Washing Out of the Air Force Academy Question

[disney junky]

I know a guy who got an appointment to the AF Academy. I think it's unlikely he'll cut it for a lot of reasons, but what happens to a person who gets an appointment and then washes out. Is it a discharge? I'm curious. Anyone know?

 

[disney junky]

bump....anyone?

 

[JDinCO]

You never know he might just do good in a place like that. I'm not sure about the discharge thing but I wouldn't imagine it could keep him from enlisting.

 

[brerrabbit]

It's usually a discharge. Special circumstances, in otherwords why were you let go, could alter that. It happens more than you would think. A lot of kids want to fly fighter jets but once there find out they can't quite cut it from a disipline and academic perspective and wind up leaving. Had a friend that went for three years and found out that due to a childhood accident that put glass shards in his eye his vision was not good enough had an "incident" and got discharged from the academy. He was happy because if he could not fly he did not want to be there, or commit to the military.

 

[jwsqrdplus2]

If you "wash out" in the first 2 years, you are discharged and can go on with your life.

If you "wash out" after the first day of classes your Jr year, you are then commited to the AF and will have to serve some enlisted time (1 year for each semester/partial semester completed). At the end of the enlistment, you then have the opportunity to re-enlist or you can accept a discharge.

If you graduate, you receive your commission and have to serve 5 years on active duty. If you go to pilot training upon graduation, you have to serve 10 years upon completion of pilot training (it takes approx one year to complete pilot training).

The above is the current policy. As with every gov't agency, there is exception to policy! However, because of the amt of $$ spent in educating the cadets, exception to policy is pretty rare!

And I agree with the PP who said, you just never know. Your friend may find his niche at USAFA, then go ont to be a future Joint Chief of Staff!

 

[pl71]

In most cases you can drop out anytime and it's no big deal, you go back to being a civilian (with an honorable discharge) and can transfer any credits you earned to another college. If he wants to enlist later on that's not a problem. The only limitation is that he might not be allowed to go through OCS or ROTC unless he left for academic reasons.

If you wait until you start your senior year and then leave voluntarily they can require that you to enlist for a few years to pay back the free education (although I've never seen that requirement enforced). If you drop out due to grades or medical there's no payback.

Lots of people drop out, either for academics of just because they don't like the lifestyle. On average about 50% graduate and the largest surge of dropouts is during the initial summer training.

 

[disney junky]

Thanks for the replies. You don't hear much about people who don't make it. Sounds like the stats are similar to regular college.