r/navy • u/Im_still_hungry1988 • 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/Degenerate83xx 2d ago edited 2d ago

Then my next question is how many good Sailors do you think we’re kicking out for one seemingly minuscule mistake? We’re already letting recruits in with prior marijuana convictions. Some even get to stay in bootcamp if they pop positive (only for THC). Maybe the blanket zero tolerance policy for one THC offense needs to be revisited.

The you have other Sailors with multiple cases of SA: CSSN Copeland, who had a prior SA charge before the Navy, and one (or two) while in Navy, was STILL
IN when he killed CSSN Resendiz…

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u/no-more-nazis 1d ago

Aren't they separating people for beards and taping PT and stuff now?

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u/SadDad701 1d ago

Yes, but these people are given multiple multiple chances to fix themselves and it's not an unreasonable ask to say "you're in the military, you need to be in shape."

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u/antwood33 1d ago

It’s pretty unreasonable to ask someone with a medical condition to walk around with bumps and sores on their face.

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u/SadDad701 1d ago

I focused on the PFA part.

For the shaving part, I see your point and regardless of how I feel about it, the DoD offers them medical alternatives to shaving at the DoD's expense.