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Honorable Discharge "Inaptitude For The Service"


Vincennes
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Here is an interesting Marine Corps document from WWII that I got today. Apparently this person enlisted in the Marines early in the war, but was Honorably discharged after only 36 days because of "Inaptitude For The Service".

 

I'll post the front here and the back in the next post.

 

Paul

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Here is the back of the document.

 

From other documents I bought I know this man was drafted into the Army on Nov. 11, 1943, sent to truck driver school, then overseas in May, 1944. Where he spent time in the Southern Phillipines and New Guinea driving trucks for the 41st Quartermaster Company. He was awwarded the Bronze Star, WW2 Victory Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and Philippine Liberation ribbon. He was Honorably discharged on Dec. 28, 1945.

 

Maybe the Marines were a little too hasty?

 

Paul

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Fascinating! I'm surprised he kept it!

 

This goes to the whole adage: "One person's dirtbag is another person's hero"

 

When I was a Company Officer at the Naval Academy, I had to conduct three-times daily inspections on the restricted midshipmen. These guys (and gals) had all screwed up somehow, conduct-wise. There was this one REAL dirtbag who was the head restrictee...he got that job because he had been on restriction the longest. Underage drinking, having a car AND an apartment as a 2nd Class...go down the list and he probably did it. If he had been in my company, I would have pushed hard to have him kicked out (and would have succeeded.) Much to my chagrin, his company officer was a real bleedy-heart and he fought to keep him, and the kid finally graduated and was commissioned as an Ensign.

 

Fast forward two years and I get out to my ship as a department head. Lo and behold, who was one of the division officers? Yep, THIS guy. GREAT. :pinch: Turns out he had gotten himself sorted out and not only was he not a loser, but he was the number one division officer on the ship AND he became a close personal friend of mine. Of anyone in this world, he's more of a little brother to me than anything.

 

He really changed my mind about preconceived notions about people. I figured him for a dirtbag...in reality he's one of my best friends AND a hands-down superb officer!

 

Dave

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There are lot's of possibilities here.

 

The individual was 24 years old when he enlisted in the Marine Corps, so he should have been fairly mature.

 

He enlisted early in the war, in February 1942. Were Marine standards simply more demanding at that time than Army standards in later years?

 

Or maybe it was just that he had screwed up once, and got his head straight before he went back for his second round. Hard to tell.

 

There is always that square peg that will just not fit in that round hole.

 

History is full of stories of misfits who just did not make the grade in garrison, only later to be decorated for valor on the battlefield.

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"Inaptitude For The Service" can include being overweight according to an ROTC manual - "Inaptitude for the service. This includes failure to adhere to Navy/Marine Corps physical readiness and weight control standards." It can also refer to mental ability, but it was apparently not used for bad conduct.

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The poor guy gets discharged from the Marines and then later on gets drafted! You would have thought he would have been out of the draft pool.

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Marine boot camp was more intensive than army basic training. The guy was let go, and the army later grabbed him because they needed men. I'm sure there were people who couldn't hack the Marines and wound up in the army, particularly in support positions like this one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

we now have a discharge called 'Failure to Adapt'...could have been what this guy faced, but usually it's not eligible until they hit the fleet...

 

I remember reading the Band of Brother box set bios and seeing 1 of the paratroopers joined the Army after failing to meet USMC dental requirements...which really surprised me and I found interesting

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There are lot's of possibilities here...

 

There is always that square peg that will just not fit in that round hole.

 

History is full of stories of misfits who just did not make the grade in garrison, only later to be decorated for valor on the battlefield.

Sounds like what he got is what the AF called a "General Discharge under Honorable Conditions" - sort of the equivalent of "at the convenience of the Air Force" versus having been deemed "unfit for military service" or an actual "Bad Conduct" discharge or worse. Bad Conducts were the guys who just could not stay sober or quit fighting etc. but had not actually broken any serious civilian or UCMJ criminal law.

 

Another side of the General Discharge (or perhaps the "Inaptitude" variant too?) is that there are times when a newbie just runs across the wrong NCOIC on the worst possible day of his life - which is then changed forever. Add that to one or more LORs or a clerk typist being assigned to repair avionics and - well, spit happens.

