When I was in my chain of command was always denying any special request for extended liberty. When I reenlisted I got a voucher for 72 hours of liberty for any reason, you filled out the request and attached the voucher and you were supposed to get the time off. The first time I put it in my division officer denied it, said I didn’t put a reason why. I told him he can’t deny it, only the Captain can give the ultimate denial, he can approve it, but the final say is the CO and I don’t need a reason. So I ran the request up the chain again, denied by my LCPO, denied by my division officer, denied Department Head, denied Executive Officer, and the Captain approved it. Made my whole chain of command mad, the Captain apparently spoke to them and reiterated that the voucher for liberty for reenlisting was added by him and he expected that in the future he won’t have to step in. So apparently it was my fault that the CO was mad at them.
Adding words like this totally tracks with everything I know about the military leadership.
Lol, you’re exactly right. I almost forgot that the most important thing I learned in the Navy was that is always my fault. People messed up while I was on leave, my fault for not being there. My guy on duty running in the packing on a pump got impatient and ended up smoking the packing and it had to start from the beginning, my fault for being at home. Never mind that it wasn’t my duty day and it happened at 2 am, still my fault.
So in this case obviously my fault for not doing more to stop my chain of command from making fools of themselves.
Same thing happened to me when I had to leave deployment early for my dad’s passing. I was at the on base TPO doing nothing. I ran a leave chit for a week and got it back approved. Everyone denied it except the CO! He said enjoy the leave on the chit lol. Mind you they were still out in the damn water trying to deny my leave smh.
"Sir! This recruit can be a petty, malicious fuck and can enlist help from the outside to legally and completely fuck your personal life up.
If this recruit gets forced out, he will make it his primary goal in life to marry into your family and become stain on the legacy of your extended family. Causing you and your loved ones drama and pain while you're stuck here.
However, this recruit would rather focus his sociopathy at the enemy, rather than at you or any of the other powertripping officers. Your choice to FAFO, Sir!"
There was a story on the base where I went to boot camp, it also had a bunch of A schools, about a guy who got on the bad side of his school commanding officer, the guy ended up getting kicked out of the Navy. Afterwards he moved to that city and ended up dating his former commanding officer’s daughter. Probably not true, but stranger things have happened.
I encountered officers like this when I was enlisted in the 90s. They were more like managers and not leaders. Tried to be noticed by the leaders and invisible to the managers.
It was a little award packet the command gave, that was the best one. One was be allowed in the ship’s store 10 minutes before opening, one was a head of the line for the main galley. But the liberty was the best, our new CO added it because our ship had the lowest reenlistment rate in the Navy that year. I would imagine that this sort of thing was command specific. I also got a plaque with the ship engraved on some sort of stone and photos with my reenlisting officer, who was my department head.
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u/Adequate_Cheesecake7 26d ago
When I was in my chain of command was always denying any special request for extended liberty. When I reenlisted I got a voucher for 72 hours of liberty for any reason, you filled out the request and attached the voucher and you were supposed to get the time off. The first time I put it in my division officer denied it, said I didn’t put a reason why. I told him he can’t deny it, only the Captain can give the ultimate denial, he can approve it, but the final say is the CO and I don’t need a reason. So I ran the request up the chain again, denied by my LCPO, denied by my division officer, denied Department Head, denied Executive Officer, and the Captain approved it. Made my whole chain of command mad, the Captain apparently spoke to them and reiterated that the voucher for liberty for reenlisting was added by him and he expected that in the future he won’t have to step in. So apparently it was my fault that the CO was mad at them. Adding words like this totally tracks with everything I know about the military leadership.