Son lost M.A. rating while in boot camp

[poohbear]

We just received a letter from our son that said he lost his M.A. rating at the beginning of his 5th week of boot camp. The letter said it was lost as a result of having a one time marijuana use. The people at RTC, not sure who exactly,  gave him undesignated.  Obviously he is very upset but is still holding his head up. He is doing very well in training and has been chosen to do special things at graduation.

We called his local recruiter about this information and they said they were dumb founded. They had never heard of anyone being released from an M.A. rating job for a one time marijuana use. They are going to call RQAT on Monday to find out exactly what is going on. They told me they can do waivers at RTC so he could keep his rating. Again, they are not sure why this is not being done.

What we do not understand is if the one time use was an issue, why did he get a signed contract for M.A. in the first place? If it wasn't ok, why didn't they say so and allow him to get a waiver while in DEP?  And for the life of us we can't figure out why they would put someone who had such good ASVAB scores in the undesignated arena.

Is there any Naval official out there who can shed any light on this at all? Why is this happening? What can he do? What can his recruiter do from here? 

[ChrisAmo]

Just curious, did he reveal the "one time use" when he filled out all his info at MEPS? If not, and they found out about it anyway, that would be grounds for complete separation. If he did reveal it then I don't know why they'd suddenly decide to release him from his M.A. rating. It may depend on what kind of security clearance he needs.

[poohbear]

Yes it was revealed in his paperwork despite his recruiter saying not to. He took the high road and good moral character. I don't believe a waiver for it was done at MEPS, They just gave him the MA rating and he signed his contract. We have had many issues with his recruiter even finding out some things that did not get done while my son is at BC such as not getting his academic transcripts so he could get credit for his college work and get a higher rating.

I was told by the Chief who oversees the recruiters in this area that RQAT, and I may have the acronym incorrect mean Recruit Quality Assurance Team who are at RTC. Evidently he is going to call them on Monday to see what is going on and why a waiver is not being done for him while he is in BC which he says they can do.

I just hate to see a kid who has two years of college, is doing very well at BC and been given honors there get an undesignated to be working along side kids who have flunked out of A schools, low ASVAB scores, where the moral is low and they tend to get into more trouble than others in the Navy.

In his letter to us he said he is keeping his head high and will continue to work toward his dream of an M.A. rating. You have to smile for him but at the same time your heart breaks.

[poohbear]

Hoppi,

There is no proof of what?

1. If you are undesignated can you still promote?
2. At the 12 month mark is a person who is undes given priority for A school placement over someone just going to MEPS?
3. Can an undes pic any A school his ASVAB scores qualified him for or just ones that happen to have jobs available at the time?
4. If you do strike and get a rate, do you lose your rank if you can promote since you are new to a new job?

As you see it, what are the pros and cons of this happening to him?

[Anti M]

Undes can advance up to E-3. E-4 requires a rate. If they do get a rate, they do not lose rank. Losing rank is generally a punishment received at Captain's Mast.

There is a group of moms with undesignated sailors, they may also have good perspectives. There's a good discussion on it, but I'm having trouble finding it. If I do, I will post the link for you.

http://www.navyformoms.com/group/momsofundesignatedsailors

Going undesignated is not the end of the world. In fact, it opens up interesting opportunities in the fleet.

[Anti M]

Yeah, I was shocked when my young friend enlisted for MA without asking any of us Navy vets. She heard "guns" and "police" and wanted law enforcement. Nope. She ended up with a medical discharge so it was a moot point, but was prepping to go guard oil platforms in the Persian Gulf. Not what she expected.

[ChrisAmo]

This is why it's SO important to tell all, even if the recruiter says not to. He did the right thing.

[poohbear]

All, Thank you for the replies. There are still a couple of unanswered questions from my previous post. Am I correct in assuming all undes will be given an opportunity to rate at 12 mos.? Is the rate they can choose only from available jobs or can they choose anything? and are they given priority over incoming kids from MEPS?

[Anti M]

Yes either by exam or when a seat opens in A school, yes if he qualifies in every way, and yes, different "pool" as Hoppi said.

His choices will be limited by his ability to get a security clearance. He needs that waiver if he can get it.

[poohbear]

Thank you for all of the replies. From what I am reading it appears as though the undes may not be too bad of a situation for him. Was it deflating to him, yes. And yes, he wanted MA because in the civilian world they see a "law enforcement" job and that gets him preference for Law enforcement job in the civilian world. In fact the U.S. Forest Service prefers to hire from the military law enforcement people and will pay the bill to attend the federal academy so he could be become a special agent with the Forest Service which is what he wants to do.

Anti M.....by your post saying to get the waiver, that leads me to believe the folks at RTC do have the ability to send up a waiver. Is that correct? If that is the case and the waiver is approved while he is still at BC and he chooses to continue with his MA route, what are the chances of them reassigning that A school to him even if he has to wait a bit for an open seat because I would assume his last seat was filled almost immediately.

[Anti M]

I don't know, that's why I said "if". Don't read too much into my replies! I am prior Navy and know a little bit, but policies change and it has been a long time.

Hoppi would know more, but I don't know when she'll be on line next.

[Anti M]

"not be gone"? Hoppi, do you have a typo there?

[EMC (SS)]

Just to reply to original issue, I am going to guess that the reason that he is going through all this is that he did not get a waiver from the marijuana use before going to boot camp. If he came out with it at the "moment of truth" rather then before hand it was not part of the screening process to get him into the rating which is why he is now removed from that rating.
Every Navy community has a community manager that is responsible for screening waivers through and approving or disapproving them. Why and how they approve or disapprove is mostly based on experience and the job is normally done by a Master Chief that is very senior.

What you can do now is try and push the waiver through from the recruiter side to get him re-approved for his A-school and this will probably require direct contact from the head of the recruiting district to the appropriate community manager. Otherwise he will go undesignated. I already posted on my view on this under the misperceptions forum and if you want you can look at it there, but it is not a bad thing.

Good luck,
EMC (SS)