Originally Posted by melefson36

Hello APC:

I am trying to get a gauge on if my General Discharge Under Honorable Conditions will be a hard stop barrier to getting hired on with the Regionals. Long story short is I have a General Discharge Under Honorable Conditions from the Army National Guard and I know generally those must be explained in the interview and it's normally no issue, but mine is complicated.

I was discharged from the Army Guard as an O-1 with a General Discharge Under Honorable Conditions. I successfully completed the Army's flight school to be a Blackhawk Pilot with the Army Guard. However, due to COVID, my SERE (Survival School) was pushed towards the end of the training cycle. I was aware of this and was even excited for SERE, but I had a lot of personal stressors going on at the time that didn't manifest themselves until I started the SERE training cycle. My wife was due in 2 months with our 2nd son (we also had a 10 month-old at the time), I was in the process of finding a job and actively interviewing (I was National Guard so I needed to find employment after flight school), and I was also in the process of finding a new place to live for my family because we weren't returning to the same state from before I started training. I did not have a job lined up for my family yet and I had to go to SERE school. I started the training cycle, but after starting training the uncertainty of my family situation hit me and I I self-dropped from the course (finding a new job/home before having another baby...) and I requested that I come back to finish SERE once I got my family situation under control. However, the Army did not agree with that plan and I was told I had to go to SERE right away or likely not be given another opportunity. I chose to self-drop from the course and take care of my family situation.

My learnings and ownership from this is that I was overextended and I didn't respect how difficult SERE school would be with those stressors going on. During the flight training portion (which I successfully completed. No check-ride failures) I had my first son, did a "live-in flip" on my house, started taking graduate school classes online, was actively interviewing for jobs towards the end, self-managing a rental property, and my wife became pregnant again 4 months after having our first-born while in flight training. I am a type-A (like most pilots) and I tried to do too many things at once and it caught up to me. I was able to successfully complete flight training with all of this going on, but everything caught up to me when I had to go to SERE (no job yet, no house, and another kid on the way...). For further context, SERE school is a blackout communication school with no exceptions. I was actively interviewing for jobs up until the day I left and I had nothing lined-up yet. Additionally, SERE school is supposed to be on the front end of the training cycle and people are given 2-3 attempts at the course due to its difficulty but because of COVID, my SERE school date was pushed towards the end of flight school. If I was able to go to SERE during the normal timeframe, I would not have been worrying about employment/house for my family.

I apologize for the long story, but I'm just playing out how I am going to explain my discharge in an interview and if this would be a hard-stop for the regionals. I would like to be an airline pilot, but it would also be a gut punch if I get the rest of my ratings and I can't get hired because of this. I am looking for honest feedback on how you or the hiring board for a regional would respond to this story...


I appreciate everyone's feedback and advice. Thank you
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