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Lots of unhappy hoping-to-be ex-sailors out there about now.\u00a0 Back in the Stone age when I was thrown out, as part of the separation process I went to the personnel center on Ft. Bliss, they finalized my paperwork, a 71L typed up my DD-214 (wrong, but that’s another story) and I walked out a PFC (Proud Freakin’ Civilian) with my 214 in hand. As I recall, my total time including wait was about 2 hours.<\/p>\n
Of course, the Navy had other ideas, and in 2016 decided to centralize all the separation personnel and support processes. They have been catching grief of late as kids are getting out of the Navy without all the proper paperwork, leaving said newly minted vets unable to be fully military OR fully civilian.<\/p>\n
Caitlin, a recently discharged sailor, was on the phone and in tears. She had just found out that she was pregnant. But because the Navy<\/a> had fouled up her discharge paperwork, she couldn’t get health care.<\/p>\n
Staring at the prospect of becoming a parent without a way to cover the exorbitant cost of giving birth, Caitlin leveled with the woman on the other end of the phone when she called a central number for the military health care system. She thought she might be forced to do something she didn’t want to do: Get an abortion.<\/p>\n
Caitlin, whose name has been changed out of fear of retaliation, couldn’t get health care as a civilian because, without a completed DD-214, the health care system saw her as still serving and covered by Tricare<\/a>. And without a DD-214, she couldn’t go to the VA and access benefits from that agency.<\/p>\n
Petty Officer 3rd Class Paul-Vincent Cuyugan, a sailor of 10 years, told Military.com that, without a DD-214, he can’t even start to move his wife and four children out of their four-bedroom home. The military said his move would cost around $15,000 but, since time was running out, he got a quote from a private mover. That number was around $30,000.<\/p>\n
Cuyugan, like Michael, couldn’t get a move initiated for his family without his paperwork. That means he has been unable to move from South Carolina to California, a delay that may cost him his post-Navy job.<\/p>\n
“I had everything prepped up last year and everything like that [so] when the time came it would be set in stone and then I could just get out,” he explained. He hasn’t even seen his separation orders, despite being on terminal leave for weeks.<\/p>\n
Cuyugan said that even if he wanted to pay for a private move and get reimbursed by the Navy down the road, he can’t — he doesn’t have that kind of money. Meanwhile, his future employer in California has been understanding but told him that if he’s not able to start around the time they planned, they would have to find someone else for the role.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Navy has been asked about this several times, and has repeatedly blamed sailors for submitting separation packages after its 60 day deadline.<\/p>\n
Although the Navy has repeatedly pointed to delays by sailors as being the root of the problem, most of the service members that Military.com spoke to in researching this issue say they submitted their paperwork on or ahead of time. Those who had submitted late often described issues that were caused by mistakes made by those who received their paperwork.<\/p>\n
Caitlin, for example, said that “even though I had my paperwork submitted well before the 60-day mark” before her separation– the Navy’s deadline to have everything processed on time — the person handling her discharge “sent it to Millington, instead of sending it to Norfolk, which put me behind.”<\/p>\n
This confusion leaves sailors feeling that no amount of preparation is enough to shield them from the consequences of a discharge without a DD-214 or even separation orders.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n