Yes, this is on the level.

No, I don't have guardianship, but he lived with me for his last year in high school after "running away" from his mom, and we've always been close anyway.

He's my children's cousin on "their" side of the family, but when I divorced his mother's brother, they were part of the family that came with me. Since the death of my X, his uncle, we have been even closer. (His birth interrupted my first date with his mother's brother, and although he doesn't remember it or probably know about it I miscarried my first pregnancy at his third birthday party...)

I think he'll make it through any possible weed-out process - he's white, finished high school, and when he told the recruiter he smoked weed the recruiter said Don't call it weed, call is "spiritual" - and we'll delay the drug test for a month. I am not kidding.

I think I can justify this on the idea of protecting fellow soldiers, but I'd be doing it to keep him out of it. Not sure I have the right to do so, but I feel I have the obligation anyway.