Expert: Matt - 10/6/2009

Question
a nephew left for marine corps bootcamp 2 weeks ago. yesterday a marine called saying he was being discharged for "failure to adapt," but that he wouldn't be home for 2 weeks. what does this mean and why would it take 2 weeks to be discharged? on searches on the Internet failure to adapt is often listed as an offense and mentioned with mental or personality problems. he has no history of either, and we are now concerned.

Answer
The two weeks he is still there are for admin outprocessing...no need to worry about that. "Failure to Adapt" is a very broad term, you are correct. It can mean a multitude of things. Maybe he just decided it's not for him or maybe he simply cannot cut it. If he has no history of mental or physical issues, then I would guess that he just isn't adapting to the military way of life and the Marine Corps no longer wants him there (and to a certain degree I would guess he no longer wants to be there either) Hope that helps alleviate your fears a bit.