Levi Johnston, the teenager planning to marry Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol, has quit his North Slope oil field job over questions about his eligibility to participate in an electrical apprenticeship program, Johnston's father said Monday.
Johnston this fall began working at the Milne Point oil field through the ASRC Energy Services apprenticeship program.
However, radio talk show commentator Dan Fagan, in a column published Sunday in the Anchorage Daily News, questioned how Johnston could take part in the apprenticeship program without the required high school education.
Johnston's father, Keith Johnston, said in a telephone interview that his son decided to resign and return home to work on his education.
"He felt it was the best thing to do to kind of calm the waters, so to speak," the elder Johnston said.
Keith Johnston also said the governor had nothing to do with getting Levi Johnston the oil field job. Keith Johnston said his own position as an ASRC construction engineer accounts for any help his son received in landing work.
Palin, in an interview, denied helping Levi Johnston get the job and called Fagan's column "a political pot shot taken at me."
Fagan said federal rules require apprentices to have a high school diploma. Federal rules actually don't require that, but ASRC rules do, the company said Monday. Palin had cited the apprenticeship in communications with news outlets last week denying that Levi was a high school dropout..
Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin recently became the parents of Palin's first grandchild.
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