Civil Involvements & Conditional Events

Civil Involvements

Applicants and cadets must report all involvements with civil, military, or school authorities, regardless of severity, disposition, or date of involvement.

Per AFROTCI 36-2011, a civil involvement is “Any offense, violation of law or ordinance, or any other incident causing adverse involvement or contact with civil, military, or school authorities as an adult or juvenile.”

Applicants

During the application process to join AFROTC, you will be asked to disclose any Civil Involvements (CI) that you have had before applying. This could include everything from a speeding ticket, an Article 15 or Letter of Reprimand if you were previously in the military, to a suspension or expulsion from high school.

When in doubt, disclose any run-ins with any type of authority and let your cadre tell you that they don’t care about it. For instance, they may not care about parking tickets, but would want to know about any other traffic or law violations.

If your offenses were sealed or expunged as part of a judicial court order, you may still disclose them, and my personal advice would be to do so. Reason being that they will likely still turn up in a security clearance investigation, even if they are sealed or expunged, and it’s easier to try to get ahead of these things and get them waived early. Per AFROTCI 36-2011, not disclosing a sealed or expunged offense that is later discovered is not an integrity violation.

Not disclosing a CI that is later found out (other than if sealed or expunged) is a major integrity violation and the cadet could be charged with fraudulent enlistment, which includes punishments up to forfeiture of all pay and allowances ever received from the government, a dishonorable discharge, and two years in federal prison.

Cadets

Even after a cadet is already in the program, they must disclose any new Civil Involvements within 72 hours of receiving them. This includes if you’re on spring or summer break, or otherwise away from the detachment. Email or call your APAS or cadre, and let them know as soon as you can. If it happens over the summer you won’t be required to fly back to the detachment to sign paperwork or anything, but you must make the notification within 72 hours.

A few examples of what would be a reportable CI that must be reported within 72 hours:

• A cadet receives a speeding ticket while at home during summer break
• A cadet is accused of an integrity violation or cheating by the university they are enrolled in
• A cadet is also in the Air Force Reserves and receives a Letter of Reprimand from their supervisor or commander
• A cadet is caught drinking underage on or off campus
• A cadet had an ongoing trial or court case due to a crime, and the verdict was made. The cadet must report the initial CI when it happens, and also report the verdict within 72 hours.

It is always better to tell your cadre of a CI before they find out another way. If a cadet is caught underage drinking and the campus police send a notification to the cadre before the cadet discloses it, then it looks like the cadet is trying to hide the infraction and the situation will only go worse for them.

Waivers

Civil Involvements must be considered for waiver, regardless of whether they happened before an applicant joined AFROTC, or after they became a cadet.

The severity of the infraction determines the level at which the CI can be waived.

CIs are categorized into five categories, with Category 1 being the most severe, and Category 5 being the least severe.

For a list of offenses and their applicable categories, reference Table A2.2 of AFMAN 36-2032.

For example, Credit Card Fraud is a Category 2 offense. This would mean that it would have to be waived by the Region Commander.

Illegal Gambling is a Category 4 offense. This would mean that the Detachment Commander could waive it if it happened before an applicant joined, but the Region Commander would have to waive it if it happened after the person was already a Cadet.

Kidnapping is a Category 1 offense, and would only be waived by the commander of all of AFROTC.

Some offenses, such as rape and child pornography, are not eligible to be waived in any case.

If a cadet is pending review of a Category 1, 2 or 3 waiver, they may not activate a scholarship, enlist, receive an enrollment allocation, attend Field Training, or commission until the waiver has been approved.

Conditional Events

Conditional Events (CE) are ‘serious paperwork’ in AFROTC. They are to document an infraction and departure from AFROTC retention standards.

There are two types of CEs, Military, and Academic.

Military CEs

Military CEs document a failure to maintain AFROTC military standards. This could include many things, including getting any Civil Involvement (see above), being over the body fat percentage at certain points during AFROTC, failing a fitness test while a contracted cadet, honor code violation, or being removed from Field Training with prejudice.

For a first Military CE, normally nothing will happen other than documentation of the infraction. However, based on the circumstances and severity, even a single Military CE could result in scholarship suspension or termination, det drop (removal from the program for non-contracted cadets) or disenrollment (removal from the program for contracted cadets).

If a cadet receives two Military CEs at any time in AFROTC, they will be disenrolled from the program. If the detachment commander would like a chance to retain the cadet, they can initiate a CRR instead, which will present the facts to the Region Commander, who will then decide if the cadet will be retained in the program or removed.

If a cadet receives three Military CEs, only the AFROTC Commander can retain the cadet.

