The Delayed Entry Program, also called the Delayed Enlistment Program, is a program where individuals going into active duty in the United States Armed Forces enlist first into the DEP before they ship out to training. In actuality, this is an enlistment into the inactive reserves, with an agreement to report for active duty (training) at a specific time in the future.
One of the benefits for the applicant is to assist in the preparation for the Armed forces prior to activation of his or her contract. The member’s recruiter will spend time with each member of the DEP program and assist in learning of tasks such as marching, general military knowledge prior to the Basic Combat Training (BCT), or "boot camp".
Under the current regulations, an individual can remain in the DEP for up to 365 days, after which the recruit will either have to: a) begin the enlistment process again or b) be discharged from the DEP. When the recruit signs the DEP Enlistment Contract, he/she is entering into a legally binding contract to report to his/her training station (the ___location of his/her BCT) by a certain date. However, regulations governing the Army,[1] Navy,[2] Marines,[3] Air Force,[4] and Coast Guard[5] (in other words, every branch of service) currently state that a) applicants who request release from the DEP must be released and b) if the applicant refuses to ship out to basic training, he or she may either be released from the DEP or given an Entry Level (Uncharacterized) Separation. The GI Rights Network, a non-profit that assists military personnel seeking discharges, cites About.com's US Military section in reporting that no one has been prosecuted or involuntarily ordered to active duty for not reporting to BCT since at least the 1970's.[6]
References
- ^ Reg601-56.pmd
- ^ COMNAVCRUITCOMINST 1130.8F
- ^ MCO P1100.72C W ERRATUM MILITARY PERSONNEL PROCUREMENT MANUAL, VOLUME 2, ENLISTED PROCUREMENT (SHORT TITLE: MPPM ENLPROC)
- ^ http://www.e-publishing.af.mil/pubfiles/afrs/36/afrsi36-2001/afrsi36-2001.pdf
- ^ GI Rights Hotline
- ^ http://www.girightshotline.org/discharges/dep/dep-fact-sheet.pdf