A job I am crossing fingers to land and interviewed favorably for, requires a Q Clearance (DOE lab). They asked me in the interview if anything in my background might cause an issue, and I said no. However, after thinking about it, I got concerned about the following, as I was reviewing the SF86 form ~
I am in my late 40s and when I was all of 18, I went off to boot camp for the Air Force. Long story short, I ‘dropped out’ of boot camp due to ‘failure to adapt’. (Honestly I was freaked when a girl I befriended in camp tried to commit suicide). I was told this was considered an honorable discharge.
My two fold question is, a) do I need to list this as ‘having EVER served’? (am I considered to actually have even served???) and b) if so, will this possibly cause my application for clearance to be denied? Because if so, I should inform the hiring manager now, vs. wait until later. Appreciate any information anyone has for this case. Thank you!
Marko can correct me if I’m wrong, but you will need to list your short stint in the air force. I know your pain; I developed a medical issue that required my separation shortly after Basic, so I’m forever doomed to keep listing and explaining.
You can look up your service records here http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/
Since they will want a copy of your DD-214 (if you don’t have it). Failure to Adapt is usually an uncharacterized discharge, which from everything I’ve heard and read doesn’t (by itself) affect your ability to obtain a Secret Clearance, but usually means you won’t get an Interim clearance.
Not all discharges result in getting issued a DD214, especially 20 years ago. Depending on how long you were in training (more than 180 days I recall), will dictate whether you have to list it. Training status is not considered active military service. However, just to be safe you should list it, it will not prevent you from getting a clearance if that is the only issue.
Anything before 180 days is classed as an Entry Level Separation. I was in less than 180 days and got a DD214.
But I also completed BCT, and this was only about 10 years ago, so Triskele your results might very. They also might have treated your separation differently due to the circumstances.