Navy can’t seem to do separations right
Lots of unhappy hoping-to-be ex-sailors out there about now. Back in the Stone age when I was thrown out, as part of the separation process I went to the personnel center on Ft. Bliss, they finalized my paperwork, a 71L typed up my DD-214 (wrong, but that’s another story) and I walked out a PFC (Proud Freakin’ Civilian) with my 214 in hand. As I recall, my total time including wait was about 2 hours.
Of course, the Navy had other ideas, and in 2016 decided to centralize all the separation personnel and support processes. They have been catching grief of late as kids are getting out of the Navy without all the proper paperwork, leaving said newly minted vets unable to be fully military OR fully civilian.
Caitlin, a recently discharged sailor, was on the phone and in tears. She had just found out that she was pregnant. But because the Navy had fouled up her discharge paperwork, she couldn’t get health care.
Staring at the prospect of becoming a parent without a way to cover the exorbitant cost of giving birth, Caitlin leveled with the woman on the other end of the phone when she called a central number for the military health care system. She thought she might be forced to do something she didn’t want to do: Get an abortion.
Caitlin, whose name has been changed out of fear of retaliation, couldn’t get health care as a civilian because, without a completed DD-214, the health care system saw her as still serving and covered by Tricare. And without a DD-214, she couldn’t go to the VA and access benefits from that agency.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Paul-Vincent Cuyugan, a sailor of 10 years, told Military.com that, without a DD-214, he can’t even start to move his wife and four children out of their four-bedroom home. The military said his move would cost around $15,000 but, since time was running out, he got a quote from a private mover. That number was around $30,000.
Cuyugan, like Michael, couldn’t get a move initiated for his family without his paperwork. That means he has been unable to move from South Carolina to California, a delay that may cost him his post-Navy job.
“I had everything prepped up last year and everything like that [so] when the time came it would be set in stone and then I could just get out,” he explained. He hasn’t even seen his separation orders, despite being on terminal leave for weeks.
Cuyugan said that even if he wanted to pay for a private move and get reimbursed by the Navy down the road, he can’t — he doesn’t have that kind of money. Meanwhile, his future employer in California has been understanding but told him that if he’s not able to start around the time they planned, they would have to find someone else for the role.
The Navy has been asked about this several times, and has repeatedly blamed sailors for submitting separation packages after its 60 day deadline.
Although the Navy has repeatedly pointed to delays by sailors as being the root of the problem, most of the service members that Military.com spoke to in researching this issue say they submitted their paperwork on or ahead of time. Those who had submitted late often described issues that were caused by mistakes made by those who received their paperwork.
Caitlin, for example, said that “even though I had my paperwork submitted well before the 60-day mark” before her separation– the Navy’s deadline to have everything processed on time — the person handling her discharge “sent it to Millington, instead of sending it to Norfolk, which put me behind.”
This confusion leaves sailors feeling that no amount of preparation is enough to shield them from the consequences of a discharge without a DD-214 or even separation orders.
Worth reading the article… the Navy claims it is throwing personnel and training at the problem and they hope to get caught up this month. I’d bet the other way…doubt I would get any takers.
Category: Morale, Navy, Pentagon, Support the troops
Unfortunately there are folks in the military tht don’t give a rats ass about you. When I enlisted in the navy reserve I was told that I would not start seeing my pay for a couple of months, After three months I asked and they said everyting was ok and I would paid the following month.
The next month same story but I went to the Senior Chief and explained my problem and it turned out I was not enetered into the system.
Gee, sounds like the admin at most VAs.
Let’s see……..what might be the common denominator here???
What a worthless, incompetent, bureaucratic canoe club the Navy has become. Definitely NOT the Navy in which I served.
Centralization of everything is progressive “social justice” way, comrade– they care about everyone equally; not at all! Is collective!
Yep- we had actual support folks who deployed with the squadron. They went TAD to various organizations on the base for just these reasons.
Interesting.
