• Sailor Diagnosed With Depression, Kicked Out of Navy, Saddled With Massive Debt
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‘We take care of each other Mental illness cost him his career and the government's been taking his money ever since. A diagnosis of major depression cost him his nuclear clearance and led to an honorable discharge in 2015, but instead of a mental health disability, the Navy cited weight control failure as the cause. Because of that, the government started recouping more than $64-thousand dollars from the unearned portion of his reenlistment bonus. The debt collection didn't stop at $64-thousand. According to figures provided by the Duszynski's to FOX 6 News, the government has taken nearly $42,000 in severance pay, $31,000 in disability benefits, $13,000 in wage garnishments and $20,000 in tax refunds -- more than $106,000 total. And a collection agency says they still owe $20,000 more. I serve on the same ship he used to. I can tell you this kind of thing is disgustingly common in the US Navy. Also, it's pretty bullshit because weight control isn't something you can be kicked out for anymore. You just get mandatory exercise. There's a goFundMe for this man, set up by another shipmate of his. Feel free to help. https://www.gofundme.com/5lbww54
Really makes you wonder what that 520+ billion a year military budget actually goes to.
Mostly companies who make fancy toys that rarely see the light of day.
Someone's gotta pay for all the B2's that never get used.
Certainly not the people that actually risk losing their lives
R&D for more efficient ways of killing people that won't be used because of being too expensive to deploy in the end.
Sent by the weapons megacompanies to some shady offshore banks to avoid taxes, stored there never to be seen again. That and the pockets of the CEOs.
It is sad to hear this news. My prayers go out to him.
I'm glad his shipmates are helping him at the least. A little bright spot of camaraderie in the midst of all that government bullshit.
Yeah and this is one of the few reasons why the military has a suicide problem. Go and talk about your issues and you get shafted.
This is a cultural problem for America in general.
This isn't anything new. Back during the start of the draw down I saw them kicking guys out left and right after being diagnosed with depression under administrative separations for "failure to adapt". That basically screwed everyone out of better health care (they still got the VA, but have to pay for it) as well as any disability pay. I never understood paying the severance back either, I got 10k severance and I had to pay it all back out of my disability. The whole thing is fucky as hell. As we sat in the Corps, the green weenie will fuck you one way or another, even long after you got out.
No, this is more standard fuckery. He wasn't depressed until after he joined. The more detailed article is here. And we have a similar saying about the "long dick of the Navy" fucking everybody eventually.
the military industrial complex mostly. like the navy could have bought 72 LCS's of one type, instead they built two different ships for the same mission, essentially cutting the scale of industry in half, and more than doubling the cost. and the really sad part is its not really helped our domestic manufacturing any, china is a sole supplier of a scary amount of important raw materials for entirely too many industries but we keep focusing on the wrong things and don't have any of those defense dollars going to maintain US capability in the upstream of the supply chain.
I just hope that the newer weapons will cost fewer lives overall. I'm playing the devils advocate a bit here, but better weapons have probably saved millions of lives. Imagine if nuclear bombs were never invented, would there have been anything to suggest that the west wouldn't have engaged in a load of head on confrontations?
If you follow headlines closely, whenever the budget goes up nothing changes for your average soldier/Marine whatever, whenever it's cut the Pentagon just 'fires' thousands of military members and cuts benefits.
So they've basically told him to kill himself without actually telling him to do so.
This is one day going to bite someone in the ass if they push someone going through a similar case too far. It wouldn't be the first time someone with a weapon lashed out at those they perceived as being responsible.
People might get poopy about this, but this is one side of the story. He may have told the Navy that he was depressed because of factors brought on by his failure to maintain weight standards. When you are out of standards, life gets more difficult. You have to attend a fitness improvement program which is basically extra PT at very inconvenient times. You are generally looked down upon because it's one of the easier things to control, yet you are failing to do it, so you get passed up for the good evals. I have seen cases like this before, a guy does nothing but play video games and eat pizza all day, fails the physical evaluation, then gets all poopy blaming the command for his situation even though it was brought upon himself. He got a ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND dollar reenlistment bonus. That's a 100k promise that you'll fulfill your contract. The Navy very recently removed the ability to be seperated due to weight standards. It isn't out of the realm of possibility that maybe he was failing PRTs hoping to get out, this new instruction revision released preventing that, and he resorted to depression as his ticket out. The Navy expects the money he promised his service for back. I'm not taking the Navy's side because the Navy can be a big bunch of cunts sometimes. Just keep in mind, sailors try to pull all kinds of bullshit to game the system. Sometimes they get caught, sometimes they get away with it. You're only hearing one side of the story. As a submariner who works with nuclear qualified individuals all the time, the picture I painted happens much more frequently than actual depression.
