Home > Getting Out of the Military
by Rod Powers
It seems that hardly a week goes by that I don’t receive email from someone asking how they can get out of the military. Sometimes the person is disillusioned — perhaps their recruiter lied to them, or perhaps they had "selective listening," and only heard what they wanted to hear. Perhaps they simply decide, after basic training and/or job training, that they don’t like the military, and want out.
If you thought this was an article detailing the "secret tips" to getting out of the military, I’m sorry to have to disappoint you. I can’t write such an article, because there are no "secret tips." Joining the military is not like getting a job a McDonalds™. You can’t simply quit because you don’t like it. You signed a contract, and you took an oath, and you are legally (and morally) obligated to complete the terms of the contract, even if you don’t like it.
Enlistment Contract
If your recruiter lied to you (or you think he/she lied to you), that’s just tough. Section D and block 13a of the enlistment contract states:
"I certify that I have carefully read this document. ANY questions that I had were explained to my satisfaction. I fully understand that only those agreements in section B of this document or recorded on the attached annex(es) will be honored. ANY OTHER promises or guarantees made to me by anyone are written below."
If it’s not written on the enlistment contract, it’s not a promise. It’s that simple.
Delayed Enlistment Program
So, you ask, I signed the same contract and took the same oath when I entered the Delayed Enlistment Program (DEP), but anyone can request to be discharged from the DEP, and the discharges are approved. What’s up with that? The difference is that it is current Department of Defense POLICY to approve DEP discharge requests. The military doesn’t have to do so, if they don’t want to. The services do not let people out of active duty so easily. Once a person has gone onto active duty, the military services have invested a considerable amount of time and money in their processing, pay, and training. They want enough time to earn their investment back.
Service Commitment
Everyone who joins the military incurs a *MINIMUM* eight year service commitment. That’s right, EIGHT years! It doesn’t matter if you signed a two year active duty contract, a four year contract, or even a six year contract. Your total military commitment is eight years. Whatever amount of time that is not spent on active duty, must either be served in the active Guard/Reserves (the program where one performs drill one weekend per month, and two weeks per year), or in the inactive Reserves (one doesn’t perform drill, but can be recalled to active duty at any time for war, or national emergency). Active duty members who do not reenlist onto active duty, or apply for the active Guard/Reserve upon active duty discharge, are automatically transferred to the inactive Reserves once they are discharged from active duty.
Service Characterization
Lot’s of folks apparently misunderstand the term "Entry Level Separation." I’m often asked, "How can I get an Entry-Level Separation?" An Entry Level Separation, is not something that one can ask for. It’s not a separate discharge program. It’s simply one of the available service characterizations that a commander can designate when one is discharged.
When an enlisted person is discharged, their service is characterized, based on their conduct and performance. The possible characterizations are Honorable, General (under honorable conditions), Under Other Than Honorable (UOTHC), and Entry Level (ELS).
(Note: There are two other possible service characterizations for enlisted: Bad Conduct, and Dishonorable. Those two discharges are punitive, not administrative, and can only be imposed by a court-martial).
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Honorable. If the military member completely meets the standards of conduct and performance expected of military members, the commander will characterize their service as "honorable" upon discharge. A person with an Honorable discharge is considered a veteran (in most cases) and is eligible for veterans benefits.
General (Under Honorable Conditions). Despite the term "under honorable conditions," a "General" discharge is not on the same level as an "Honorable." It means the person screwed up, and got kicked out, but their conduct wasn’t quite serious enough to warrant the most severe administrative discharge characterization, the UOTHC.
Under Other Than Honorable Conditions (UOTHC). This is the worst service characterization that can be given for an administrative discharge. It means that the servicemember did not meet the expected levels of conduct and/or performance required of military members.
