Let me ask you a question? Did you read the last line in my previous post? You know the one that says ". . .I know this kind of thing would most likely not occur. . ."
In the Corps a junior enlisted Marine does not hold casual conversations with his seniors unless the senior initiates the conversation. That's just the way it is.
And if one of my Marines asks a LtCol about a damn dental appointment, I would kill him. Just the way it is.
One last point though. You wrote "And how do we know that the soldier didn't already ask everyone in his chain of command? We don't."
In response I must say if this kid spoke to everyone in his chain of command about a dental appointment and no one helped so the kid was forced to ask a Bn Cmdr about it the entire chain of command needs to be relieved and immediately.
That's the same in the Army. That's why I reacted to the post in the first place. From my perspective, a Marine was taking one event and extropolating this onto the Army as a whole. My original assertions stand. If the Army got rid of all our support battalions and such that the Marines don't have, we'd be comparable. If you had the baggage units the Army has, you'd have some of these same problems. The way this is referred to in the Army is "combat unit or everything else" A combat unit isn't anything like an "everything else" unit. I wouldn't have a clue what it's like to serve alongside someone who was a woman or who didn't devote most of their training to fighting. Nor would I want to serve alongside such.
Had a buddy who at his promotion board was asked a question about the regulations regarding the length of a female soldier's skirt. He told the First Seargent that he didn't know and that he didn't give a flying f%ck. He aced the board! I would bet aside from this fear of talking to officers that you wouldn't notice that much difference between being in the Army or the Marines.
The biggest difference I've ever really noticed is you guys roll your sleeves differently. And we have a better song.
I have a pretty cool "Old Corps"anecdote to relate.
It was my pleasure to meet General Alvin Shoffner, who was a lieutenant in the 4th Marines. It fell to him to actually seek out some Japs to surrender to on Corregidor. Later, he escaped, and was a battalion commander on Okinawa. He was a real character.
He told us that when he was a new lieutenant in the 4th Marines he held a platoon inspection; one of the Marines was not quite up to snuff and he told his platoon sergeant, "you need to shine this guy up a bit."
The next time he saw this private he had two black eyes! Shiners!
Walt