Is it normal for a member to go through an involuntary separation board in June, get involuntarily extended past his/her enlistment time in July, and to still be waiting for discharge orders at the end of September?
Any thoughts on if anyone involved in this process considers updating the member's family? Maybe their children need to start school, spouse in college, or just simply being a family with no support?
---frustrated.

20779417,

I suspect since this is your first post on these boards, there is probably more to your situation than you are willing to expose.

If you are being involuntarily seperated, why are you in such a hurry to be discharged? Do you have some job opportunity lined up that is better than the CG.

If you have a spouse wanting to attend college, assuming full-time, where is your source of income.

Did your command involuntarily extend you because of needs of the service? Are you a over the top worker whom your command wants to keep on hand until the Assignment Officer can get a replacement for you?

Are you a poor performer, or did you commit a violation of the UCMJ that your command is quite possibly conducting a preliminary investigation?

Well, I am the spouse in this situation and am also a veteran of the CG, so the GI Bill is how my college gets paid for. There is def. more to the situation than I am willing to expose....

My husband had two Masts in a 6 month period and is being generally discharged as of right now. He was extended because his end of enlistment(after 12 yrs of great service to our country) was creeping up before his paperwork could be completed. Underlying issues with his unit (favoritism) were his major fallback and led to his eventual discharge.

Regardless of all of that, his mast was held in March and needless to say, my family has been sitting here on pins and needles, in the dark, and living in housing with bad blood between the station and my husband. So, obviously this has been extrememly difficult for us.

My main question is why this discharge process is being dragged out so considerably??? It is almost October and we have concrete plans to move back home, school, work, etc. I do not think that the CG lives up to their "family matters" claims at all. No one has considered our situation as being extremely stressful the more time that goes by and you would think that some communication would be mandatory for updates regarding the length of time these types of things should take! I have contacted the district chaplin already and was told that his paperwork was at EPM 1 month ago.
Any insight?

20779417- I strongly recommend keeping this discussion private and not on this board. No one except epm-1 can advise you how long the process will last. There is simply no standard and many variables (some of which you may not know). Your husband should contact his assigned Command Master Chief, and you should ensure that your spouse is providing you with the information that you seek. You will not find it here. Have your spouse call me at work if unsure who to call.

FFJ

I concur with QMCM, contact your CMC. Since your spouse is at a station, your CMC is at the Sector. If unable to contact the Sector CMC, contact District.

How far is the next nearest CG unit? It is understandable how there could be "bad blood". Is it possibly your spouse could be temporily assigned to another nearby unit while the situation can be sorted out?

417

You guys aren't by chance stationed in Guam are you? There is a reason I ask.

Feel free to ask any questions you want here, there is nothing prohibiting it, and we may all learn something from it. I do agree with QMCM though on the part about EPM, EPM would be the only ones to know the answer to your how long question.

Email me at aloconte@yahoo.com if you have any questions or concerns.

quote:

I do not think that the CG lives up to their "family matters" claims at all.

Sadly, I agree. It might not be the case with every command, but its nothing more than a charade with quite a few though.

T

What a shame that this poor member and his family have been encumbered by this process and that their lives have been kept on hold while other Coasties find time to push their paperwork. Maybe we need an office at HQ that can handle complaints from those being discharged/involuntarily separated when the timeframe doesn’t suit their needs.
CWO A

quote:

What a shame that this poor member and his family have been encumbered by this process and that their lives have been kept on hold while other Coasties find time to push their paperwork.

Alhtough I do agree that this shouldn't be on a public discussion board I have say one thing - I sure hope CWO A's comments are meant to be satirical; because it sure isn't the Coast Guard's fault that the member awaits discharge. There is no need for a special office; the chain of command really does work...when it is followed.

quote:

Originally posted by 4101670:
What a shame that this poor member and his family have been encumbered by this process and that their lives have been kept on hold while other Coasties find time to push their paperwork. Maybe we need an office at HQ that can handle complaints from those being discharged/involuntarily separated when the timeframe doesn’t suit their needs.
CWO A

Without the employees, the CG would have a mission, and a few crappy boats that remain dockside. The organization had best remember that. The CG is just a job, like millions of others. To assume there aren't better jobs with better pay would make you insane. While you might place the agency first, and that's your right, my family and the families of many others come first. There's nothing wrong with that.