Entry Level Separation (ELS). As I said, this characterization is often misunderstood, as some people think that it’s some kind of special separation program that allows them to quit if they have less than 180 days of service. It’s not. It’s simply another type of service characterization. If the servicemember has less than 180 days of service, and is discharged, the commander can say "I didn’t have enough time to adequately measure this person’s conduct and performance," by characterizing the service as "Entry Level." That’s all an ELS is. Instead of giving an Honorable, General, or UOTHC, the service is "uncharacterized." An ELS is not honorable, it’s not general, it’s not anything. It means that the commander didn’t have enough time to make a fair decision as to the overall service characterization. The commander DOES NOT have to characterize the service as Entry Level, even if the member has less than 180 days of service. If the commander feels it’s appropriate, and the commander feels he/she knows enough about the member’s conduct and performance, he/she can characterize the service as honorable, general, or UOTHC, instead. This is often done in cases of misconduct, or failure to meet or maintain standards.
Getting Out
As I said, one cannot simply quit the military. The military services can certainly kick you out, if you fail to measure up to their standards (see Administrative Discharge article), but that way is usually neither fast, nor is it pleasant. In most cases, the commander must show "rehabilitative measures" before they can impose an involuntary discharge, and that can mean Article 15 (loss of stripes, loss of pay, restrictions, correctional custody — i.e., "jail"), before the commander finally gets fed up and kicks you out.
There are some VOLUNTARY discharge options, but they are limited in scope:
Hardship. All of the services have procedures where a servicemember can REQUEST a discharge, based on a valid hardship. Nine times out of ten, however, applicants find that they don’t qualify. What is a "hardship" to you, does not necessarily meet the military’s definition of a "hardship." All of the services are pretty much on the same page concerning "hardship" separations, so we’ll just list the Army’s definition to illustrate how hard it can be to qualify: "In order to qualify for separation under this provision, the hardship must not be of a temporary nature; must have developed or become increasingly worse since entry on active duty; discharge or release from active duty is the only readily available means of alleviation; and the individual must have made reasonable effort to relieve the conditions through other means available and appropriate to the family circumstances."
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Pregnancy. In the "old days," any female who got pregnant could request a discharge and get it automatically. Those days are gone. Pregnant female members may REQUEST a discharge, but such discharges are no longer automatic. When making recommendations to approve/disapprove such discharge requests, the commander takes into consideration what is in the best interest of both the servicemember, and the military service.
Sole Surviving Son/Daughter. Except during times of war, or national emergency, one can request a discharge if they are a "sole surviving son or daughter." This does not mean that they are an "only child," or that they are "sole surviving" because someone died in a traffic accident. In the military, a "sole surviving son or daughter" is one who is any son or daughter in a family whose parent or one or more sons or daughters served in the Armed Forces of the United States and-
* Was killed in action.
* Died as a result of wounds, accident, or disease while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.
* Is in a captured or missing-in-action status.
* Is permanently 100 percent physically disabled or 100 percent mentally disabled due to service connection.
Early Separation to Further Education. Aha! Thought you found that loophole, didn’t you? Maybe, but maybe not. DoD Directives allow a military member to be discharged early to pursue their education if they are within 90 days of their normal separation date. Sometimes a service will approve an Educational Discharge Request of more than 90 days. For example, Air Force personnel can request separation after two years of service, if they have been accepted at an accredited school for medical training as physicians, dentists, osteopaths, veterinarians, optometrists, or clinical psychologists. The Navy Personnel Manual allows sailors to request a discharge for education in excess of 90 days, but the approval authority for a 90 day (or less) discharge is the commanding officer (special court-martial authority), and for discharges for more than 90 days before the normal separation date, it goes all the way up to the commander of the Navy Personnel Command. Neither thehe Army regulation (AR 635-200), nor the Marine Corps Regulation (MCO P1900-16F) allow for Educational Separations of more than 90 days prior to normal separation date.
Breach of "Guaranteed Job" Clause of Enlistment Contract. Here’s another aspect where some people become confused. It’s important that you understand what a "guaranteed job" is in the military. If you have a "guaranteed job" in your enlistment contract, it does not mean you will get that job, come Hell or high water. There may be reasons, after you enlist, that you can’t get the job that your enlistment contract "guarantees." What happens in that case, depends on the situation.
