Untruthful on ROTC scholarship

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USNA2016bound

5-Year Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2017
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Hi all - I have recently filled out my rotc scholarship form. One of the questions was: have you ever been arrested, adjudicated, or convicted of any crime. The truth is, I have been arrested, but the charges were dropped down to below a misdemeanor. If I get this scholarship, will they be able to review my application when I do the security clearance and tell that I lied? I know they do a complete and thorough background check for the security clearance so this has me worried. I have talked to some relative military pilots if they had any advice and they just told me to tell the complete truth on the security clearance.
 
If the question is whether or not you should be absolutely truthful on your application, you have already received the answer to your question.

If the question is whether or not you will eventually get busted for lying on your application, then the answer is, "I hope so."
 
I was arrested at 18 and informed ROTC during my application. Even though the charges were reduced, they wanted the full court docket.

I guess you could go back and say you didn't fully understand the question, but you should be truthful.
 
USNA2016bound said:
Hi all - I have recently filled out my rotc scholarship form. One of the questions was: have you ever been arrested, adjudicated, or convicted of any crime. The truth is, I have been arrested, but the charges were dropped down to below a misdemeanor. If I get this scholarship, will they be able to review my application when I do the security clearance and tell that I lied?
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Just to confirm where you are in the process, you recently submitted an ROTC scholarship application with the untruthful answer? And you have not received a scholarship yet? If both of those are true, then you should either promptly contact the scholarship authority (you don't say which service) and tell them you either need to (1) amend an answer on the application, or (2) withdraw the application completely. If you hope to ever commission, DO NOT let this be the thing that trips you up. It seems to me that you have a chance to make this right before real harm is done. Do it.
 
USNA2016bound said:
Hi all - I have recently filled out my rotc scholarship form. One of the questions was: have you ever been arrested, adjudicated, or convicted of any crime. The truth is, I have been arrested, but the charges were dropped down to below a misdemeanor. If I get this scholarship, will they be able to review my application when I do the security clearance and tell that I lied? I know they do a complete and thorough background check for the security clearance so this has me worried. I have talked to some relative military pilots if they had any advice and they just told me to tell the complete truth on the security clearance.
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If you were arrested, AND you were an adult, then you have an arrest record. It will show up the moment they run your fingerprints. Without fixing this now, this will be a problem. And no, whether it is a misdemeanor or felony doesn't matter. The question was if you had ever been arrested.......and you understood that......and you decided to not be truthful.

I am not sure what to tell you.
 
You indicate you are worried about various things that could happen because of this deliberate decision to lie. I believe your first worry should be about yourself and the magical thinking and values that went into your choice to lie on an official government application. None of us can wish away bad decisions and wrong things we have chosen to do. First step: own it. Know you are as flawed as any other human.

Second: Root it out. Solve the problem; don’t slap bandaids on the symptoms, hoping they hold. Where is that form now? Was it online? Was it NROTC? Scour the website for appropriate points of contact, be relentless in finding out how to amend and re-submit that form, stating you have made a factual error and need to amend it. Tell whoever you need to tell. Fix it. If there is a space to “explain if ‘yes’ checked,” explain basic facts simply. “When I was (age), I was arrested for X on date Y by Z officers. The charges were…. The outcome was…”.

It’s done. No need to worry if and when the truth will come out. You have taken charge of the situation, recalibrated its accuracy. Then you let the process proceed as it may. You will then feel better and will be worried about a potential outcome based on facts, not an outcome based on a lie, with potentially related trouble down the road.

The military knows young people do bonehead things and can assess that history on its merits. Lying about it, perpetuating the lie - usually does not turn out well - especially if it is deliberate and continues over time.

I hope you came here with a queasy feeling that you were doing something not quite right, and not hoping someone would say “Just let it go.”

Do come back and let us know how it goes. If you learn from this, that will be something to celebrate.
 
Aglahad said:
I was arrested at 18 and informed ROTC during my application. Even though the charges were reduced, they wanted the full court docket.

I guess you could go back and say you didn't fully understand the question, but you should be truthful.
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Did you get the scholarship?
 
GWU PNS said:
If you were arrested, AND you were an adult, then you have an arrest record. It will show up the moment they run your fingerprints. Without fixing this now, this will be a problem. And no, whether it is a misdemeanor or felony doesn't matter. The question was if you had ever been arrested.......and you understood that......and you decided to not be truthful.

I am not sure what to tell you.
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I am not an adult, I’m not sure if that even matters though
 
I am speaking from the Army ROTC perspective. Whether or not you have a scholarship offer, you will be asked that question again when you arrive on campus to enroll. That creates a written record. You will get fingerprinted and a background investigation for a security clearance upon contracting. Your arrest will show up on that check. You will be caught in the lie, then disenrolled and barred from future military service. If you come clean, you will need a civil conviction waiver. If the waiver is approved you are good to go and can continue on.
 
