Why would junior enlisted Soldiers get into contract marriages?
E-6 in 5 years, Id have to say you earned the right to work in an environment free of that kind of behavior. I tell my females all the time, Demand respect, Make them see you as an equal, and they will. My current two both kill the APFT, in the male standards, Out fire many males, and if somebody got like that with my little 5ft 3in CPL she would blast them. Its not the whole Army, so there is hope for your next duty assignment.
This thread is like 5 years old.
BTW- I referred to all of MY Soldiers, as Mine. Taking ownership of my responsibility to that Soldier. I’m not taking that soldier in the squad I’m in charge of to finance to fix their pay. I’m taking My Soldier to fix their pay.
BTW # 2- While it still happens, from time to time. This issue is not that hot of a topic anymore. Well at least it wasn’t when they handed me my DD-214 and it went in to the my files under. “ things that no longer concern me”
I served in the Army for 12 years and this was one of the most disgusting displays of scamming the system is when a soldier away from home for the first time in their lives enlists or commissions in the military and during Basic and AIT find out about the benefits of being married and decide to find another service member who they "fall madly in love" with their battle buddies and as soon as they finish training they tie the knot so that they can be assigned together and get housing together. I have also personally experienced soldiers who couldn't wait to finish training and made sure that they got pregnant before getting to their first duty station.
Soldiers would show up pregnant, which would put them on profile from the day they in-process and do less work, Pregnancy PT (unless they were sick, I always got a kick out of that one) oh and because they were pregnant, exempt from PT Tests and 24 hour duty as well.
I am a firm believer in the old army custom of allowing soldiers to marry only after having a meeting with the Company Commander who approves of this marriage being allowed to happen. Soldiers today see getting married/pregnant as their ticket out of all of the duty and requirements of being a soldier.
I personally would take this to the next level, going so far as to strictly prohibit soldiers from being allowed to get married or pregnant until they have completed at least 2 years of full duty. I have personally seen the scum of the earth being allowed into the military and then they do stuff like this and all of a sudden they are getting promoted to E-4 without doing anything. It drove me crazy to see the shammers of the military getting promoted above myself and other hard working soldiers for doing less and not holding up the values of military service.
Back then I was single and was not a huge fan of living in the barracks but I was not going to skip out on duty, work, PT or anything that was going to dishonor my service and hated seeing others not care or value their commitment at all.
I think this forum has taken a turn away from what SSG DeSerio originally asked and instead of going on about contract marriages, people have dove into the category of married vs. single living conditions.
For those of you that have, I want to ask a couple of questions. You speak of deplorable living conditions and so forth in the barracks, what have you done about it? Please I know work order, work order, work order, nothing happened. There is a chain of command for a reason to get things fixed. Your final stop obvioulsy being the media as recently seen by conditions at Fort Polk, right?
But let's take this a step further, how many of you are still on your initial contract? Judging by the ranks of a lot of you, I would imagine not too many. So then comes the next question. If you didn't like the way you were being treated because you were single and the living conditions were horrible, THEN WHY DID YOU RE-ENLIST OR EXTEND?
I tell everyone, to include the kids I put in the Army; while you are inbetter yourself so you don't HAVE to stay in the Army if you don't want to.
On another note, if you thought you were being treated unequally as single vs. being married, did you or are you doing something about it? I am pretty sure, atleast in the Army I work in, there is something called an equal opportunity office.
Finally to that person, I know you are out there, who thinks they have done everything to try and right the ship, you haven't. There is a ladder to get every problem fixed. Sometimes does that involve IG, yes; sometimes does that involve the Installation Commander, yes; sometimes does that involve your Congress person, yes; and when all else fails, the media loves stories about how the military is failing it's troops.
I don't say any of this to try and take up for one side or the other of the marriage debate, but at some point you need to challenge the man and make him accountable for his actions.