In general, if you can’t get the job due to something beyond your control (such as the service phased out the job, or downsized the job, or made a mistake and discovered that you don’t qualify for the job, or you are denied a security clearance — not due to giving false information), then you will be given the choice of applying for a discharge, or choosing a new job from a list of available jobs that you qualify for. In this case, the choice is yours (It should be noted that while these situations have been known to happen, they occur rarely).
On the other hand, if you fail to qualify for the job due to a reason within your control (you fail in training, you get into trouble, or you give false information on your security clearance application and are denied a security clearance), the choice is not yours. The military will decide whether to discharge you (throw you out), or to retain you and retrain you into a job that you qualify for. In this case it’s the military’s choice.
Early Release to Serve in the Active Guard or Reserves. Some of the services (such as the Air Force) allow personnel to request early separation to service in the National Guard or Active Reserves. However, in order to qualify, one must be within a designated time (usually one or two years) from their normal date of separation. Approval is certainly not automatic, and are based on the "needs of the service." In other words, if you’re serving in a "shortage job," forget it.
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Convenience of the Government. This is kind of a "catch all," for voluntary separations that don’t fall under specific programs. Note that it’s called "convenience of the government," not "convenience of the servicemember." The military can use this provision when it would really rather that you get out, but doesn’t have a basis to require your separation. For example, if you won the state lottery and became a multi-millionaire overnight, the services probably would not find it conducive to moral and discipline to have a 3-striper millionaire running around the base flaunting his/her wealth. In such cases, they would most likely gladly approve a discharge request under "convenience of the government."
Conscientious Objectors. A member who can convince the military that they are conscientious objectors may request a discharge. This is not as easy as it sounds. First, the member would have to show that his/her beliefs changed significantly after they joined the military, because one must certify that they are not conscientious objectors at the time of voluntary enlistment.
You can’t pick and choose which war you object to. By law, a conscientious objector is one who is opposed to participation in all wars. The person’s opposition must be based on religious belief and training, and it must be deeply held.
In order to find that an applicant’s moral and ethical beliefs are against participation in war in any form and are held with the strength of traditional religious convictions, the applicant must show that these moral and ethical convictions, once acquired, have directed his life in the way traditional religious convictions of equal strength, depth and duration have directed the lives of those whose beliefs are clearly found in traditional religious convictions. In other words, the belief upon which conscientious objection is based must be the primary controlling force in the applicant’s life.
The burden of establishing a claim of conscientious objection as grounds for separation is on the applicant. To this end, applicants must establish, by clear and convincing evidence, that the nature or basis of the claim comes within the definition of criteria prescribed by DoD Directive 1300.6, Conscientious Objectors for conscientious objection and that their beliefs are sincere.
Sincerity is determined by an impartial evaluation of the applicant’s thinking and living in its totality, past and present. Information presented by the claimant must be sufficient to convince the commander that the claimant’s personal history reveals views and actions strong enough to demonstrate that expediency or avoidance of military service is not the basis of his claim.
When evaluating applications for CO status, commanders consider relevant factors including: training in the home and church; general demeanor and pattern of conduct; participation in religious activities; whether ethical or moral convictions were gained through training, study, contemplation, or other activity comparable in rigor and dedication to the processes by which traditional religious convictions are formulated; credibility of the applicant; and credibility of persons supporting the claim.
In a Nutshell
That’s pretty much it. There are a couple of minor programs, applicable to specific services, but they apply to very few, unusual cases. In summation, the military is not something one can just quit, just because they want to. There must be a specific reason, acceptable to the military in order to approve a voluntary discharge.
Of course, one can work at getting kicked out, but that way is neither pleasant, or fast, in most cases, and can negatively affect future employment opportunities (I wish I had a dime for each email I get from people who got kicked out in the past and would do anything to change it). If you’ve joined the military, signed the contract, took the oath, and received pay, you’re best off simply sucking it up and sticking out your commitment. If you don’t like it, to be very blunt, it’s just tough — lots of things happen in life that one doesn’t like. It’s part of living.
If you haven’t yet joined the military, don’t join unless you are absolutely sure that you are willing and able to honor your oath, and complete your obligated term of service.