“Something about this smells to me. How does an enlisted get discharged from the military to take care of a girlfriend?”
They don’t.
Sounds more like the tough guy got a FTA (Failure To Adapt) discharge.
We had a guy in basic that started crying wanting to go home the minute the doors of the cattle car opened up. The Army made damn sure they were going to get their money’s worth out of him. He spent the entire 8 weeks alternating between KP and CQ duties, and it wasn’t until two weeks after graduation that he got cut loose to go home with a FTA, and barred from trying to enlist again.
On the other hand, I had a blast in basic, and if I could go back in time I’d be more than happy to do it all over again.
As a Navy psychiatrist, I was involved in hundreds of medical boards and administrative separations. This sounded like the latter given my experience. But I was USN from 1979 to 1986 and things could have changed. Thanks for your input concerning my post. It sounds like this man had problems that led to his discharge.