T

quote:

Originally posted by 4101670:
What a shame that this poor member and his family have been encumbered by this process and that their lives have been kept on hold while other Coasties find time to push their paperwork. Maybe we need an office at HQ that can handle complaints from those being discharged/involuntarily separated when the timeframe doesn’t suit their needs.
CWO A

Hopefully something like this will never happen to you and your family. Anyone who has been through a Medboard can identify with this family. Many, many times the chain of command is as lost and fustrated as the member. Having a seperate office in HQ might not be a bad idea. It's not that the time frame doesn't suit the outgoing members needs. It has to do with not having a time frame, the time frame changes and no one can tell you why.

To some what relate, it would be like being told you are going to be transfered from the 1st Dist. to the 13th. Then they tell you that you need to find a place to live in your new Dist., they need you to move out of your 1st Dist. government house. They keep pressuring you to do your part, but never tell you when you need to report, where exactly in the 13th you will be stationed. But, they do need your 1st Dist house soon.


I spent a few years retired on the TDRL. The Coast Guard cleared me fit for full duty against the advice of 2 Navy Doctors. I found out by recieving a form in the mail, that said I was cleared for duty and recommended I report for duty. That's when 100's of phone calls started. No one could tell me where to report, when to report, where I would be stationed and so on it went. I submitted 30 pages of medical records to the board in rebuttal to their clearing me. I found out that they were not required to give me an answer after reviewing it. They stuck with their original decision. I was told to contact a recruiter about coming back on Active Duty. They told me I was not qualified due to health problems. I had a wife with a good job. I was a stay at home Dad with a newborn, a 2 and 3 year old. So should we sell our home and move as a family? Should I go GEO? What about her working if I leave. Where would I go?

After 3 months of this going on, I finally decided that I would go and turn in my retirement request the day I report in, at my new unit. I mentioned this to the top lawyer who was dealing with my Medboard case, since my orginal lawyer had been transfered. He then said "your lawyer never told you, you could just request to be retired due to years of service"? So it took 3 months, hundreds of phone calls, dozens of letters and files sent, to find out I could just stay retired. Having an office at HQ to be the lead in handling out going personnel might not be a bad idea.

Of course just because a unit request a member be discharged doesn't mean that EPM will approve it.

Perhaps the effected member should contact as recommended by others the Sector CMC or perhaps EPM.

Nobody- Yes, I was being sarcastic, that’s the nicest way I could reply to such a post.

Militia- I have no clue what you are trying to say or not say.

EMC- There is quite a difference between the med board process and the involuntary separation process. I haven’t been thru a board for myself but have helped plenty of my shipmates thru it. I was joking about a new HQ office to help those unhappy about the invol sep process. Frankly I couldn’t care less if those being discharged for certain reasons are inconvenienced. On the plus side, there was an ombudsman position created a few years ago to assist those in the MEB process.
CWO A

quote:

Originally posted by QMCM:
20779417- I strongly recommend keeping this discussion private and not on this board. No one except epm-1 can advise you how long the process will last. There is simply no standard and many variables (some of which you may not know). Your husband should contact his assigned Command Master Chief, and you should ensure that your spouse is providing you with the information that you seek. You will not find it here. Have your spouse call me at work if unsure who to call.

FFJ

Master Chief -

You are mistaken. PSC-epm-1 can not tell this person how long the process will take, becuase it is not under our purview. Admin Sep Boards are not processed through PSC-epm-1.

I would recommend everyone brush up on M1910.2 and ALCOAST 182/09.

