with other pics like our company football games as I was on the company team as a linebacker before all the madness. Now I find myself having a deep driven desire to go back and start over and achieve everything that I wanted to that I was on my way to achieving. Not asking for sympathy or a pat on the back or whatever but it felt good to put allot of that shit out there to probably the only people that would give a damn.
So the question is I have an honorable discharge and an re code 3, I need to loose some weight but I’m driven to do so and to re enlist so aside from height and weight what do I need / need to do. And what can I get into as far as MOS. I’m wanting to achieve minimum RAPs to become a ranger, possibly SFAS if I can get a contract to do so. This was my dream and my passion so long ago and I’ll be damned if I’ll just give up and let it die. I’m 26 yrs old 71” could still knockout a decent ASVAB and have no prio criminal history or drug history. I also don’t have any major medical conditions. ?
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Re-enlistment
Re-enlistment
Posted 6 y ago
Responses: 5
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PV2 Jacob Cline First off, work your ass off to show you are committed to this. You will need to find a kickass recruiter that won't disappear at the first sign of difficulty. I would imagine the type of waiver you would require would not be as difficult as the one I needed to get was - I had a medical discharge (RE-3). My fight was 18.5 years long; 16 years until I found the recruiter that got me in. Documentation is the key. Your recruiter will have to get a waiver for you just to go to MEPS. MEPS would then need to clear you. Then, whatever waiver might be needed in order to get you in. I needed a Surgeon General's waiver. But, luckily for me, my recruiter had all of this lined up by the time I went to MEPS to get cleared.
Its a long fight, but if you're in it for the long haul - and they're going to want to know if you're in it until you can't be in it any more (service can no longer be given to the country). The more committed you show that you are, the more likely it is that the recruiter is willing to go to bat for you.
Its a long fight, but if you're in it for the long haul - and they're going to want to know if you're in it until you can't be in it any more (service can no longer be given to the country). The more committed you show that you are, the more likely it is that the recruiter is willing to go to bat for you.
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PFC (Join to see)
Most defintally a long fight long as you can pass a pt test and find a recruiter that will not dick you around you'll be good be patient
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PV2 Adar Fulton
Can I ask who or what the surgeon general is?.. I got Out with a recode 3 but for a mental issue- do you think I would need to speak with them as well or was your medical different?
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SSgt (Join to see)
PV2 Adar Fulton - Mine had to go through the Surgeon General of the Air Force since my RE3 code was issued by the Regular Air Force - LG Ediger (at least, it had to go through his office).
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3
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Go to a recruiting station with your DD214. If you are otherwise qualified, they can process an RE Code waiver to the approving authority. No guarantee it will be approved. Keep in mind, as a Prior Service with an RE 3, you won't be a recruiter's priority, especially if you walk in overweight. If the recruiting station deems that you are "waiverable", they will likely give you instructions on what you need to do, and documents/statements you need to provide. If you fail to give any effort, late with completing, or no show a scheduled appointment, expect them to kick you to the curb. Nothing personal, its just business. Recruiters are trying to make mission and have little time for prior service chapters who want another chance after blowing it the first time. Stick to the facts of your discharge when talking to recruiters, they don't want or need to hear a sob story. If you get to the point where you are interviewed by a field grade officer for a RE code waiver decision, then be candid but don't make excuses. They are looking for responsibility, accountability, and atonement, not your validation for your actions resulting in the discharge. Good Luck.
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Suspended Profile
Bro, sorry to hear about all the crazy shenanigans! I really hope you find your way on what you want to do. I was an MP but after I got out I became a Firefighter, awesome job for sure. I’d say try and become one in the Army, after you get out you could be a federal firefighter, DOD or work for a city or county FD. You’d get all your certifications needed for after you get out to be a firefighter in the civilian world. I have a lot of friends that did that. It’s great you want to be a ranger, obviously doing the fire thing would not let you accomplish that but I just wanted to throw that idea out there. Good luck!
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