General Discharge

johnny1825

5-Year Member
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Jul 19, 2011
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In August 2011 our son, after having completed his first year at West Point, was tested positive for marijuana. He was subsequently separated and given a general discharge on his DD214. He is to graduate from Vanderbilt in May and will be interviewing for jobs this spring. We attempted to get a copy of his discharge papers from the National Archive but they had no records for him. Is this because he was a cadet? He needs to know how to address the military issue? Can anyone help us? He would like to attempt a request to have the discharge upgraded if he can.
 
I don't know the IMMEDIATE answer to this, and only vaguely played in the records area, while helping someone while I was still in. I don't believe current or recent records are available at the National Archives. I believe services maintain those records for some time. The Coast Guard maintains records in Oklahoma or Kansas... or somewhere out there. I don't know how long.

Did you call West Point? That's a good starting point.

Good luck getting a drug-related general discharge upgraded to "honorable." That won't be easy.


And finally.... Go Dores!
 
A copy of his dd214 should be with his papers he received when he separated. When my older son left his was with all the papers he had to sign.
 
A copy of his dd214 should be with his papers he received when he separated. When my older son left his was with all the papers he had to sign.

I signed my DD-214 as well. It's in a safe...

In fact, there were two copies of my DD-214, slightly different formats.

At the bottom of the form is the form number. He had to sign is DD-214 and the document is important, so if you locate it, keep it close!
 
After almost forty years I still have my DD214 tucked away. You need it for local taxes and other government garbage. It is very hard to upgrade a discharge. There is a central repository for all military records somewhere in the mid west. You should google "military records"
 
In August 2011 our son, after having completed his first year at West Point, was tested positive for marijuana. He was subsequently separated and given a general discharge on his DD214. He is to graduate from Vanderbilt in May and will be interviewing for jobs this spring. We attempted to get a copy of his discharge papers from the National Archive but they had no records for him. Is this because he was a cadet? He needs to know how to address the military issue? Can anyone help us? He would like to attempt a request to have the discharge upgraded if he can.

Johnny1825: I did not attend an academy so I have no direct knowledge or answers for you. I was curious on the questions you raised and found this source on West Point policy: http://www.apd.army.mil/jw2/xmldemo/r210_26/main.asp

This document discusses a lot of things including dismissal. It seems that there may have been a DD-214, DD-256A and a DD-785 form completed upon his discharge.

Hunting around on Google, I couldn't find anything that said military cadet 214's were any different from any other military members papers. There is a fair amount of guidance on how to get a copy of your DD-214 on the web.

Note to all who may eventually get this form - hold onto it! As others have said this document can be very important in your post military life and frankly, makes it easier to secure veteran benefits upon your death.

Regarding employment interviews, applications, etc - I have to say I am rusty on this but do you even have to declare you are a veteran? If you chose to, can't you just answer in the negative or provide no details on this? It would seem a logical story would be "I went to the USMA for a year and transferred because it wasn't for me." I wouldn't think you are required to tell the background or even disclose your discharge status. By I humbly defer to those who have more experience in this area.

Congratulations to your DS for getting back on track. I hope he finds the job he is looking for.
 
Except that "I chose to leave" is a lie…. and employers aren't huge fans of lying on applications.
 
Except that "I chose to leave" is a lie…. and employers aren't huge fans of lying on applications.

You are right LITS and I didn't think that out before I wrote my comment. In fact, I didn't really think at all.
 
My employer didn't ask about veteran status. If you don't need to provide that information, I wouldn't, as a general discharge does't look great. If you have to provide it… don't lie.
 
My employer didn't ask about veteran status. If you don't need to provide that information, I wouldn't, as a general discharge does't look great. If you have to provide it… don't lie.

Much better counsel. I agree.

By the way, my company drug tests every new employee and their final offer of employment is conditional based on the results of the test.
 
DD-214

Years ago when separating they advised to file DD-214 with your local county clerk's office. That was before the privacy hackers, not sure I would do that anymore unless county clerk has a sealed section for those documents and advised it will not be placed online.
 
Always hope local governments know how to handle that information. To get a veterans ID (which aren't really that important, but can help for veterans specials) from the Virginia DMV I had to provide my DD-214. Side note, they specify for honorable discharges. But my SSN is on that DD-214. In the back of my mind, I wonder if they understand the impact some fo the information in the DD-214 can have. The DMV folks certainly weren't entirely clear what they needed to do... but I was sure to inform them that I would be leaving with my DD-214... so that copy wasn't for them,
 
Always hope local governments know how to handle that information. To get a veterans ID (which aren't really that important, but can help for veterans specials) from the Virginia DMV I had to provide my DD-214. Side note, they specify for honorable discharges. But my SSN is on that DD-214. In the back of my mind, I wonder if they understand the impact some fo the information in the DD-214 can have. The DMV folks certainly weren't entirely clear what they needed to do... but I was sure to inform them that I would be leaving with my DD-214... so that copy wasn't for them,

Funny, I was asked about a "veteran ID" just the other day - I was inquiring about a veteran's discount that was offered. I didn't even know that they exist. I have been out 30 years so I don't know if these are new or I missed that part of the outbrief.

Speaking of security of personal information and privacy hackers, when I was on active duty our dog tags had our social security number stamped on them. I know that before my time, service members had a "service number." What is the standard now?
 
Never wore dog tags, but the Coast Guard moved away listing SSNs on anything. We had "EMPLIDS" or employee IDs, that we used instead. I still remember mine.... heck, I still remember my cadet ID number.
 
Funny, I was asked about a "veteran ID" just the other day - I was inquiring about a veteran's discount that was offered. I didn't even know that they exist. I have been out 30 years so I don't know if these are new or I missed that part of the outbrief.

Speaking of security of personal information and privacy hackers, when I was on active duty our dog tags had our social security number stamped on them. I know that before my time, service members had a "service number." What is the standard now?

my tags have my SSN on them. I don't know if that is still the standard, but we all were issued tags with the SSN on them. I haven't gotten tags in 4 years though, so it could very well have changed.

I just happened to be looking at this site the other day when checking my facts for another thread, it has all of the different types of cards listed, their purpose and who is eligible for them.

http://www.cac.mil/uniformed-services-id-card/
 
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