What is the longest you have heard of someone lingering around in Basic training?

Not specifically Basic Training but there is a prior service 11B who is still an OC at Federal OCS at Ft. Benning due to some issue with his clearance. When I went through in 2017...he had already been there for a while. Last I heard this year...he was still there! Great dude, helps a lot of the OCs with further instruction and if they have issues with clearance/pay/etc...at this point I think he is kinda of a institution at Federal OCS.

In 1976 we were told of a recruit at Great Lakes Naval Training Center who was rotated through boot camp twice. Apparently, while riding the bus to O’hare airport he decided to get vocal and animated after rolling through the main gate. Bus turned around, action reported, kid removed for behavior. A second tour through was his punishment.

I know I've been retired over 22 years and the only ones that could cut the live was Active Duty in Uniform and only during the hours of 11:30 to 13:00. Everyone else get in line!

I am old school and in 1970 being gay was a problem. There were several gay men and several nonfunctioning village idiots (we had one that could never figure out the the whole right vs left thing) and low IQ people that stuck around for a while. You want me to bake your noodle, I found out that about 8 of these individuals were given medicals and later qualified for 100% disability. Just plane wrong.

There was a guy in my basic training platoon at Ft Campbell in 1971 who had been in reception station for 3 months. We all thought he was cadre. He wore a size 13 or 14 boot and there were none that size in captivity. Couldn't send him home because the boots/shoes could show up at any time. He was finally outfitted as we were in reception and went through basic with us. He was a school teacher from either Wyoming or Montana - super nice guy. I could not imagine spending such a long time in reception station waiting for your footwear.

13 weeks at Parris Island was enough, who in the hell wanted 1 more day there than necessary? They should be separated for mental disorders, or Snowflakeitis. Afraid to really commit, send them home to mommy.

When I was getting my stress-fractured shins dealt with at Ft. Benning, they told me about a guy who was there for over 2 years.

No clue, my ass was out of basic as soon as it was done.

When I was in USN OCS at Newport, we had a guy who had a genuine mental breakdown after only a few weeks there.(I and a couple other priors stood watch that sunday night until our MCPO got in at about 0530 and he was immediately transported to the Naval hospital psych unit.) I didn't give it much thought until I ran into a classmate of his who I knew 6-7 months later and I mentioned the guy, and this other fellow choked up, and said "Bill, we went to see him before we left Newport, and the guy was in a catatonic state! It was really sad to see." Not funny. I'm sure he was there for a while.

Byron Skinner. What happened to the old rule, can’t complete Basic Training in six months you are out. The reason depends of the class of discharge but for the good of the Army, is often the reason. Injuries encounter during BCT after three months are usual sent to a board and general a medical discharge with VA benefits but no Army Disability rating. You can apply for a VA disability and it you disability was for an accident like a vehicle accident or an accident in the motor pool you can usually can get a non service related disability rating out of the VA. Most Veterans Service organizations don’t mess with these former soldiers unless there are some extenuating issues.