Commanders are required to give Military CEs in the following circumstances:

1. CI of Category 1 (Only AFROTC/CC may waive)
2. CI of Category 2 (Only Region/CC may waive)
3. CI of Category 3 (Only Region/CC may waive)
4. CI of Category 4 (Only Det/CC may waive)
5. CI of Category 5 (Det/CC should consider giving a CE)
6. Over Body Fat Percentage (Pre-PSP, pre-FT attendance, pre-Commissioning)
7. Failure of Commissioning Fitness Test
8. Official PFA failure for Contracted Cadets
9. Honor Code Violation (Det/CC may waive first offense for GMC cadets, Region/CC waiver authority for any others)
10. Removal from FT with prejudice

Academic CEs

Academic CEs are separate from Military CEs. For instance, having one Military CE and one Academic CE will not result in a det drop from the program. They are counted separately.

Academic CEs are governed by the following rules:

1. Receipt of a “D” or “F” in any AS course – Suspend scholarship and Initiate CRR
2. TGPA of less than 2.5 – Issue Academic CE
3. Failure to maintain full-time status – Issue Academic CE

If a cadet receives one Academic CE, no action must happen, but a Det/CC may suspend their scholarship if they have one and the situation warrants it.

If a cadet receives two Academic CEs, their scholarship will be suspended. Only the Region/CC may waive this.

If a cadet receives three Academic CEs, their scholarship will be terminated unless the Region/CC waives it.

How to recover from a CE

So, you received an Academic or Military CE… What do you do? Is your AFROTC and USAF or USSF career over?

It’s impossible for me to say. There are too many variables in severity of infractions, a cadet’s performance in the program, the philosophy of the detachment or higher commanders, etc.

However, the best way to attempt to recover from a mistake large enough to warrant a CE is the following:

• Own the mistake and apologize.
• Have a plan to not make the mistake again.
• For bonus points, help others avoid making the same mistake you did.

Own the mistake

Do not make excuses for your behavior (unless you were truly innocent and falsely accused). Admit to the mistake, explain what you learned from the mistake, and apologize for making it. No blaming others, no blaming being tired, stressed, frustrated, drunk, or anything else. Your actions were your own, and you acted poorly.

Have a plan to not make the mistake again

What are you going to change about your behavior, your friends, your priorities to avoid making the same mistake again? You should share specific changes that you plan to make to convince your cadre that you’ve truly learned, are truly remorseful, and are taking mature steps to fix the problem.

Help others avoid making the same mistakes

Even better if you can share your mistake with others and help them avoid the mistake. Or if they’ve already made the mistake, share your plan for recovery.

Example

Let’s say you’re a contracted cadet that had a rough semester and you were stressed about school and didn’t have a lot of free time, so you didn’t work out very much and ended up failing an official fitness test.

Own the mistake – Don’t blame your circumstances and make excuses about not working out. You knew you should have been working out all semester, you knew you have to take a fitness test every semester, it’s not a surprise.

Have a plan – You plan to rearrange your schedule so that you can workout three days a week in addition to the required AFROTC PT. You have a fellow cadet that is going to go to the gym with you, to keep you on track.

Help others – You’re going to start a running club in the detachment, and you’re going to offer to go running with any other cadet around campus three days a week in the evenings.

Another Example

A new video game came out during the semester that you got really into and you played it all the time, letting your grades start to slip. You’re on scholarship and knew that getting bad grades might make you lose the scholarship, so you cheated on a test to try to keep your grades up. Your professor found out and called you to their office.

Own the mistake – Before the professor has the opportunity to tell your cadre or file a report officially with the school, go straight to your APAS and tell them what happened. Admit the mistake and own up to the poor decision-making and prioritization.

Have a plan – Quit the game, enroll in tutoring sessions with the university or with the professor, and try to recover your grades.

Help others – Share your experiences with other cadets, offer to tutor others in a subject that you’re strong in.

Actual excuses

None of this is to say that if you have legitimate excuses for something happening, you shouldn’t tell your cadre about it and should not blame those circumstances.

If you have real life events that affect your performance, please let your cadre know EARLY, so that they can help and be aware. It’s much better to tell them early than to let them know after something bad already happened.

I’ve had cadets that lost their parents or other close family members, had a friend die from suicide, had health problems, mental health problems, were sexually assaulted, had financial issues, legal trouble, got fired from a job, had a parent lose their job, and on and on.

The earlier you let your cadre know about these kinds of stressors, the earlier they can assist you find help, and hopefully avoid having it affect your eligibility to continue in the AFROTC program.