PLEASE HELP!! New To Trucking, Need Advice!

No tear off here either. I'm also not so sure you can upgrade to a full honorable discharge. To my knowledge, general is the highest you can go if you did not receive a honorable. We had our share of knuckleheads as well.

Hello

I process Soldiers in the Guard who have done this very thing. The current 214's will or should show characterization of discharge and why. His probably says General Under Honorable, Drug Use...or words close to that.

Packrat, I agree that there is not much honorable with that, but nowadays units want these administrative actions to process as quick as possible, so instead of going to a Admin Sep board, trying for a Other Than Honorable, they recommend a General Discharge, and the SM is out quick.

Also, there is NO guarantee of a upgrade in characterization of discharge. Yes it is possible, BUT I don't think that will change the reason for discharge. And, it takes a significant amount of work and time to the the Army Board of Corrections to do things, I would imagine the Navy is no different.

To the original poster, good luck with school, but like others have said, you should have went the paid cdl school route.

Best of luck Chris

Western Express, CR England, PAM, May Trucking, Carolina Cargo are will you will probably want to apply first. Disclose everything asked. I look at it like this. If it comes down to you, and another applicant who both had the same issue. Is the company going to want the regular "Joe" with no work experience, and got caught with weed? Or the individual who has military experience, and had an otherwise clean record but made an unfortunate decision? I would think it would be the prior military applicant. I could be wrong about that, but that would be my though process. You're not a scumbag or anything of that. Your life isn't finished. And If think you and the other 3 sailors were the only ones doing dumb stuff like eating weed brownies on leave... I'll bet good money it was more than you 4.

Anyways good luck to you. Keep your head up and keep us posted.

A failed drug test in the USN is an OTH discharge, when I was there. If it was changed to an Honorable, Other that's a real shame. Anyway....

How long ago were you discharged? It's not impossible to get hired, but many companies are going to require you to successfully complete a SAP program prior to looking at you. Poor choices are something that will hamstring you before you ever start.

My DD214 from the USN in 2012 doesn't seem to have one, either. Not much I agree with in your post, Rick.

Actually - I misspoke - as far as my DD-214 goes. I was looking at a PDF I keep up in my webspace - which has the bottom portion "chopped off" - I went into my gunvault and dug out the copy I got from Nav Records Archive and it does, in fact - have the bottom portion.

I stand corrected.

And you don't have to agree - but what IS FACTUAL - is that, if he went through NASAP (Navy rehab as he claimed) - THAT IS SAP.

When I was in, it was General Under Honorable Conditions - they didn't have a drug test back then - they had to catch you with the goods.

Yeah - I was a screwup back then - and things got EVEN WORSE - before I wised up and got my act together.

Again - my biggest regret of my life. I loved the work, loved being at sea - only I loved PARTYING EVEN MORE - and that got me in a jackpot. But pretty much everyone partied back then.

Can't say how they're dealing with it now.

Rick

Thanks to all for your positive feedback and comments, i appreciate everybody who gave detailed informative responses and the constructive criticism to boot!

I ended up taking my CDL class A test with Washington state DOT third party tester and failing my very first test because I left the truck running while conducting my air leak test.... whoops them nerves got me! Less than two minutes into my test I failed and when walking back from the test site to the school office I realized my mistake and laughed my ass off!

But then I struggled with my backing the next 3 tests and was starting to think I couldn't ever put the damn trailer in the damn hole!

However on my fifth test, I finally passed all my backing and by then it had been about a month since I finished schooling and last drove, which was a bumpy ride. Somehow I passed the road test and on February 5th I finally got my Class A!!!

I was so damn proud. Took so much work, so many hours, so much heartbreak and ultimate sacrifice of self will to achieve.

But hey, I did it!

And now I'm on my way to May Trucking Company in Salem, Oregon. Start orientation March 3rd, very excited!

Thanks again to everybody, and safe driving to all!!

Congrats Tanner on your CDL and great job on the perseverance.

Do you plan to keep a training diary for May Trucking?

Congrats!!!! We all wish you the best. Nothing in this life is easy.. Keep us posted how you are doing.

Congratulations on getting thru school.

I have a younger brother that was booted out of the Navy also...for drugs and failure to adapt. He spent 20+ years with a bread company in Phoenix as their top Operations director. Now he's VP of a company in TN. One of my other brother who did serious drinking and drugs (did prison time in NM) cleaned up in 87. He learned the roofing trade and now owns his roofing company since 1991. He doesn't advertise, all his business is word of mouth. They stay busy all the time.

Congratulations, Tanner!

Stories like yours and others mentioned here are heartening for their "survive and thrive" essence. So glad you came back with that report and wishing you success from here forward.