[it sounds OT but it isn't] US military training and procedures

[randomling]

Believe it or not, this is me researching a character.

I'm making a character for a d20 Modern campaign who was (about a year prior to starting the campaign) dishonourably discharged from the US Army. Being British, and knowing exactly nothing about the military in any form, I'm looking for a little help.

My character (before her discharge) was trained for the bomb disposal squad. My idea is that the army put her through college, but only after she'd been in service for 2 years - she joined up right after high school and wanted to do the college thing later.

Is that possible, or is it ridiculous? (I know that over here, it's pretty common for the military to put you through school in return for a guaranteed term of service, I think it's 2 or 3 years.)

Second - her dishonourable discharge was because she attacked a superior officer with a gun. Is that a likely punishment? Should she have spent time in jail? If so, what's a more likely offence?

I would also like to know as much about military training and the court martial procedure as anyone would care to tell me.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Green Knight]

Four year tour of duty. You do the military service, first, though I think some folks are able to take classes at night.

As for shooting an officer, yeah, that's jail time. Attempted Murder always carries jail time, whether you're a civilian or military.

Anyway, what service was your character part of? It'd be a lot easier to answer your questions if we had specifics. Army, Air Force, Marines or Navy?

As for putting you through college, off the top of my head, I'd have to say that if you got Dishonorably Discharged, then you don't get any college aid. Don't know that for a fact, but you made a contractual obligation with the military, which in return will give you college aid. Doing something which warrants a Court Martial and Dishonorable Discharge pretty much negates that contract.

 

[randomling]

Four year tour of duty. You do the military service, first, though I think some folks are able to take classes at night.

As for shooting an officer, yeah, that's jail time. Attempted Murder always carries jail time, whether you're a civilian or military.

Anyway, what service was your character part of? It'd be a lot easier to answer your questions if we had specifics. Army, Air Force, Marines or Navy?

Oops - I did mean to mention that in my first post. She was Army.

Four year tour of duty: OK, cool. How does that pan out in terms of what you're doing? How long does basic training last? Are you likely to spend time stationed out of the country during those first four years?

What kind of offences carry dishonourable discharge as a punishment, but don't carry jail time?

Thanks, Green Knight.

 

[Green Knight]

Well, my brother was Army, not me, so I'll try to help out.

Basic training's two months. As for where you're stationed, it depends. When I was going to enlist in the Marines, they said I could have my choice of where to be stationed. East Coast US, West Coast US, or Overseas. In other words, I could pick one of three VERY vague locations, and they'd send me anywhere in one of those locations. So if I picked Overseas, I could've ended up anywhere from Germany to Japan, and all points inbetween.

I suspect it's much the same in the Army (Though my brother spent pretty much his whole time overseas). But if you want your character to have gone overseas, then I don't see a problem. That's more likely than staying stateside.

As for Dishonorable Discharges without jail time, not exactly a question I've done a lot of thinking on, since it never came up with my brother. But I DO know a guy who was discharged early from the Navy because he threatened a superior officer and was acting generally like a maniac. Though I don't know if it was a Dishonorable Discharge. But whatever the case, just think about crimes in the real world that carry miniscule or no jail time. Then apply that to the military. If they won't throw you in prison for it in the real world, then they likely won't throw you in prison for it in the military, but they will Dishonorably Discharge you for it.

 

[randomling]

Thanks again!

"Threatening a superior officer and generally acting like a maniac" sounds pretty likely for my character - she was suffering from undiagonsed PTSD at the time of the discharge.

I wanted her to have been stationed somewhere in Africa or Asia as part of her tour of duty, but can't think of any particular place where I know the US has an Army base. Any ideas?

And more questions: How often do you move around on a tour of duty? Are you more likely to be in one place for four years or move around every few months? And do you know how long it takes to train for bomb disposal? (That last ones's pretty esoteric and it doesn't matter too much. I'm just trying to get a good idea of my character's past.)

 

[Green Knight]

Misconduct
A misconduct discharge can result from a pattern of minor disciplinary infractions, a serious military offense, or a conviction by civilian authorities. Common misconduct offenses include drug use and unauthorized absence. If you're thinking of trying to get out for misconduct, you're taking a big risk. Most offenses resulting in a misconduct discharge are also punishable by court-martial, and you could wind up in prison with a bad conduct or dishonorable discharge.

Misconduct could be a good reason for Dishonorable Discharge.

As for bases in Asia, let's see. Obviously South Korea. Qatar. Turkey. Saudi Arabia. Don't know of anywhere else (Bases in Japan, but those're Marines. Don't think there're Army bases, there). I have no clue if there're any bases in Africa.

As for moving around, I'd have to say 6 months. That seems about average. My brother seemed to have stayed at each place he's been for about that long. And I know jack spit about bomb disposal. My brother was Airborne, so my second-hand info doesn't go that far. Sorry.

 

[randomling]

GK, you rock. Really hard.

Thank you.

 

[Green Knight]

GK, you rock. Really hard.

Thank you.

Glad to be of help.

 

[Technik4]

I'm in the air force, but I know a little about EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disarmament, I think). The tech school for it is quite long compared to most tech schools (Army calls it AIT) I think it may be as long as 6 mos. Its also very competitive and hard to get through, a class of 30 may yield 3 or 4 specialists by the end. As an aside, I saw a picture of a guy disarming a bomb, behind him was a guy with a shirt marked "Intructor", he was holding a brown paper bag he had blown up and was about to burst it. The caption was something about it being a bad day, but the picture itself was hilarious.

Anyway, from what I know about merely waving a gun around in the wrong direction, you can get in some deep stuff really fast. An aquaintance got recycled into SF (Security Forces) and after pointing a gun at a superior officer got on "watch" (someone is always with you) for like 6 weeks. I think he probably got a dishonorable discharge, but never kept up with him. For shooting a superior officer, you would definitely do some time breaking rocks, from what I know, especially if it wasn't warranted in any way.

As far as college programs, currently the military pays 100% tuition if you take classes while you are in, but you can't while you are in training (AIT). Afterwards there are a variety of programs which let you go back to school, but you usually owe 3x the amount of time you took off to go to school back to the military (and you get paid while you are in college).

Hope that helps!

Technik

 

[Cedric]

Yeah, the best way for an "other then honorable" discharge is to pop positive on a drug test. Then pop positive on the follow-up test they give you.

They can't "prove" you were doing drugs enough to get you jail time...but they will get rid of you.

As for pointing a gun at an officer, that's assault with a deadly weapon. Probably get you 25 years in Leavenworth at hard labor.

Honestly, it's almost impossible to get a Dishonorable Discharge without getting jail time. You have to be a serious loser over-achiever.

Bad Conduct discharge is more feasible...as well as an Other then Honorable Discharge.