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pr8head54

Junior Member
Need Advice

Texas

I enlisted in the reserves for 8 years but now i have decided that i do not want to do it. I was told that if I dont show up for basic training that they give me a entry level seperation and then I am out. Is this true?
 
Last edited:


SDDubb

Member
Ok yes, you can probably manage an ELS separation, but no matter how long you are in, if you piss someone off royally enough, they can manage to give you worse...so don't tempt fate. Do what you committed to do, and if you can't manage to get out before basic training, then do what you have to do to get an ELS, which is common for people under 180 days I think, for "failure to adjust" to military life. (You can even sleep walk or be a bed wetter) What you can do as a new guy is get worse than ELS if you really show your ass, so don't do that. The results can follow and stigmatize you for life. Don't have any alcohol related incidents or violence, etc. I think that once you are in, you will find the reserves to be rather rewarding and that your stance may change. However, if it doesn't work for you, you can always pull the depression card, it has worked for thousands. You just got to sell your depression Hollywood style. If they smell a lie, they will be out for blood, so if you go that route, FOLLOW THROUGH. If you don't like it then it shouldn't be hard to go that route because you REALLY ARE unhappy about being in. Hope I helped. However, the best advice is to man up, serve your country, as millions have done before you.
 

XmilitaryDad

Junior Member
Getting out of the Army

I'm going through a similar situation with my son.

I suggest you contact the GI Rights hotline,
http://girights.objector.org/
800-394-9544

They were most helpful to us.

Assuming you're in the Army Reserves-- this is also true for regular Army-- basically what you're saying is true (the other services are not so easy). With the Army, there is a window where if you refuse to go, the Army will give you an ELS, Entry Level Separation. Essentially they figure that even though they could force you to live up to your contract, they have little invested in you, so it's best to let you go. An ELS is an "unclassified discharge", neither honorable nor dishonorable.

If you haven't been to Basic Training yet, then you're surely within the window. Even if you've been to Basic but not to Advanced (AIT), or if you're within 180 days of first getting paid, you can still get out this way.

BTW, that guy's comment "one weekend a month two weeks a year- cake" is not so true these days. Depending on your MOS, there is a very high chance you will be deployed, probably to Iraq. Your chances of getting killed aren't that high, after all a quarter million troops have rotated through there with some 1,400 dead-- do the math. But two years in Iraq ain't a weekend a month and two weeks in the summer at Camp Swampy, either.
 

gphjr

Member
If the kid does not ship they will eventually drop him from the roles. no harm not foul. Whatever you do don't get on the bus plane or whatever they have waiting for you becaus e then they will make sure that you arive at basic traing. BY THE WAY MORE THEN HALF OF THOSE ONLY 1400 SOLDIERS WERE RESERVIST. MORON. AND 40% WERE IN FOOD SERVICE. PULLING SECURITY DUTY.
 

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