Question about military general discharge

[jack crab]

There are punitive and administrative discharges.

Punitive discharges are part of the punishments awarded at special or general courts martial. Special courts martial can only award Bad Conduct Discharges. General courts martial can award BCD and dishonorable discharges.

Administrative discharges can be honorable, general, or other than honorable. They can be either voluntary or involuntary. In some instances, an admin sep hearing must be held.

Each service has a separations manual. The USMC has the MARCORSEPMAN at http://dd214.us/reference/MARCORSEPMAN.pdf.

[jack crab]

All good info here everyone. Thank you! I’ll definitely have more questions as time goes on. My next question: GD isn’t something that one could get blindsided by is it? That is, you’re in the service for maybe a few years, you’ve had a couple minor screw ups that you’ve had minor punishment for (write ups, maybe some extra duty) but other than that, everything seems ok and you think you’re going to get out with an honorable discharge. Then the day comes to leave and you’re informed you’re only getting general under honorable conditions because, due to a combination of your minor issues and the fact that you were average at best all the other times, so this is the best they can do.

Without going through the regulations, I would guess that if the service was trying to characterize a member's service as general under honorable conditions that either counseling etc. would precede the separation, or a hearing at an admin sep board would be required. It would not be a surprise as you hand in your completed check out sheet.

A member can petition for separation with a general discharge, or a member can waive a hearing they are otherwise entitled to and get a general, e.g., separation in lieu of court martial. But, again, the member can foresee this coming.

[Averageman]

Thanks again, that guy was whipping my ass.

Not a problem, if you'll remember, Top used to say "We're Soldiers, we never leave one of our own behind. If your Battle Buddy takes a beating and you come back here without a mark on you, your A$$ is mine."
I kind of reminded him about that in the parking lot at the MP Station. He explained I wasn't in trouble for the fight, or trying to save my Buddy, I was in trouble for getting caught.
I felt really bad about letting him down, he really was like a second Father to me.

I was smart enough to take my punishment, stfu and get on with my extra duty which was working on an ammo pad carrying 105 mm crates for the rest of transition gunnery. I was ostracized and working with the REMF's on that ammo pad so long that I felt pretty bad about the whole thing.
I apologized to the Staff Sergeant several times afterwards.

In retrospect I was really lucky to get a chance to make amends and gain my rank back and get the bar to reenlistment dropped.

[BoringGuy45]

Ok, so I let this thread drop a few pages (been busy for awhile).

So, the character in my book, as I said, has a general under honorable discharge. Now, the book is not about his military service; it's just part of his background. He's a nice guy who works hard and means well, but he keeps getting himself into jobs where he is ill suited and always seems to find himself under the supervision of cold hearted, impossible to please supervisors who, as George Costanza put it, fire people like it's a bodily function. What are some situations where a guy who does the best he can and never does anything morally or legally wrong, can screw up so bad that his commander would essentially "fire" him from the service? Like, is there a situation would a commander call this guy into the office and say, "Look, Private, I hate to do this, because you're a nice guy and you obviously work your ass off. But the fact that you work as hard as you do and still fail so hard tells me that there's nothing we can do to get you where you need to be. So, we're going to have to discharge you, and the best I do is characterize your discharge as general under honorable conditions."

[OH58D]

Had a soldier at Fort Campbell once who was an E4 MOS 15V (aircraft mechanic) in my battalion. He kept going AWOL for short periods of time - the last was 12 days. Got kicked out with an "Other Than Honorable" Discharge. He was good at his job...when on-duty and a nice guy. Problem was he was a boozer and had women problems.

[sgtrock82]

Ok, so I let this thread drop a few pages (been busy for awhile).

So, the character in my book, as I said, has a general under honorable discharge. Now, the book is not about his military service; it's just part of his background. He's a nice guy who works hard and means well, but he keeps getting himself into jobs where he is ill suited and always seems to find himself under the supervision of cold hearted, impossible to please supervisors who, as George Costanza put it, fire people like it's a bodily function. What are some situations where a guy who does the best he can and never does anything morally or legally wrong, can screw up so bad that his commander would essentially "fire" him from the service? Like, is there a situation would a commander call this guy into the office and say, "Look, Private, I hate to do this, because you're a nice guy and you obviously work your ass off. But the fact that you work as hard as you do and still fail so hard tells me that there's nothing we can do to get you where you need to be. So, we're going to have to discharge you, and the best I do is characterize your discharge as general under honorable conditions."

In my experience, at least when I served (96-00), this situation you put forth would probably never occur. You couldnt just bumble your way out of the army, it took a serious effort or truck loads of IDGAF to do this. We had some serious shitbags doing shitty things and it took an act of god to get them anything more serious than an article 15. Usually they got promoted and then reenlisted 6 years PDA. I wish I was kidding about that but apparently thats all the army cared about, retention. And PMCS sheets.

My take away was that if one got tossed from the military (after basic training etc) then one was likely an authentic shitbag.

Also consider the time period you want your guy discharged. When I served, late 90s enlistments were low, as was retention so getting tossed took a serious POS. Same goes for the alot of the GWOT, especially the early 2000s, they waived all sorts of malfeasance. Now we are sort of in a draw down, talking about smaller leaner forces (yet again!) I bet getting discharged is a bit easier as It was after the first gulf war in 91.

Additional thought: I seem to recall there being situations where you would get a "general" discharge or something similarly vague that would then be upgraded to an honorable discharge after 6 months, I assume as long as you stayed out of prison. Its been so long since I thought about it I forgot the details, maybe someone else can add.

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[Todd00000]

We had a guy who repeated failed his PT test - on purpose most likely - and he received a general discharge.

Unable to train and medical problems are the main ways to get a general.

[czgunner]

I had an E5 that was discharged for having sleep apnea. I think it was general, but it may have been medical.

[CPM]

I urinated in my battalion commander’s fireplace, extinguishing all of the candles his wife had placed there(the old houses at Ft. Riley are prohibited from making an actual fire, so she put 20 candles in it on stands of varying heights). I did this while making eye contact with his wife. I woke up on a mattress in his basement and he made me coffee in the morning. This was in 2009, immediately following a 12 month deployment to Mahmudiyah, Iraq. I received an honorable discharge.

[BoringGuy45]

Unable to train.

What would that entail?