IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT, DO IT YOURSELF. Breakdown of steps & Important information: If you need help or need examples, email me on here or comment and we will see what we can do for you. 1. Talk to your chain of command and explain why you want to go Active Duty. If they agree with you and give you their blessing then you can move onto step 2. 2. Talk to a recruiter and they will fill out a 368 (conditional release), they will either send it to you or to your chain of command. My recruiter sent it to me and I signed it and sent it to my S-3. But send it to your Squad Leader or however your chain of command works, I didn’t have a chain of command yet really, so I reported to the AGR S-3. If you need help finding a recruiter to do this for you, let me know and I can hook you up. 3. Once your unit receives your conditional release, they will send you a slew of paperwork to fill out, keep in mind this can be unit dependent but I am sharing with you what my unit made me do. When it comes to paperwork, my unit was very by the book. Documents include: A checklist with action items, DA Form 4187 (for discharge to Active Army or other Uniformed Service), Memorandum of justification (Enlisted Only), DA Form 4856, Counseling conducted by the Soldier's commander, DA Form 4856, Interview with Center Retention NCO, Chain of command, including intermediate command, recommendation, Current DD Form 4 Enlistment Contract (Enlisted Only), and your DD368. 4. Getting the conditional release can take a long time to get signed, mine took approximately 3 to 4 months, primarily because of the holidays getting in the way and people taking leave. But some people’s 368’s have taken 1 month and some have taken 18 months. However, don’t fret, if you constantly stay on top of your unit, they will get it signed for you. And if you need to, drive to your unit and see them face to face, then go for it. I couldn’t do that because they were in WA and I was in VA, so I resorted to emails and phone calls. 5. After the conditional release has been submitted, let your recruiter know and it becomes a waiting game. Your recruiter can’t really start on your paperwork because you don’t have a signed release and it would be a waste of time for him to do the paperwork if your release ends up getting denied. However, you can somewhat start this process by asking your recruiter to send you everything that will need to be done and then once it does get approved, you can basically send it all to him. Also, I will share information that he may or may not need and that can be a time saver for you and the recruiter. Remember, the key to making this go faster is doing as much of this process yourself and not relying on others. 6. After your conditional release is signed, immediately send it to your recruiter so he can start the process, if you sent you the paperwork that needed to be filled out, send it to him as well. If you weren’t able to obtain the paperwork, your recruiter will send you the paperwork and fill it out as quickly as possible. 7. After paperwork is complete and you don’t have hang-ups like waivers, your recruiter will schedule you a MEPS date. If your medical and everything is green, all you will need to do is speak to a guidance counselor. While at MEPS you might need to get fingerprinted and put into the system at that MEPS. If your recruiter does everything right, you will be a No Med, No Phys. Side note, you don’t need to TAPAS. 8. Either before or after MEPS and you get your report date back to MEPS, you will also need to OPAT. Occupational Physical Assessment Test (Max Standards: Black: Deadlift 160lbs, Long Jump 5ft 3 Inches, 14.9 Ball throw, 42 or 43 Shuttles. Test is super easy if you are in decent shape. Important information: If you have immigrants, obtain their immigration number (It’s in red on the top of their certificate), when they were born, where they were born and where and who issued their immigration card. Very important as this can hang you up completely. MEDPROS: Make sure everything is green, some stuff can be yellow e.g. my dental was yellow because I needed minor work done (Class 2) but I was still able to go active duty. But if you can get everything green that is the safest bet. Don’t just check the stoplights, check your IMR Profile, view the PDF and ensure everything is green in their too. I was red on Red Dog Tags and 180 Meds and that delayed my process of getting onto active duty. These are steps you can take while the process is ongoing, my stuff was done last minute because I wasn’t aware about the IMR Profile. Prior Service Business Rules: http://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/current-and-prior-service/continue-serving/active-duty/prior-service-business-rules.html

• published: 31 Mar 2017
• views: 860