MohawkArmyROTC said:
I am speaking from the Army ROTC perspective. Whether or not you have a scholarship offer, you will be asked that question again when you arrive on campus to enroll. That creates a written record. You will get fingerprinted and a background investigation for a security clearance upon contracting. Your arrest will show up on that check. You will be caught in the lie, then disenrolled and barred from future military service. If you come clean, you will need a civil conviction waiver. If the waiver is approved you are good to go and can continue on.
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So glad you added the voice of reality here from your experience and up-close perspective
 
MohawkArmyROTC said:
I am speaking from the Army ROTC perspective. Whether or not you have a scholarship offer, you will be asked that question again when you arrive on campus to enroll. That creates a written record. You will get fingerprinted and a background investigation for a security clearance upon contracting. Your arrest will show up on that check. You will be caught in the lie, then disenrolled and barred from future military service. If you come clean, you will need a civil conviction waiver. If the waiver is approved you are good to go and can continue on.
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What if the state I’m from doesn’t require juveniles to report their arrests? That was my thought process through me selecting no is that the law said I didn’t need to because I was a juvenile. Also, are they able to look back at my application when I do a security clearance?
 
USNA2016bound said:
What if the state I’m from doesn’t require juveniles to report their arrests? That was my thought process through me selecting no is that the law said I didn’t need to because I was a juvenile. Also, are they able to look back at my application when I do a security clearance?
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Last time I checked, federal trumps state. The question of arrest does not include the caveat "check no if your state does not require juveniles to report". The question is direct and to the point. You chose to lie. There is no valid justification for that. What has convinced you that looking for loopholes and displaying a lack of integrity are traits that the United States is looking for in it's military officers? I would chalk it up your questions to the naivety of a teenager. But if your username is reflective of you being 18 in 2016, then you should know better as someone in their mid-20s. I may be coming off harsh, but you received good answers from multiple individuals, yet you are still trying to find a way to say "no" to that question.
 
I've never been through a military security clearance, but I am licensed to practice law in 2 states and the Federal government and in addition to those comprehensive background checks as well as being cleared by USA Swimming to be on deck with minors and working for a government regulated corporation that requires background checks. In all of these, the well-established rule is that it's better to tell the truth and explain yourself than lie and be caught. If you tell the truth, it may throw a red flag but if your story checks out, you will be cleared. If you lie and are caught, there is no amount of back-pedaling you can do to avoid the fact that you lied on a verified application. If the "crime" itself wasn't going to keep you out, the lie sure will. Do damage control now and ask to revise. Explain that you misunderstood and would like to clarify and provide the documentation needed. Better to be upfront than look over your shoulder wondering when the shoe will drop. It will drop.
 
I was in tactical nukes at one point- extensive background checks. 100% honesty in everything from you from here on out. If you want to go in and "achieve"? 100% honesty in all things...they will find out.

All you young adults on here - the ability to obtain clearances sets you apart just like your academics, leadership, and athletics.

Don't know about in today's world, but back in the 80s and 90s even if you said "yep I experimented w/marijuana one time in the last 5 years".... that automatically disqualified you from entering the tactical nuke team...because they viewed it as any use in past 5 years that you are subject to hallucinations.

We as society are investing a lot of money, time, and effort into young adults in our academies and ROTC. We expect to fund only "the best".
 
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You lied. That's bad. But now you're trying to see if you can STILL get away with it? This is against the backdrop of A LOT of people on here right now waiting to hear if they got into a SA or ROTC scholarship with so many incredible candidates and so few spots. All you need to do is read the DoDMERB forum to see all the kids worried about whether anxiety medication they took for 3 weeks in 8th grade or acne medication or a dairy allergy will keep them from their dreams of service. That is the level everyone is being scrutinized. But your entire game plan is predicated on the Navy... the United States Navy... not finding out that you were ARRESTED?? Dude you couldn't get a job at Target right now.
 
It will show up. There is no question

I had a youthful indiscretion many years ago. I was given a Adjournment in contemplation of dismissal. The understand was if I refrained from doing additional stupid stunts over the following 12 months it would be dismissed.
I did and it was.

Years later as part of a Corp based check one of the questions was have you ever been… I forget exactly what the question was… but I answered no. I felt that was a truthful answer as the above case was not only dismissed but also expunged.

It came up on the search. And that wasn’t a military based search. In the end it was easily explained away because it was clear that I didn’t intend to mislead and believed that I answered the question honestly…

If it is , or, if it is not discoverable shouldn’t be your guiding light but I can tell you that beyond a shadow of a doubt, it will be discovered.
 
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