The Other Than Honorable Discharge used to be called Undesirable Discharge. I think the Entry Level Separation thing has been added in the past thirty years. So you’ll have to do some historical research to see what was in effect for the time period you’re using.
I kinda like SSG Schwartz’ suggestion of using a Personality Disorder. 'Twould make for a more interesting character.
I just looked at my copy of DSM-IV and his suggestions for either Narcisstic or Borderline (or both) would probably work best for a Walter Mitty-sort. (While flipping through the book my eye caught something called Sexual Aversion Disorder [p. 499]. Now that would be interesting. . . .)
The character in question is supposed to be a liar and a sadist, so NPD might work well. However, he is supposed to be off everyone’s radar (i.e., he hasn’t been caught yet). He is also supposed to be kind of dumb, but I don’t know if that can dovetail with his other personality traits.
The year 1990 preceded the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy. The thing is, though, even if this other dude were guy, maybe the LCPO just didn’t appeal to him. I wouldn’t assume that Penélope Cruz was a lesbian just because she wouldn’t sleep with me on demand.
During my basic training as Ft. Leonard Wood, flunkers were just recycled. If they were recycled too often, or couldn’t get back before their “split option” guarantee date, then they were let go.
During AIT (which I did in Ft. Gordon, GA), I couldn’t imagine anyone being able to live in the barracks for 30 days, skip class and PT, and not have one of the company drill sergeants looking to kick his (not literally) every night.
Balthisar, I did say it preceded DADT. I meant to show that simply announcing homosexuality wasn’t always enough to one drummed out. Not that I thought it was a fair test.
If you don’t get promoted on schedule, you can be discharged. It’s called the “up or out” policy. I once met a guy who had been discharged from the navy for failing to make E-2. (He didn’t seem like an idiot, but jeez! Most people qualify for E-2 or E-3 before they even finish boot camp!)
I understand that recruiters these days have to be pretty honest, but in an earlier time, it is hard to believe, but they lied.
The old joke we used to tell while I was in the Army was, “Do you know how to tell if an Army recruiter is Lying? See if his lips are moving. If they are, he’s lying.”
I heard that when the army movie, “Private Benjamin” came out there was actually a congressional investigation launched regarding some of the untruths shared with Goldie Hahn’s character by the recruiter to see if they were representitive of comments a recruiter might really make. They weren’t known for the veracity.
Oh yeah. I could easily have ended up Navy, Marine or Air Force but the only recruiter who wasn’t handing me ridiculously obvious bullshit was the Army recruiter. Army it was then. Proud of it.
(although those Airforce guys had it good, damn it.)
Still I highy doubt the military ever had a policy of actually forcing soldiers to commit sodomy to prove that they were gay :dubious: . The LCPO had to either; had been bluffing as he himself would’ve been liabe for discharge & military prison, or in the closet himself and decided to take advantage of his subordinate.
One way out is drug use. With a little inventiveness the character can be found with drugs that were planted on him or something he picked up not knowing what it was. Then a routine dog sniffing patrol could find him. Normally new recruits get a “pass” on their first offense but it can work for a discharge with just one if they think you are selling. Frequently a “general” discharge is offered to save a courts martial.
Yes, I remember that, too. Someone also asked me to break his leg for him so he could get out. Sensibly, I refused.
OtakuLoki, at the time “I’m homosexual, I’m out” seemed pretty automatic to me: this was in Boot Camp, the Nav did not have a whole lot of time invested in us. Vietnam had just wound down a couple of years before, and there was undoubtedly a surplus of warm bodies. We’d just converted from “Rocks and Shoals” to the UCMJ, too. Maybe everyone was trying extra hard to go by the book.
Perhaps someone with more exalted rank in the '70’s remembers differently?
“I joined the Navy to see the world. So what did I see? I saw the sea.”
In the book Jarhead which I belive is generally fairly accurate for the USMC from 1988-1992 or so, the author describes several people trying to exit the Marines by going up to a commanding officer and declaring, “I’m gay,” to get booted and this strategy was univerally met with laughter and an order to return to wherever they were supposed to be.
Basically, just claiming to be gay wasn’t enough. If you were factually gay and somehow willing to demonstrate this by producing former sexual partners, photographic evidence, etc. that could get you booted but just claiming to be gay to leave the service wasn’t sufficient.
I don’t believe the event I saw was in any way policy.
What I believe would have happened, had the guy who made the announcement stepped forward out of ranks, the LCPO would have stopped him, and told him to go to his office, and the paperwork would have been processed to begin a discharge. As it was, it was the simply (so I believe) the easiest way for the LCPO to deal with what he suspected was a false declaration from someone who wanted out.
AFAIK the sailor in question finished training, reported to his ship, and served out his time.
This kid had more issues than National Geographic. The Drill Sergeants knew where he was, hell, they did head count every night, but he was safer there on post at Fort Gordon than he would have been trying to hitchhike home. He had no money due to the Article 15’s and stupid purchases he had made. The 1SG let him be. I guess she figured he had a reason for sticking around.
It has to be a Personality Disorder to get you kicked out. SAD would just get you made fun of in today’s Army.
No, that generally means they don’t get in. Actually, paranoid schizophrenia would get you medically discharged. A personality disorder would get you kicked out. This would result in different benefits WRT discharge type.
How about something like a couple of petty thefts. Things not big enough that they’d want to go through the hassle of a court martial, just enough that they decide it isn’t worth having you around any longer. If it didn’t go on record somewhere (“You’ll take this discharge and we won’t say anything further about it”) he could leave and apply elsewhere. And it would seem to fit in with the type of person the character is.
Not very likely in the real world. A pattern of misconduct would get you put out, and what constitutes a pattern is a gray area, but it would usually not be that the leadership chose not to pursue a court martial.
My brother in law was put out of the Navy during basic training. This was in the very early '80s. He got an Entry Level Separation, although it may have been called something else at that time. He simply couldn’t get squared away – he wouldn’t follow orders, argued with the recruits who were in charge, and squabbled with his fellow recruits. He was just a general trouble maker and it was obvious he wasn’t ever going to get any better. So they sent him home. He was told that his separation was recorded as neither favorable nor unfavorable – the only thing was that he was ‘flagged’ in such a way as to prevent him from ever again enlisting in the Navy, or any other service. Other than that, it was as if he had never enlisted at all. This type of separation wouldn’t show up on a basic criminal check, I wouldn’t think. Maybe on a check for a security clearing above a certain level.
How about an Entry-Level-Separation for Erroneous Enlistment? ie: He had some kind of medically disqualifying condition, but forgot/neglected to mention it to anyone while in-processing? I’ve known some folks who got separated from the Air Force for that in Basic.
