I was wondering what happens if I am denied the TS clearance I need for my MOS and my AIT? Does the Army just assign a different MOS without my having a choice in the matter, or if it does give me a choice and I don't like the new MOS and/or the lower clearance (if any) am I free to to be discharged without any problems?
Thanks!

First off, let me say I am not an expert, so take this for what its worth, but a lot depends on why you were denied the clearance. If you were denied the clearnace because of something you failed to disclose when you first signed up (forgot to mention that DWI you got to your recruiter), congrats, you will most likely get needs of the Army. In my experiance, Uncle Sam will give you a few choices and then you can pick the one. If you were honest about everything and for whatever reason, you just didn't get the clearance, they will probably give you the chance to pick another MOS that you qualify for, or possibly give you the chance to say thanks, but no thanks and get out.

Good info ....

Just to add on, if you're denied a clearance for whatever reason, the military (or Army) will not discharge you and you must serve the remainder of your contract and your 8-year military service obligation(MSO) unless sooner discharged for another reason, i.e., medical or legal.

My husband is currently in AIT for 35N which requires TS clearance. You can easily not get the clearance if you didn't disclose all information, or changed your answers to certain questions later on. So be honest and straight-forward with them the entire time and you'll have nothing to worry about. Also, I have seen guys here in AIT get "washed-back" which is failing classes or tests. If you get washed-back enough, they may reclass you/give you a different MOS. I don't know if you'll have a choice, but according to WO1 Pyro you will. You can also get reclasses for other reasons as well. So be honest and be on your best behavior, and you won't screw it up!

Oh, and if you do have a record, depending on the felony or crime, they'll look into it and determine the severity and whether you get the clearance is up to them and their opinion.

Good luck!

At the TRADOC unit I just came from, if a Soldier failed to obtain a clearance, we would reclass them. We would have them pick 3 MOSs from the "Top 20" list that did not require a clearence and send them on thier way. Whether or not they actually got one of the 3 they picked, I can't say. If they were reclasses, we would give them an option to fall back to thier old MOS.

The most common reason I saw for not getting a clearence wasn't debt per say, but failure or unwillingness to repay said debts. That and the Smith Amendment (pissing hot), were our 2 major issues.

add on...bankruptcy in the last 12 months wouild also gaurantee(?) not getting a clearance

quote:

Originally posted by BuiltToLast:
At the TRADOC unit I just came from, if a Soldier failed to obtain a clearance, we would reclass them. We would have them pick 3 MOSs from the "Top 20" list that did not require a clearence and send them on thier way. Whether or not they actually got one of the 3 they picked, I can't say. If they were reclasses, we would give them an option to fall back to thier old MOS.

The most common reason I saw for not getting a clearence wasn't debt per say, but failure or unwillingness to repay said debts. That and the Smith Amendment (pissing hot), were our 2 major issues.

So if you set up with the debtors to repay them is that cool? for example you owed verizon from 6 years ago and decided to finally start paying them back thru a credit assistance agency?

I can't see them denying a clearance for something as small as a cell phone charge off, especially if you started paying it and MORE IMPORTANTLY, disclosed it.

In response to kingofminot:

Yes, if a payment plan or debt consolidation was established they were good to go. Our policy was either 3 consectutive payments/ pay off for outstanding debts or one payment and an allotment for the debt consolidation. As I said, this was OUR policy with our post security managers..I am not going to pretend to know if this is Army standard. Hope this helps.