 

In completing posthumous Remembrances for airmen, over the past few years, I come across maybe 10% who, for some reason, did not complete their hitch - and assume they were given either the General or a medical discharge. As long as they completed not less than 2 years in uniform, then they are normally regarded as having served honorably - absent any major UCMJ violations.

 

After completing about 1550 of those profiles, I've come to the conclusion that unless a guy is just plain jerkwater, the services generally go overboard to keep themselves from totally destroying his life simply because he just does not fit in.

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A friend of mine graduated from the NCO School (French Army), asked for the airborne troops but was turned down for physical aptitude, bad sight. After five years in a transportation unit, he got bored and left the RA.

He joined the Foreign Legion, got the 2REP, the airborne regiment. Became a commando after 5 five years, regain his sergeant stripes and retired after 10 years of services.

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Hey wasn't there another guy turned down by the marines who later did pretty well in the army... oh, that's right, a little fella named AUDIE MURPHY :packin heat:

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ABrangerjoe
Hey wasn't there another guy turned down by the marines who later did pretty well in the army... oh, that's right, a little fella named AUDIE MURPHY :packin heat:

 

:thumbsup:

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Steindaddie

He was drafted in to the Army later? Good deal. Obviously he was classified as mentally fit to serve. Perhaps by then he had got the help he needed.

 

Here's why: Odds are 1,000 to 1 in favor of this man being discharged for purely mental reasons and nothing more. "Inaptitude For The Service" had little or nothing to to with disciplinary matters - there were other ways to deal with those. Inaptitude was used (back then at least) to categorize men who were mentally unfit. It wasn't used for men who were rebels or hard cases, but men who obviously had mental problems.

 

This guy did volunteer, but in boot camp he was obviously and quickly flagged as having mental issues. But, a plan to deal with such men was already in effect. After being identified, a case was brought to an "Aptitude Board" who could further the case to a psychiatric review board. Their recommendation for the man in question was Honorable Discharge. Honorable: No harm, no fouls, and no trouble maker; the man simply had some mental troubles that he seems to have dealt with later.

 

I salute this man for his service.

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Jack's Son

I have a 201 file for a Marine who was discharged for the same reason. One command kept transferring this guy to another, because no one want to be the one to break the news. The infantry pushed it on the medical who pushed it on the psychological. Finally, the medical people were told (ordered) to process him out.

It is kind of funny, but kind of pathetic too.

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  • 6 years later...
Retired Army Noncom

Marine boot camp was more intensive than army basic training. The guy was let go, and the army later grabbed him because they needed men. I'm sure there were people who couldn't hack the Marines and wound up in the army, particularly in support positions like this one.

As a DS from Mar 70-Sep75, we had a few prior-service enlisted come back in, they did there time in the branch of service, mostly Army, then Air force and a few Marines. Two Marines I remember very well, one was a mortarman, he didn't graduate either.

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Retired Army Noncom

Hey wasn't there another guy turned down by the marines who later did pretty well in the army... oh, that's right, a little fella named AUDIE MURPHY :packin heat:

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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MastersMate

An excerpt from the Marine Corps Manual of 1940. The first change to the manual did not come out until June 1942 and there was no change to this provision..

 

 

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Kahn test

 


noun, Medicine/Medical.
1.
a test for syphilis based on the formation of a precipitate in a mixtureof serum and antigen.
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Here is the back of the document.

 

From other documents I bought I know this man was drafted into the Army on Nov. 11, 1943, sent to truck driver school, then overseas in May, 1944. Where he spent time in the Southern Phillipines and New Guinea driving trucks for the 41st Quartermaster Company. He was awwarded the Bronze Star, WW2 Victory Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and Philippine Liberation ribbon. He was Honorably discharged on Dec. 28, 1945.

 

Maybe the Marines were a little too hasty?

 

Paul

Babyblue Marine?

 

I wonder if he realized he had bitten off more than he could chew and wrangled a discharge going by his later service he seems to have held up well and honorably

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firefighter

Babyblue Marine?

 

I wonder if he realized he had bitten off more than he could chew and wrangled a discharge going by his later service he seems to have held up well and honorably

I was thinking the same thing. I remember that movie from long ago.

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