Fleet Marine Life #57 – Pile of Shit
My good buddy Dan once gave me an analogy that joining the Marine Corps is like rolling in a pile of shit. I asked him how.
He said, “Well, I mean. You were the first guy we all knew who joined the Marine Corps. Shortly there after, your brother joined, then me and then our friend and then our other friend and then two of our other friends after him. We all thought it was all cool. After you jumped into the pile of shit, everyone just kind of dove in and rolled around with you thinking it was fun.
But then after a year or two, everyone realized that… ‘Hey! Wait a minute! We’re all rolling in a pile of shit!’ Of course, now we’re all trying to get out of the Marine Corps or ‘the pile of shit’.”
This analogy is very true. Now, all my buddies are trying to get out of the Corps by using VEERP, stacking terminal leave on top of that and all that shit!
I could have EAS’d two months earlier but my company prevented me from doing so by lying to me and by making me do a bunch of shit that was “essential to the company.” My company was trying to prevent everyone from checking out and VEERPing out. Everyone who could VEERP (Early EAS), actually tried to used the full 90 days of their VEERP because they all universally hated my company. The only things that my higher ups could think about were field day on saturdays and what they can do to make themselves look good. Troop welfare was virtually non-existant.
One fellow NCO was so desperate to get out of my company using VEERP that when the Regiment Commanding Officer, a Colonel, was taking his time (3 weeks) signing his package, the NCO requested mast to our general. His package got signed REAL quick that day.
And the people that were VEERPing out were the good experienced NCOs. My Company Commander tried lying to me to prevent me from leaving. He said that you needed a reason to take VEERP or else you can’t use it.
http://www.marines.mil/news/messages/Pages/MARADMIN303-11.aspx
According to the official link above, you don’t need a reason to leave. I told him that and he said he’ll check into it. If you qualify, you may push your EAS up to 90 days earlier. If you are trying to VEERP, read this three page order. The higher ups will attempt to use your ignorance against you and that was what my CO was trying to do. He was losing NCOs left and right to this MARADMIN. Fortunately, I was not ignorant because I read the three pages throughly. I got the VEERP approved and sold all of my terminal leave (which is automatically done when you leave the Corps).
Diving into shit since 1775.
Proud to say I walked the line, but never picked up 1 butt. I’d rather be tagged a shit bag, than be an actual idiot.
how long does it take for hqmc to change your eas? its been over a month already and my shit is still the same..
If you hadn’t carefully read your CONTRACT in your SRB, sadly it says it in standard print “By initially, signer agrees to participate in ALL police calls and janitorial work” I discovered this absolute shock after reading pieces of my contract on the OMPF. You blindly agreed to do this yet they still complain
I was in back when the marines held onto you like grim death. The only way to get out before the recession surge in enlistments was to basically go up to the commander and smoke crack.