Dealing with the Marines makes me want to kill a hobo...

[Volpone]

So I'm taking courses with the Marines, as a reservist, to remain competitive for promotion (always keep your options open). While I was activated, I just went to a weekly seminar. But now that I'm no longer on active duty I can go to a monthly seminar on Saturday.

Since I'm 2/3 of the way through the course, one would think all I'd have to do is tell the person in Hawaii I wanted to transfer from the weekly program to the monthly one and that would be it. But Nooooo...

To transfer I needed to e-mail about three people with my info. This sparked about 2 days of further e-mails. Finally I got an e-mail that I needed to call someone RIGHT AWAY. I called them and had a two minute conversation of EXACTLY THE SAME INFO ALREADY IN THE E-MAIL I SENT HIM. The end result of that call was that I needed to send him a form. I asked if the form was online or where I got it and he told me he had to e-mail it to me.

So the next day I e-mailed him, asking where the form was. Eventually he sent it to me. I got it filled out and returned to him 2 days later.

Two weeks after that, he called me, to tell me I needed to call someone else RIGHT AWAY.

:evil: If that was the case, why didn't you tell me that in the FIRST place? Why didn't you tell me that when I filled out the forms? Why the hell did I fill out the forms ANYWAY!? Now I'm going to have the same fucking conversation with a completely different person and I'm going to miss ANOTHER month of classes.



OK. Sorry about that. But I needed to vent or I'd have had to go kill a hobo. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to find some guy's phone number to call him and start this all over from Square One.

 

[Conchaga]

Someone once made the most concise statement about the US military.

"When dealing with the US military, keep in mind it's the most rigid bureaucracy in the world. They have forms to apply for more forms to finally get the forms you really need."

 

[Conchaga]

Trust me, the last form you get will make you the happiest man on earth.

DD214, baby.

 

[Sadistic Bastard]

UNLESS that form has a flaw in it.

I found one AT SEPARATION, as in 5 minutes before signing my "I'm out of here". The clerk said that they would have to extend me 2 weeks to correct the error...but that it might take a MONTH to approve the 2 week extension. I asked him if this made sense...he said no, but it was how it was done..

True story.

(My DD214 still has that error on it, it has not affected my life)
-SB

 

[Conchaga]

I was banging the clerk who typed mine up. No errors.

 

[Volpone]

OK. I will need to kill a hobo tonight.

Called the guy I needed to call. Left a message. Also left an e-mail. He never returned my call, but you know you're in for a good time when you get an e-mail that starts out with:

[Volpone]
There are several of things which need clarification.
[...]

Yes. There are several of things--like why someone who has no grasp of grammar is trying to lecture me on anything.

I mean damn.

I didn't file my final travel claim because it just wasn't worth the headache for a $40 cab fare. (I was smart and worked it so that everything else was completed while I was still in Hawaii.) I'd just write this all off and complete the courses independently except;

1) They will pay me to go to the monthly seminars and I'm not above a little military welfare $$ from Uncle and
2) I'd like to be in some sort of "drilling" status. I'm on the list for promotion and I want to make sure I don't get skipped because I'm in the Idividual Ready Reserve or some damned thing.

So yeah. The guy out in Hawaii took pretty good care of me. But then I needed to talk to someone in Virginia. Halfway through that conversation he left and I had to work with someone else. And ultimately to go to the actual course, I need to talk to another regional coordinator. The guy in Virginia says I should take the course in San Diego, because that is closest to me but of course the guy in San Diego says the map says I should take the course in Fort Worth. It's all very frustrating.

I'm about 2 seconds away from dropping a hand grenade and pissing off a lot of people right now because this all should've been very simple and seamless to coordinate and instead it has been a fucking 7 week long goat rodeo.

I can send out a big, honkin' e-mail addressed to God, Chesty Puller, and everyone about how frustrated I am by the whole process and that I am just going to drop out of the program because it is too much of a hassle. That would make some people's days very, very uncomfortable. But it would also burn some bridges for me so that the next time one of these guys is in a position to help me out on something they may just decide to make things hard for me instead.

Wait a minute. They're already doing that. What do I have to lose?