Trust me. When I get a discharge package, my average processing time over the past four years has been 2.19 days. That's an average. Most of them are turned around the same day.

quote:

Originally posted by FlynnPatrick:
Of course just because a unit request a member be discharged doesn't mean that EPM will approve it.

Perhaps the effected member should contact as recommended by others the Sector CMC or perhaps EPM.

Pat -

Since this appears to be an ASB (member over 8 years), I really don't want to hear from anyone about it.

Charlie

ahh yes Charlie,

I missed the 12 year thing.

quote:

Originally posted by FlynnPatrick:
ahh yes Charlie,

I missed the 12 year thing.

BTW - Congrats. I was without CGMS for the last seven weeks and just saw some somewhat stale traffic. Nicely done. Moylan's on me when you can get yourself out to Fairfax.

quote:

Originally posted by 4101670:
Nobody- Yes, I was being sarcastic, that’s the nicest way I could reply to such a post.

Militia- I have no clue what you are trying to say or not say.

EMC- There is quite a difference between the med board process and the involuntary separation process. I haven’t been thru a board for myself but have helped plenty of my shipmates thru it. I was joking about a new HQ office to help those unhappy about the invol sep process. Frankly I couldn’t care less if those being discharged for certain reasons are inconvenienced. On the plus side, there was an ombudsman position created a few years ago to assist those in the MEB process.
CWO A

Doesn't sound like that big a difference for the families invovled. You do realize that it was a wife/mother you were replying to in this thread. I don't know about this case as the member has 12 years in. Most of the invouluntary seperations I've seen invovled young people in their first years. Some were dirt bags, but most were just not suited for the Military life. It was especially hard on their wives, because they often were left in the dark even worse than there spouses and had few places to turn for answers. By the way many who are Medboarded out are treated the same way as you would treat this person and his family. We are damaged goods of no use to the Coast Guard, and many people through out the chain of command and in HQ couldn't care less if we were inconvenienced or treated fairly.

When I was to be medically retired on the TDRL it was going to happen less than a month of buying our house, and 2 weeks after the birth of 2nd child. So the net result was my wife was out of work, our total income was going to be cut to 1/8 of what we were bringing in. We were preparing for my retiring, but since there is little info passed. We were caught a little off guard when we were given one months notice. It was going to be really hard on us, since most of our savings had just gone into buying the house. So, I sent in a request to delay my retirement for 3 months. I was also in the process of a major inventory project for the cutter I was assigned to. Since I didn't sail any more and had been replaced on the cutter, I kept working on the project of setting up the storage and inventory while the cutter was in and out of port.

My request was endorsed positively by my CO and the Captain of the group wrote a very glowing recommendation. It got to HQ where a person (civillian worker), much like yourself called, and said, we don't do that sort of thing. Kind of like "Frankly I couldn’t care less if those being discharged for certain reasons are inconvenienced." I recieved an official message a short time later. As I was reading the message the Group Captain walked in and took it out of my hands, and told me he was going to make a phone call. I believe it was the next day a message came in granting my request to retire me 3 months later.

EMC- The MEB process is not symptomatic or a reflection of one’s service. Your situation is not the same as this one. Never thought I’d say it but it is time to end a discussion.
CWO A

But, the treatment/information flow, I, and he is receiving sound very familiar. His wife is raising many concerns similar to the questions my wife had.

Maybe you have personal knowledge of this case, or one close to you that brings back memories.

I was lucky to have the support of a few very important people. Otherwise there would have been a good chance of losing our house. At best we would have had to live on credit cards for 3 months.

I am glad to hear about the MEB has an ombudsman contact, that would be a good start in trying to fix that mess.

My favorite part of her post.

quote:

He was extended because his end of enlistment(after 12 yrs of great service to our country) was creeping up before his paperwork could be completed.

Does anyone find this funny. The CG will extend his enlistment, so they can kick him out.

quote:

The CG will extend his enlistment, so they can kick him out.

..I read it as the CG extending his enlistment so that they ensure his rights and entitlements are properly protected. He very likely could have dropped all opposition and 'special requests' and just gone away.