Expert: Howard Lorenz - 3/19/2008

Question
my son left for the navy bootcamp in March. he was there for about a week and he called and said he was getting a medical discharge for ptsd because he got into it with his cheif and was very disappointed. we have not heard from him over a week now and don't know what is going on nor can we get any information. none of this makes any sense. if he got into it with his cheif then why didn't they just punish him, why a medical discharge. then again we don't know exactly what happened because when he called that is all we were told. can he ever renlist into the navy again after this. also how long do they keep them for evaluation and what is it he may be going through. none of this makes any sense.

Answer
Sonya

I am not sure how anyone could get PTSD in BMT. I guess it is possible, but rare. There is probably more there that you son is not telling you . Unfortunately  the military does not disclose anything to the parents due to the fact that they are an adult and responsible to them selves. Then troops are sent home from BMT, the biggest casue is failure to adapt. The Military is a very structured and regimented lifestyle, not all can handle the getting yelled at on a daily basis.

His returning to the Navy is going to depend on the real reason why he is getting discharged. There will be a rentry code on his discharge paperwork that will classify if he will be elligible or not. I think that I would be more concerned as to what went on if he will even talk about it. I think that there is more to the story..

The best thing that I can tell you is have patience, the discharge take a few weeks to process and in the meantime they may be evaluating him as well to see if there is a service connected issue that triggered all of this. if they find nothing , he will be released in a few weeks, if they do find a service connected issue, then it will be longer because they ahve to file th eproper paperwork with the VA. If this is the case, then he will get a service connected disability, the percentage depnds on what it is they find

If there is a medical issue with your son they more than likely will not punnish him, this is why he is going thru what he is going thru. Just be supportive and patient.


HW