tacsatarmy
Junior Member
What is the name of your state?NC
I joined the Army early in 2002 with the student loan repayment plan, a ten thousand dollar bonus, a three thousand dollar bonus for Airborne, and Satellite Communications AIT in my contract. In 2002 the Army pioneered a plan to create AOT (Assignment Oriented Training) for the signal core because it was decided that soldiers were spending too much time in school. So basically my MOS and about 3 others were to be given an assignment by our second week of AIT and only trained on the equipment for the unit we were going to. My contract says AIT for SATCOM is 39 weeks and it involves both Strategic and Tactical training. If anyone knows about this, they are two very extreme differeces. In Strategic, you are sitting in an office monitoring a Satellite terminal somehwere far from the front lines of anything. In Tactical, you are in the field constantly, and usually with Infantry, as I have been for 3 years, and basically doing the same things as infantry. My schooling was cut to 23 weeks and I was given an identifier on my MOS title that shows I was only given Tactical training. Back then Satcom was a 6 year enlistment minimum because the Army was giving you so much training and you would be so lucrative to the civillian market. This AOT thing is a catch 22 because they claim you should be sent back to school and get all of your training by your unit but with an identifier saying you are one or the other, you will only be sent to units that have a need for what you are. To sum this up, there is no chance to get the schooling you signed up for and the 6 years because of all the training you would recieve, is just more BS.
In AIT several of us were told that with Airborne in our contracts, there would be no way we would get Strategic training so a lot of people dropped their Airborne by signing a "Certifcate of Enlistment Waiver".
This waiver states:
"I voluntarily waiver my enlistment commitment for Airborne Training made at the time of my enlistment. I realize and fully understand that as a result of doing so, I will be assigned in accordance with the remaining portion of my enlistment commitment and the needs of the service, and will be required to complete the full term service for which I enlisted."
Now, to me that says everything except the Airborne portion of my contract is still in effect. Funny, because recently when I brough the fact up to my CO that I felt my contract was void because I never recieved the AIT training that was guaranteed to me, nor had one cent of my loans been paid, he agreed that my contract had been breached and got the ball rolling for me to get out or get the schooling I deserved. A few weeks later things came to a screeching hault when my platoon SGT handed me my contract with the Airborne waiver highlighted on the front and said,"sorry, your drill sergeant f'ed you". Now they are claiming that because I signed that waiver, basically I voided my own contract, went to the needs of the Army, and should not get any of my bonuses(which have been paid), the schooling, or the SLRP.
I can understand not getting the Airborne bonus, which I did not, and the Army agreed to pay my loans probably a year ago now. I have letters saying payment has been made, yet the Dept of Ed has recieved nothing. The Army is now giving me and my congressman the run around saying we have to wait 90 more days to find out where the payment went and that it's my fault that they were not yet paid because the Army could not find me, even though I have been in the same place for over two years.
Now with this re-enlistment guy claiming the waiver voids my contract, I am scared the loans will never get paid, I will never get schooled, and all have no valuable job skills after wasting 6 years of my life in the Army. On top of that, the way he is talking makes it seem like they could take back the 10,000 they already gave me.
Could someone with some background in contract law please tell me how this waiver reads to them? Does anyone know of a good contract lawyer that deals with Military Law? Thanks in advance.
I joined the Army early in 2002 with the student loan repayment plan, a ten thousand dollar bonus, a three thousand dollar bonus for Airborne, and Satellite Communications AIT in my contract. In 2002 the Army pioneered a plan to create AOT (Assignment Oriented Training) for the signal core because it was decided that soldiers were spending too much time in school. So basically my MOS and about 3 others were to be given an assignment by our second week of AIT and only trained on the equipment for the unit we were going to. My contract says AIT for SATCOM is 39 weeks and it involves both Strategic and Tactical training. If anyone knows about this, they are two very extreme differeces. In Strategic, you are sitting in an office monitoring a Satellite terminal somehwere far from the front lines of anything. In Tactical, you are in the field constantly, and usually with Infantry, as I have been for 3 years, and basically doing the same things as infantry. My schooling was cut to 23 weeks and I was given an identifier on my MOS title that shows I was only given Tactical training. Back then Satcom was a 6 year enlistment minimum because the Army was giving you so much training and you would be so lucrative to the civillian market. This AOT thing is a catch 22 because they claim you should be sent back to school and get all of your training by your unit but with an identifier saying you are one or the other, you will only be sent to units that have a need for what you are. To sum this up, there is no chance to get the schooling you signed up for and the 6 years because of all the training you would recieve, is just more BS.
In AIT several of us were told that with Airborne in our contracts, there would be no way we would get Strategic training so a lot of people dropped their Airborne by signing a "Certifcate of Enlistment Waiver".
This waiver states:
"I voluntarily waiver my enlistment commitment for Airborne Training made at the time of my enlistment. I realize and fully understand that as a result of doing so, I will be assigned in accordance with the remaining portion of my enlistment commitment and the needs of the service, and will be required to complete the full term service for which I enlisted."
Now, to me that says everything except the Airborne portion of my contract is still in effect. Funny, because recently when I brough the fact up to my CO that I felt my contract was void because I never recieved the AIT training that was guaranteed to me, nor had one cent of my loans been paid, he agreed that my contract had been breached and got the ball rolling for me to get out or get the schooling I deserved. A few weeks later things came to a screeching hault when my platoon SGT handed me my contract with the Airborne waiver highlighted on the front and said,"sorry, your drill sergeant f'ed you". Now they are claiming that because I signed that waiver, basically I voided my own contract, went to the needs of the Army, and should not get any of my bonuses(which have been paid), the schooling, or the SLRP.
I can understand not getting the Airborne bonus, which I did not, and the Army agreed to pay my loans probably a year ago now. I have letters saying payment has been made, yet the Dept of Ed has recieved nothing. The Army is now giving me and my congressman the run around saying we have to wait 90 more days to find out where the payment went and that it's my fault that they were not yet paid because the Army could not find me, even though I have been in the same place for over two years.
Now with this re-enlistment guy claiming the waiver voids my contract, I am scared the loans will never get paid, I will never get schooled, and all have no valuable job skills after wasting 6 years of my life in the Army. On top of that, the way he is talking makes it seem like they could take back the 10,000 they already gave me.
Could someone with some background in contract law please tell me how this waiver reads to them? Does anyone know of a good contract lawyer that deals with Military Law? Thanks in advance.