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Is it really possible to flunk basic training? What kind of discharge do you get? Why don’t more people do it?
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Yes, you can flunk Basic Training. You may fail to hit the minimum # of targets at the rifle range (Army/Marines – you are allowed a make-up test), fail the theoretical and practical skills tests, fail to pass the physical fitness test even after remedial PT, etc., etc.
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Not sure. Current ServiceDopers, help?
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Because it’s a volunteer force so people who show up are those who are already at least moderately motivated; because upon first flunking you ARE given a second chance around (recycled); and because really, it’s not rocket science.
Washing out of boot camp didn’t seem like a good thing to do. There was some poor chick in my company for less than 24 hours. How she passed her ASVAB I have no idea - she seemed to be borderline retarded. I was in CC103 and IIRC she had started out in CC75 - she had been kicked out of company after company for two months for stupid behavior.
That was a one-time thing, though. Another girl came up pregnant and it turned out someone else was allergic to the sun (lupus?). They both got medical discharges and were home within a week or so.
I don’t think the service is going to burn you for flunking out. I’d guess they’d do an admin separation, which doesn’t hurt you like a dishonorable or other than honorable would.
Lord, yes. We had a guy in my basic training flight in the Air Force who couldn’t hack the confidence course. He was held back from our flight and put into another one a couple of days behind us in training. For the next couple of weeks (until my flight graduated and I went off to tech school,) we would usually see him dragging his stuff from one dorm to another as he again failed the confidence course. I don’t know whatever became of him.
Washing out of basic is (or was) not necessary in the Air Force. If you found that you weren’t cut out for the AF, you told your TI (training instructor,) that you wanted out and then spent a couple of days in training waiting for the paperwork to process, and then you were discharged (general discharge, if I remember) and sent home. They didn’t want you if you didn’t want to be in. They did try to make sure that you really weren’t suited for the AF and try to convince you to stay, but it really wasn’t necessary to resort to tricks to get out.
Our “brother flight” had a guy who tried to claim he was homosexual to get out. That turned into a real mess.
My flight had a clown who threw a fit on the second day of training and demanded to be sent home immediately. He spoke to the TI first, who told him that it would take a couple of days to process things and get him released and that in the mean time he should just relax and go along with the training program. The guy flipped out and called the TI names and demanded to see the squadron commander - and stalked out with out permission to go and see him. He did find the commander, and I expect he even got to talk to him. He had plenty of time to, after all. He got held in the ready room of the squadron and was not allowed to go anywhere. They processed the paperwork to get him released, but they took their time about it. Until he was released, we had to account for his sorry ass at every roll call - which we did until a couple of days before the flight graduated. That was the day they sent him home.
From what I remember a recruit is not in the Navy (or other military branch) until graduation from bootcamp, therefore he/she can at quit anytime.
Nowadays in the Navy after passing their physical screening exam in bootcamp male recruits will go to their MOS schools and then they have a chance to go to Coronado.
Yeah, I see it.:smack:
Nametag, when my old man blew his Navy scholarship in the late '50s, he was still required to serve his summers off, but he wasn’t busted in rank (though there’s not many places to go south from midshipman). I don’t know if it was punishment or not, but one summer they sent him off to Marine basic training.
Then, when he graduated college, he became eligible for the draft and the Army picked him up within a matter of months.
He’s still pissed about that.