Wanting out

[abrasive]

What is the name of your state? WA

I joined the guard about a year and a half ago... almost two years. I joined for the college money if you can believe stupid people still do that. Anyway, I've already been through basic and done one tour in Iraq (north of Baghdad). There is a very real chance that they'll be trying to send my state over again before my ETS date. I've got a huge amount of pride in my state but very little in my federal government. I've done everything up to here without any problems. I just don't want to have anything to do with the military ever again. The more I think about it the more depressed I get.

I don't know what to do. I'm not so depressed that I can't function but I'm not even sure I could pass a psych eval if I answered honestly.

I don't want to spend another year away from my wife and kid. I'd like some honest help without being called a wimp or a whiner.

 

[BelizeBreeze]

What is the name of your state? WA

I joined the guard about a year and a half ago... almost two years. I joined for the college money if you can believe stupid people still do that. Anyway, I've already been through basic and done one tour in Iraq (north of Baghdad). There is a very real chance that they'll be trying to send my state over again before my ETS date. I've got a huge amount of pride in my state but very little in my federal government. I've done everything up to here without any problems. I just don't want to have anything to do with the military ever again. The more I think about it the more depressed I get.

I don't know what to do. I'm not so depressed that I can't function but I'm not even sure I could pass a psych eval if I answered honestly.

I don't want to spend another year away from my wife and kid. I'd like some honest help without being called a wimp or a whiner.

Easy solution. Ask for a meeting with your Commanding Officer and when there, go up to him/her and say "Thank you for allowing me to serve" and then plant a big, juicy, wet kiss on his/her lips and be sure to offer generous tongue.

 

[badapple40]

Easy solution. Ask for a meeting with your Commanding Officer and when there, go up to him/her and say "Thank you for allowing me to serve" and then plant a big, juicy, wet kiss on his/her lips and be sure to offer generous tongue.

Doesn't work anymore. They'll dispatch CID to conduct an investigation into whether he is faking being a homosexual (especially with a wife and a kid).

Seriously:

Unless you go to the VA and get all sorts of psych evaluations stating that you are a nutball who has thoughts about hurting your chain of command, there is absolutely nothing you can do other than stock up on that body armor and prepare for another deployment.

 

[Davidzill]

Are you with the 81st Brigade? I joined that unit when I got out of the Marines when you guys were training for Iraq. I just came from Iraq so I wasn't going back. Let me tell you what, the NG is a rabid cluster *uck right now. They are so short on soldiers right now that to fill in for undermanned units, they are pulling soldiers from other units to deploy. No matter what their MOS is or if they just came back. I recieved a 3 day notice that I was going to Kosovo for 2 years, with a unit that knew about it for well over a year, in a differewnt MOS, and luckily I got out of it. They will make you whatever MOS they want and you probably won't recieve training in it, that's why so many National Gaurdsmen are dying in Iraq; because you can't make a 45 year-old obese cook an infantry squad leader without years of training to be ready for a war. My advise to you: before doing something stupid and having a general discharge with an unfavorable RE-code, start learning your rights, and yes people in the military have rights. My rights were blatinly violated, thats how I got out of the Kosovo deployment. They will go as far as to breach your contract on several different points, behind your back thinking you are stupid. It is up to you to prove the Guard wrong. Know proper procedures for Inspector General complaints, and don't be affraid to contact your congressman or woman, just follow proper SOP through your chain of command, I.E. let them know you are going to call your senator.

 

[abrasive]

Hey Davidzill, I think a great deal of my disinterest in the military comes from how retarded things were over there. Not only am I in the 81st Brigade but I ended up under their headquarters for the deployment. It was sad watching the way people were treated. I was stationed at a small FOB where no one was supposed to be stationed for more than approximately 20 days for 8 months. I watched military trained optometrists assuming infantry positions. I'm just completely disgusted with the military as I've seen it and everyone around me has told me it's not going to get any better. Commanders who are jokes recieved bronze stars. 1SGs who abandoned all of their responsibilities to their troops to be the gunners for random convoys.

I don't feel like my recruiter lied to me - I know better. I do feel like the military is a joke. The national guard has put me in contact with some of the worse leaders I've ever seen in my life and shown me the definition of "ineffective." I did not believe that they could be this messed up and still appear to function to the casual observer.

 

[rmet4nzkx]

The Psych card won't work and would defeat the reason you joined, you did realize that there was a possibility of war and deployment. You will have to work with the system. If you somehow qualified for psych discharge you would lose your education rights.

 

[abrasive]

Education rights?

rmet4nzkx - "If you somehow qualified for psych discharge you would lose your education rights"

You must be talking about my Veterans benefits... Because the National Guard benefits are only good while I'm in the guard anyway. That's one of the parts I'm bitter about. If we redeploy when they're proposing I'll only managae to use maybe 2 years of my education benefits in a 6 year contract and I won't have even the full GI Bill to take with me when I get out.

 

[Davidzill]

When is the Brigade's proposed re-deployment date? I get out August 2007, I will be damned If I get stop lossed by then for this Iraq debacle, because I am planning on going into the navy after I get my degree, and the cutoff date for the program I am going into is 28, and they aren't too keen on age waivers. This will be interesting.

 

[abrasive]

Davidzill - "When is the Brigade's proposed re-deployment date?"

I've heard a bunch of different tentative dates but none can be confirmed any more than any others. I've heard as early as '07 but the Tacoma News Tribune JUST printed an article that places the next deployment in 2010... I may be worrying for nothing when it comes to another year deployed but I wanted to poll the audience about getting out of the retarded guard before I gave up.

I think I'm going to explore my options with the local MI unit and see if there's anything interesting that they cover.

Thank you all for your help.