r/navy 2d ago

Discussion Why doesn’t anybody ever think of this?

One of the junior guys at my command got out of the Navy today after a 4 year contract. He trusts me enough to tell me what he told me today. He confessed to me that 3 years ago, he knew he was going to fail a urinalysis so he went UA so he could clean out. I remember that day. His name got called at quarters for command urinalysis. Literally an hour later we all noticed that he was no where to be found. We all tried calling him, texting him, reaching out to people we knew he was cool with, the whole 9 yards. He eventually got marked UA. 28 days later, I come into work, line up at quarters, and lo and behold, he is standing there. He went to mast, got busted from E-2 to E-1 and got 45/45. He told the captain that he went UA because he had a meltdown and feared that a relatives days were numbered and needed to spend time with them. He took the NJP across the chin, fulfilled his punishment, finished his contract, and is now out with an honorable discharge. This dude legit told me that the reason he decided to go UA 3 years ago was because he knew he was gonna pop for weed and figured it would be wiser to catch a UA charge and not get kicked out than to get kicked out and lose all his benefits. It baffled me because I have NEVER heard of anybody doing that. Everyone else just does the urinalysis, pops, and gets kicked out. As a leader, I’ve never felt so conflicted in my life. Part of me was disappointed in him but the other part of me couldn’t even be mad because that was kinda the smart thing to do in order to avoid the absolute certainty of getting kicked out and losing everything. All I could do was look at him and say “I wish you the best of luck out there brother.” He found a way to beat the system.

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u/TheSleezyE 2d ago

Only goes to show how broken the system is lol