His unit is a gigantic clusterfuck. Nothing like the Army I was in.

Anyway, he was supposed to ETS on the 10th, they kept bullshitting him and brushing him off as it seemed no one wanted to work. I told him to get his ass to IG and get shit moving. He did  and they didn't give  him his clearing papers TWO  days after his ETS date. He is still working with thema and IG breathing fire on his chain of commands ass but Finance said fuck you, we stopped paying you on the 10th, though shit.

I remember back when I was in they paid you extra if you were kept past your ETS. Do they still do that?

ETA He said they he will get back paid 7-10 days AFTER he clears finance. WTF? I remember getting a check on my final day and a check for all my unpaid leave along with a plane ticket home.

Allegedly they will repay him for moving his household goods home. Dont they cover cost of travel to home of record as well?

I feel so bad that his Army experience was so shit. He wanted to be a soldier ever since he was a kid and 9/11 happened.

Sounds like something happening to a young soldier here in Vilseck Germany.

The only reason I remember them being able to keep you past your ETS was if you were under criminal investigation.  He isn't and the E7 at IG was almost in shock that he still had not received his clearing paperwork at that time.

ETA wow they are mad he went to IG, they are trying to fuck him now.  SEp code  says failed to meet min standards or some shit. He was not being chaptered or anything. They fucked up and had him miss his ETS and are and are now trying to fuck him because he went to IG.

Wow hope he gets IG to light them up.

I don't often recommend this, but it's also time for a letter to his Congressman & Senators.  All three. He's got nothing to lose at this point.

Trying to screw someone with a bad reenlistment code for going to the IG is a reprisal, flat-out, and someone should be court-martialed for it.

There's also the Article 138 complaint process

Your kid needs to lawyer up. What base is he at? He cannot be given a FTMS discharge code if there is no corrobitive paperwork. Has he ever been given an Article 15 or continuous negative counselings?

That's called reprisal and is illegal as all hell.  He needs to take that shit right to the IG, let them know they are fucking with him and it will stop right quick.  If he gets no love from IG (those dickheads work for the same chain of command that he does, after all), go scorched earth and get the congressmen/senators involved.

Just the mere threat of going to the national press with a story on how fucked up his unit is, should get him discharged in a day.

I separated under less than amicable conditions and the Sqdn CC decreed I should be given no help outprocessing.   After three days of getting nothing but bullshit and misdirection, I went to the orderly room, pulled a mini tape recorder from my briefcase, and told the NCOs I was going to the New York Times with all the dirt I had on the Wing’s upper echelon officers.   And then I left.

I’ll bet my CC shit his pants when he heard that.   I really did have a huge amount of info that would have ended the careers of a dozen 0-4s, 0-5s and 0-6s.  

Next day at 8am there was a neat list of all the actions needed to outprocess, people to meet, signatures required, etc.    Took me about 4 hours to get it done.


I don't know if the IG system has improved, but years ago, all complaints sent to the IG were redirected to the base commander, who sent it down to the unit commander, who quickly proclaimed it as merit-less, case closed, then proceeded to destroy the guy who initiated it.   Complaining to a congressman back then would take years for any action to be taken.

The IG is still worthless, but congressionals still pucker assholes like almost nothing else.

Sorry for lack of updates. He is out. Full honorable, no flags and shit. He did still get fucked out of the pay for the extra time he was in though but he was tired of fighting and it was affecting his wife and they have a  baby. The money owed wasn't worth the stress on his family. He said all the NCO's were blaming each other and whining like bitches but he got cleared.

I feel bad, he always wanted to serve and loved hearing me and my buddies tell stories about our time in and he hoped it would be close. He liked being a soldier but absolutely HATED the shitbag NCO corps thats in there now. "Fat lazy backstabbing self serving pieces of shit" he considers them.  He said many were career e5's and E6's. Guys that didnt and wouldnt progress past those ranks and held their positions in perpetuity. When I was in dudes like that were drummed out. NCO's took care of their troops and were always wanting to progress. Maybe its because I was infantry? He was arty.

His service is something that while he does not regret it, he feels very little pride and fulfillment from, his service.

Glad to hear it worked out for him. I really thought after 9/11 things would get better but they didn't. Seemed like it got worse regardless of unit or MOS.

FA in the active Army often has shitty NCOs that share a Masonic link amongst other connections.