Thinking of joining the Army Reserves, couple of obstacles, though:

[new RN old GI]

a) I'm a little bit over the age limit of 46 1/2 years--but I have 12 years active federal duty + 12 years reservist time, so I believe the Army Reserve will consider me to be about "34 1/2" years old for direct commissioning application purposes. This, according to my local Army Healthcare Recruiter office, will not be an issue.

(b) The second obstacle, however, appears to be tougher. I was recently non-retained from a state army ng QMP retention board. I had elected by endorsement to be placed in the IRR just in case, as I had feared, I was not retained due to failing two consecutive APFTs (I hurt my back but didn't have a permanent profile--my back is presently fine and I can pass the APFT now). I was discharged from the state army ng with an honorable discharge (NGB form 55 A), RE code '3' with a character of seperation code 'A' and placed into the IRR. Reading various AR 600- and 135- regs getting a RE-3 waiver is possible (but not easy); I'm not exactly sure about the seperation code "A", have not yet found the applicable table that explains these codes.

The healthcare recruiter commander I initially talked to said he could arrange the paperwork to request a waiver regarding the RE code 3, relating that he was fairly confident based on my service record packet (or "curriculum vitae", as he put it) that I would get a waiver. However, he has been promoted and moved on, and the (brand) new healthcare recruiting commander seems to be relying on his NCOIC, who says that I cannot send a packet up because I need to be a TPU soldier. And the catch is, of course, I cannot be a TPU soldier now that I have been honorably discharged due to non-retention.

Wondering if any current/vets RN-soldiers, especially former recruiter types, have any insight to my situation. btw, I'm an former DLI east asian language grad who otj learned Pashto during OEF5 and was awarded the "Spirit of Army Nursing" at nursing graduation. I'd like to practice psych nursing, think I can still significantly contribute to the Army.

Thanks for your insight to my situation,

New RN, Old GI