Trying to utilize my knowledge base here, and to remain judgement free, we need more information. Why exactly did you incur a large amount of debt? If said debt was going to get you kicked out of the military (here is where my judgement begins to creep in), why did you reenlist in the first place instead of just honorably discharging? Why would they have allowed you to reenlist just to then immediately kick you out? Filing for bankruptcy while active duty isn't against any rules. Even in a job like mine where a security clearance mattered, we would have just sent you to a non-security clearance job. Even more so, why wouldn't then just give you a general discharge and not mark you as AWOL which has nothing to do with your financial status? More information is necessary.
Moving aside from those issues, do you already have a degree? Have you dealt with said debt? If not, have you investigated how you are going to pay for school while you already have a large amount of debt? I do not believe you will get the GI bill with an OTH discharge, but it may depend on circumstance. Similarly, have you looked at your eligibility for loans? If your debt was big enough to get you kicked out of the military, how are you going to handle more debt? School isn't cheap.
The debt is from my moms home renovation during covid. She lived in a decent neighborhood where housing cost had gone up, but the home hadn't been upkept. She was sick and not working. I had been helping to support her, but we both knew that it wasn't something that would work long term. A decision was made to put some work into the house and sell it. We decided to do some simple updates, but it turned into a money pit. It needed way more work than originally planned. For every problem fixed, two more popped up and ended up having structural issues that I couldn't afford to fix. I had to pull the cord on it and start paying back everything. The house sold months later and nowhere close to what we were hoping. There was too much that still needed to be done and the issues were going to cost the next owner. We had to settle for less to get out from under it.
I didnt recieve much from the sale after my mother was taken care of. It quickly got out of control with high interest rates and huge balances.
I started working two jobs to try and catch up but couldn't make a dent in it. I fell behind on payments. Tried working with a debt settlement group, but I ended up being sued and had my wages garnished during the interim. I couldn't keep up with everything and was worried about losing my own house and car. That was when I decided to file for bankruptcy. That was only about 5 months into my new enlistment.
As for why I reenlisted, they offered a nice lump sum bonus of 25k with a payout at the beginning of the enlistment. I kept hearing that rention rates were at an all time low and that they were putting out crazy bonuses to keep people in. I saw a chance to pay off a decent amount of debt. I had no plans to reenlist before this. I wanted to get out and focus solely on school, but I was willing to serve out another enlistment if it meant getting back on my feet financially. Turns out I didn't qualify for the bonus money because I had not passed my height and weight. It was tacked on to a diag acft which I passed, but I was off by 4lbs so they flagged me. They didn't let me know until after the cutoff date for the bonus and after they had filed my paper to let me know I would not be receiving it. Otherwise, I would have just let my first enlistment end.
I'm not sure what I'm categorized under as of now. I've had no contact or any information sent to me in months. As I mentioned, I brought the problem to them and tried to see if I had other options. A lateral transfer, hardship, or even just voluntary separation. I would've taken a general, but nothing happened. I even asked if they could keep me on the books without paying me and excusing my drills. They sent me to family assistance twice which I had already dealt with to see if I had options outside of the military that could help. At this point, I had already settled my bankruptcy and was making payments. Money was and still is very tight. I had to drive 3 hours back and forth to my unit and it costs more than half of my drill pay to fill up with gas. I let them know I lose money coming to drill compared to what I would make working my civilian job. They said they'd figure something out and get back to me. I let it be and focused on work and getting my life back to a semi normal and wait for the bankruptcy to be finalized. I hadn't heard anything until a friend from the unit contacted me and mentioned a discharge.
I don't have a degree. It would be square one for me. All of the debt should be taken care of by the time I'd be out of school and ready to apply. I should be able to build my credit back up as well. As for more debt, what I can say is, I'm going back to school no matter what. I'll be accruing more debt whether I go into the medical field or elsewhere. That being said, after being in the position I was in, I absolutely understand the weight of medical student loans. It would be a hell of a lot more than another degree, but I'm learning from my mistakes and I would plan to get ahead of the debt as soon as I am able to. Hitting that low made me seriously reflect and figure out what my plan is from here on out.
I'm not contesting my discharge. It's something I'll always regret and I accept that I made a series of poor decisions. I still think about things I could've done differently. Contrary to what you may think, I served out my first enlistment without issue. I was proud of what I had been able to accomplish. Several overseas training missions, a deployment, a handful of state activations and a few awards to go with them. Its more than I ever thought I would experience with the Guard.
