“ Discharged as an E1?”
I am retired USAF with 24 years service followed by 18 years as an Adjudicator for the Veteran’s Administration and I have reviewed literally thousands of DD-214s for the purpose of determining qualification for VA benefits so I certainly have a qualified opinion.
She was discharged at about four months when she was likely in Technical School to learn to be a Personnel Specialist. Either she was unable to learn, which is highly unlikely as she would have been transferred to a less demanding skill instead of being kicked out. My guess is she was not happy for whatever reason and was probably booted for what we use to call “inability to adapt” to military life. It is not considered an unfavorable or less than honorable discharge. Its better to boot those unable to live the military life early like this.
CORRECTION
I overlooked that she was USAR (reserves). In that case she probably completed her training as a Personnel Specialist and then discharged from what is referred to “Active Duty for Training” or “ADT” and is supported by the discharge reason of completion of required service. This is common when people enter reserves. It starts with them being placed on active duty for initial training of boot camp followed by specialty training school for their MOS. After that they come off active service and are in reserves. Again, this is very common and does not indicate a problem.
No wonder the VA is screwed up if you can’t read a National Guard or Reserve Training DD-214. Maybe, it was over 30 years ago and most of the cold war guys served their time and got out. They would not have qualified for anything more than a VA loan because they had never had a term of more than 180 days of federal service. That all ended as of 9/11 when everyone got activated for the most part.
Also, there are photos out there of her in a proper E-4 uniform plus her discharge orders.