You ain't wrong in the hypothetical (I've seen that play out), but I can guarantee you that this is not the case here.
I have little sympathy for nukes. They are told from the get-go that their pipeline and job sucks dick. It's pretty crazy how people act like the Navy is some big bad evil guy for wanting its money back from someone who did not fulfill their end of the bargain. If I tell you I will work for you for 6 years in exchange for 100k up front and I decide 2 years in that I want out of the deal for whatever reason, you have every right to ask for that money back. It's a shitty case for him, and I'm not saying he deserves it, but these are the kinds of things people should think about before they start down paths that lead to separation. We got a guy who goes to a stress management "sad school" once a week to deal with his issues, there's a lot of avenues sailors can go down and a lot of help they can get before separation becomes the solution, things he should have known about as a chief. I guess the submarine community is more cutthroat though, maybe that's why my viewpoint is different. We don't have the time nor manpower to tolerate someone who wants to push a button and be out of the Navy.
As a Marine Corps veteran I think I can say your views on how people should be treated is part of the problem, and why people have these issues in the first place. That whole "suck it up" mentality is why guys get like this, why my friends have killed themselves. I highly suggest you take some time to think about your position, this wasn't some boot crying cause it wasn't like call of duty.
Why the hell does our country treat both already enlisted folks and veterans like absolute dogshit? Obviously not every single person experiences this, but I've heard very very few positive stories that involve the phrases "US military" and "Healthcare".
I'm not saying they should suck it up, I'm saying they should get fucking help. Not just jump straight to, "I WANT OUT," the second they start to feel that way. There's a wealth of options and services available to people, and I have yet to meet someone who has explored those options and still feels like they can't continue on with the military. I have also had friends kill themselves, submarining comes with its own host of mental challenges, but the common denominator is almost always their lack of drive to get help. It's easy to misconstrue that and strawman it into me saying they deserved it or they should have sucked it up, but that's not at all what I'm saying. However, it's difficult to point the finger at Big Navy when Big Navy offers a lot of services they chose not to pursue. ESPECIALLY because he was a 17 year chief. It's EZPZ for guys like that to get some piss easy job at squadron or whatever to ride out the last years until retirement if they go the correct route. Pushing to get out is not the correct route, the Navy has no obligation to go above and beyond to support someone who is blatantly saying they do not want to finish the contract. However, if you pursue help and take advantage of what the Navy has to offer, it shows you have a commitment to fulfilling your contract, which is often enough to get Big Navy in your corner. Like I said, we have a "seaman timmy" who pursued those options and now the Navy is basically letting him coast with zero responsibility until the end of his contract. I am absolutely fucking positive plenty of people told this guy along the route to separation that he was going about it in a way that would lead to getting hammerfucked by the Navy. I am absolutely positive he was provided tons of information on programs and services he could take advantage of to get help with his mental issues. I am absolutely positive that as a 17 year chief, at some point he was told, "Just stay in and we will give you some easy desk job or something so you don't fuck your future self." It's hard to be filled with sympathy when someone is heavily warned of the potential consequences of their actions, yet goes through with it anyways.
Because of virtue signaling People want the high ground of pretending to care about our service members and then not come through on it when our troops need us the most. We absolutely have the means to take care of our guys but choose not to. After all they could care less about a soldier eating a gun as long as it doesn't cost them money or controversy.
But he got admin sep'd for being overweight? Neither article shows he agree'd to an admin sep for being overweight, nor did they make any mention of him refusing to join the weightloss program all services offer before even bringing an admin sep to the table. If he wanted to hit the the "I want out button" there's quicker routes than taking an admin sep for being fat, especially when he could have just as easily gotten out with a med sep for mental health. You're either making a lot of assumptions or have some info specific to this guy that you decided not to share with other people. I spent a solid 2 years in a medical separation platoon, as an e3 after seeing all the guys that went through I knew about every out you could take. If I, an E3, could figure that out do you really think an E7 3 years from retirement would fuck himself this hard just to get out? Especially when he's so close to retirement? To me it sounds a hell of a lot more like the DOD fucking yet again another person who needed help, but everyone knows its a hell of a lot cheaper to just kick them to the curb than pay a lifetimes worth of healthcare and benefits.
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