Let me give you some more examples. Three months ago, some dude in base housing over here got drunk, punched a hole into his wall, got into a screaming match with his wife, got into a screaming match with the MPs, and while this all was happening, his toddler got loose and roamed to the other side of the base. Now, with this said, what happened to him? Is his career over? No. The two letter and the security manager of his program office fought for him, said he was worth retaining. This went all the way up the the base commander, who finally agreed to an LOR that would expire in one year if he behaved himself. Did his promotion get haulted. No, he just pinned on Captain a little over a month ago.
Second story, one of my buddies from OTS got piss drunk in Alabama last year. He went into his car, raced home and smashed into a parked car. He spent the weekend in jail. The result: His Top Secret clearance was temporarily reduced to Secret. His promotion to Captain was postponed 6 months. After the six months, he was promoted to Captain and reinstated to Top Secret. Now, mind you, his situation was really serious and there is a good chance he wont seee Major, but my point is, he was retained. Force reduction has nothing to do with performance. The Air Force has already determined how many people it will remove just through its cyclical retention and its future recruitment/elistment programs. You have to REALLY screw up to get kicked out.
Now notice in my respose above I said the Air Force knows of 4 of my misdemanors. There's a lot more they've never found out about. Again, I'm not bragging, I'm just making a point. I'm proud to be an officer, and I don't feel what I did in my youth should be a judgment of my character. Background searches cost money. A local area search costs anywhere from 8 to 30 dollars from what I've seen. They cost more depending on how much you want to dip into the background.
I was a security manager for two years. I did plenty of them. There have been moments when I couldn't do the backgound searches because we didn't have any money at the time. These people got a clean thumbs up from the Air Force for free, compliments of Uncles Sams budget cuts. This mans's misdemeanor will virtually disappear in one year. Will it's records still exist. Yes, but it willl be piled so far down under the woodwark, because of its miniscule nature, that we, the Air Force, will be unwilling to pay for its location. Badapple, this is really small. You say we expect more from our officers, but do you really think that a man should loose his livelihood for lighting a bottle rocket and a few firecrackers?
Now I'm not telling Sarah's husband to hide this for his top secret clearance check, though I'm 90% percent sure that he could get away with it if he applies for the clearance more than a year from now. Local area checks concentrate on more severe matters than this. That 10% is still too risky for me, though. And when they ask him why he didn't report this sooner, he can always justify himself by saying he didn't feel it was important enough to report, an excuse I've seen work several times for small issues like this. In fact I personally know it will work as long as your reasoning is sufficient. And I have also seen guys get away with much worse than this.
Lastly, Sarah, if your still worried, try one last thing. I know for a fact that the DEA can make this disappear for you. Tell your husband to call his laywer and spill his guts out. He as a clean record. If he tells the DEA that he's in the millitary and will loose his career for this, they will likely feel sympathy for him. I don't think he'll loose his career, but tell them that anyways. There's an arrangment they can make. I think it's called a fulough, but it has nothing to do with millitary leave or prison work programs. They put a clause on your police report and after your probation expires, they toss the record completely. Give a sob story to your lawyer and ask him to try this for you. It's very rare for your type of case, but they've done it before for unusual circumstances like yourself. I think it's called a furlough or a furlow, but don't quote me on that.
Pizzaguy, give me some time. I'll get back to you tomorrow.
Good Luck Sarah!
