Long story short - If a person signed up for the US Army under a written contract that guaranteed a specific MOS due to its sign-up bonus but the opening is cancelled while the soldier is in Basic Training but before he enters Advanced Training, can he choose to voluntarily leave the Army instead of accepting an alternate MOS and receive an Honorable Discharge?
Long story for context - When I was in the Army during boot camp there was a recruit who despite also appearing to be one of us also apparently had free range of the base. Drill instructors never said anything to him and he never seemed to have any particular duties. In addition he bunked in a different barracks every night and didn’t have to wake up at reveille and could sleep in. Eventually when I got free time I decided to talk to him and his story was that he had signed up for the Army with a contract for a guaranteed MOS that had a sign-up bonus (it was something very technical and he had civilian experience with it). He passed Basic Training but for whatever reason the MOS he signed up for was no longer available and he was told he would have to pick a new MOS unrelated to the field he signed up for. Also his sign-up bonus would not be awarded if he chose a different MOS. Apparently after not liking any of the available positions (they were all direct combat which he definitely didn’t sign-up for) he was then told he could choose to leave the Army entirely under an Honorable Discharge and be given the option to reenlist if that MOS ever popped up again without needing to go back to Basic Training. Apparently he chose to just leave and not worry about coming back but it would take 30 days of outprocessing to actually let him go so he was spending those 30 days just wandering the base as he wasn’t allowed off of it since he was still considered a recruit without orders.
I’ve never heard of anything like this and to this day it makes me wonder if he just made it all up.
I could see that happening since something like that is treated as an employment contract the only reason you enlist is for something like the Sidney the therapist in mash …where your treating people in a war zone or so I was told … especially with some of the sign in bonuses that they were offered ta one time it was something like a 30k bonus and “limited basic training” for people who were in various mental health services
what surprises me is he didn’t get something like KP or clean up to do while he was there
fixed version : I could see that happening since something like that is treated as an employment contract or so I was told … especially with some of the sign in bonuses that they were offered ta one time it was something like a 30k bonus and “limited basic training” for people who were in various mental health services the only reason you enlist is for something like the Sidney the therapist in mash …where your treating people in a war zone
what surprises me is he didn’t get something like KP or clean up to do while he was there
The military has a procedure for that situation. Normally they will offer you some MOS that is similar if available or a diffrent bonus-eligible MOS if you qualify, or a number of other options. One of those options is discharge from service with no further obligations or benefits. The service member will request one of the options and then the command will follow the regulations. That is, the command will follow the regs if the CO wants to keep his career intact. The way the recruit was handled in Asuka’s post would be a CO’s end of career now and it would have been during my time in service. A lot of other people in the chain of command would be going down, too.
KP cannot be used as punishment or “holding action”, either. That makes sense.
I have a cousin who was a trombone player and specifically joined the Navy to be in the Navy band. He says his basic was very easy except he was pudgy and they made him diet. If I recall correctly he got a big sign-in bonus. He also had to audition.
ETA to answer the OP, I think you’re probably contractually obligated til they cut you loose.
I enlisted in the Navy in September, 1970, and have never heard of anything like an enlistment “contract” except on television and such (despite dialogue spouted by many alleged actors on MAS*H–officers are not “enlisted”, but rather either “commissioned” or “warranted” to their duty). My enlistment was predicated on a favorable score on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and the fact I had some college hours, and the Navy did exactly what was promised by my recruiter. Fifty-one months after I took the oath of enlistment I was released from active duty, exactly in accordance with the 3-month extension to which I agreed after I was assigned to the fleet as an Electrician’s Mate striker and subsequently accepted assignment to the Armed Forces School of Music as a student trainee.
I was eighteen when I enlisted. An eighteen-year old couldn’t then (and likely cannot now) engage in a “contract”. As I understand it, I could then (and can now) engage in an “agreement”. And, yes, my “agreement” might have terminated with my final breath in a nasty place such as Vietnam. So I will happily call “BULL-CRAP” on the whole “enlistment contract” idea. End.
Although an eighteen-year old couldn’t enter into a contract in 1970, they certainly COULD today. The change is generally considered to have taken place concurrently with the ratification of the 26th amendment in July, 1971.
Also, I entered the Navy under an enlistment contract in 1980.
My nephew in a similar situation to the OP’s example got an Enlistment Level Discharge. I was a bit concerned that it would hamper his future prospects when it turned up in background checks, but my sister did the research on this, and concluded that it would not.
He went on to get a degree in Computer Science from a very prestigious University and now works on Wall Street.
For what? The scenario in the OP seems completely plausible, and the restriction to post sounds reasonable, considering the recruit’s status. What do you feel the commander did wrong?
It is not dereliction of duty to forbid an initial entry soldier from leaving post. The soldier in the OP actually has more freedoms than his peers, not less. Where is the problem? This is still how the Army conducts business. A soldier in this situation would probably be give an off-post pass on the weekend, with instructions to return by 2100 or something, but mostly it would happen just like in the OP. That soldier is not going to be allowed to leave post or even drive a car. He’s going to stay in a hold-over barracks or available room until he finishes out-processing.
What am I missing?
Cite? I find it hard to believe that there is any jurisdiction in the United States where an 18 year old can’t engage in a contract. At what age do contracts become legally binding, then?
It is a contract. You can’t just call “BULL-CRAP” and change what words mean.
What the OP describes sounds weird to me. Regardless of his future in the military, until he recieves orders changing his current status, he is assigned to a specific unit. Those ncos and officers of that unit are responsible for him and his well being.
When my wife graduated AIT the system burped and she had no orders returning her to her home station. She stayed at her training unit, got up for reveille, did pt with the recruits and then sat in the office all day doing minor clerical work for two weeks from 9 to 5. The only change to where she slept was to be moved out of the bay and into one of the private rooms normally reserved for cadre.
She did have more freedom to travel around and even go off post after duty hours, but she did have a 2330 curfew imposed by her 1SG as well.
That’s like what happened to me when I graduated from ET “A” school in 1981. Instead of going to Orlando in March, I spent the spring in Great Lakes, inserting bugs in SPS-10 radar sets for the next class of ETs to try to figure out.
That’s like what happened to me when I graduated from ET “A” school in 1981. Instead of going to Orlando in March, I spent the spring in Great Lakes, inserting bugs in SPS-10 radar sets for the next class of ETs to try to figure out.
But since it wasn’t boot camp, liberty was my own time, and curfew was determined by what time Rik’s bar closed.