Thread: Possible to rejoin Navy after commission resigned?

All,

I'm interested in rejoining the Navy Reserves; however, they honorably discharged me while I was training at Quantico. I'm guessing that means my commission was resigned. I did receive a letter at my home telling me to either affiliate with a drilling reserve unit or resign my commission. Since I was at Quantico though, I didn't respond to the letter right away. Suprisingly, I received my discharge certificate only about a month or two later.

Has anyone heard of an officer rejoining the Navy (or any branch) after they resigned their commission (or it was resigned for them)? I'm curious how to go about this and/or if it's even possible. I'm heading to the Navy's websites now, but thought I'd throw the question on this board.

Thanks,
BUCKS

While I'm not certain of the circumstances surrounding your discharge, unless you wrote a letter stating "Dear SECNAV, I would like to resign my commission"... you may very well still be commissioned. Being honorably discharged is different than resigning your commission. Honorable discharge has to do with your release from active duty (the honorable part is the characterization of your active duty service).

If I were you, I'd take your DD-214 to a Navy Reserve Officer recruiter. There's a "Separation Code" and "Reentry Code" on the bottom of the Member Copy 4 of your DD-214 which will tell the recruiter about your options. You may very well already be in the Navy Reserve (Individual Ready Reserve) and not realize it.

Again, since I don't know the circumstances surrounding your discharge, this is just general advice.

Good Luck!

If you received an honorable discharge, you are out. Did you receive an actual discharge or a DD-214? A release from active duty and a discharge are not the same. I was a Navy Reserve recruiter in a former life, but I dealt with enlisted programs. Obviously, I'm no expert on officer programs, but I'm almost certain that you can get back into the Navy Reserve or another branch. You'd have to apply for a commission all over again, and that can take some time. AFOSI might be a good fit.

My understanding is unless you actively resign your commission, you are still commissioned. This is the situation for some of those people about whom you hear stories about being reactivated long after their discharge from active duty. You can finish your IRR obligation but you are still in the personnel database somewhere and can be recalled or can come back in voluntarily. Of course you would need some refresher training and you would need to find a slot that wanted to take you. As has already been said, you should talk to an officer recruiter; they should be able to clarify your situation.

This is something that's better asked of an officer and/or prior service recuiter. This forum is really meant for military questions as they pertain to law enforcement/public safety/government hiring, veteran's preferences, etc. You might even try some of the forums on military.com, as they are much more frequented with people who can answer the general military enlistment/commisisoining questions.

k

Thanks for everyone's replies. I think I'll take Krellum's advice and talk to an officer recruiter. That's probably the only way I'll figure this out.

Thanks again.

BUCKS

BUCKS,

I agree with K in that the right answer to your problem is to talk to a recruiter if you're serious about coming back onboard....


In the mean time, if you haven't already, go to the MILPERSMAN at http://buperscd.technology.navy.mil/...milpersman.htm
and download it to your computer.

Scroll down to Section 1920 which deals with officers and figure out where you fall in there. The MILPERSMAN is where the recruiter will begin looking first to figure out your situation.

And by the way, if you were fairly new to the service when you were discharged, chances are you were "Released from Active Duty" (RAD) and you didn't truly resign your commission. (You would know if you resigned b/c that is a process in and of itself) It's too confusing to fully explain here, but if they start talking about RAD, you'll know what they mean. It's all there in the MILPERSMAN.

Good Luck