“BIG NAVY BATTLES BIG BACKLOG IN UNPROCESSED DD 214S”
https://www.coffeeordie.com/big-navy-dd214-backlog
“Satterwhite warned that roughly 70% of the corrections to personnel records currently arrive after sailors have gone on terminal leave.”
“He’s urging sailors and their commands to turn in all separation paperwork at least 60 days before they’re slated to exit active duty so that they can start that process immediately.”
“That’s not happening now. Satterwhite pointed Coffee or Die to five transactions for separations that popped up on June 30. The sailors left active duty on June 29.”
“And so now we were jumping quickly to catch up on that make sure we’re taking care of that sailor,” Satterwhite said.”
“But the commander of the sea service’s MyNavy Career Center in Millington, Tennessee, also told Coffee or Die Magazine his staffers were fixing the backlog glitch so that, by the end of September, it would never happen to another sailor.”
I better check my DD214…I might still be serving after 46 years.
They gonna owe me a LOT of money.
Funny.
I passed the MM3 test before I was separated but never received the crow and when I received the paperwork folder with the DD-214 in it, it had FN E-4 on it and when I started the inactive Reserve weekend drills, it was straightened out and I was able to wear the Crow on my dungarees, blues and whites. I never put the MM-3 crow on my ships base ball cap until I got onto the TAH site and had help from Admin. Thanks Ed.
This sucks, and I have seen/experienced back personal sections in my 20 years in the Corps (its amazing how S-1 is ALWAYS ‘training’ when you need something done…), but how much of this is genuine bureaucracy and how much of it is “piss poor planning on your part doesn’t constitute an emergency on MY part?”
Poor Caitlin: she’s out of the Navy, no insurance, and can’t afford the exorbitant cost to give birth? Every state has Medicaid and it will cover prenatal care for HER AND medical coverage for her child. The girl has the time to cry and whine, but she can’t do research for herself to find alternative means to cover her health care? Depending on where she lives, a LOT of states are still on a COVID waiver and pretty much taking a client’s statement as gospel when it comes to pertinent facts (income, residence, etc…).
Poor Michael: he can’t get the government to move him and it could cost 30K. I moved out of a 4 bedrorom house with 3 kids. I rented a truck, paid some buddies with pizza and beer and got the truck loaded in about 2 hours. Drove 3 states away, had family and friends meet me there and repeated the process. The most expensive aspect was fueling the truck. Would it suck to drive cross country with how much gas is? YES. Would it cost 30K? NO. You need to move and the government let you down? Find alternative means bro. You got a job locked on….get it done.
I blame a lot of this on the generation serving and how they had everything HANDED to them.
Yep. “The Navy is supposed to do that”.
The Navy is supposed to teach self reliance, self direction, and self discipline too. I guess they failed all the way around.
“If we wanted you to have a DD-214, we woulda issued you one!”
Another excuse that future phonies can use.
More examples on Big Navy not being able to complete something successfully. You know, like traversing a shipping lane with running into something…keeping billion dollar aircraft on a flight deck…a gridiron competition in mid-December…you get the idea.
Yeesh, I knew the Navy was bad when I left, but this is freaking inexcusable. I got out right before they started doing this.
Somehow my sympathy for Caitlin is extremely limited. Talk to the father.
And a PO3 (E4) who can afford a four bedroom home and four children? “How are we going to have to move by ourselves while having three kids under the age of four?” Michael wondered out loud, before adding, “All this added stuff that we shouldn’t have to think about … the Navy was just supposed to do that.”
Somebody tell me again how the all-volunteer military has higher standards than a draftee military–I can use a laugh.
I don’t like painting with a broad brush….but given the fact the PO3 is separating after 10 years and only advanced to E-4 along with his comments are pretty much a dead give away the young man has no ambition.
As for young Caitlin: one has to assume she can FIND the father. I proposed above that she apply for Medicaid as the program has easy income guidelines (i.e. almost NONE) when it comes to prenatal/newborn care and coverage. But…heaven forbid these kids show any initiative or ambition when it comes to breaking the seal from the government teat.