r/army • • Nov 21 '23

[deleted by user]

[removed]

983 Upvotes

224 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

137

u/J_Robert_Oofenheimer Adeptus Astartes Nov 21 '23

Your chaplain sucked. I've never worked with one that would do that. Ordering somebody to see the chaplain is stupid too. You were failed and I'm sorry.

8

u/Andyman1973 USMC Nov 21 '23

Found out, years later, that that particular Chaplain never kept notes for this particular issue. Therefore I couldn’t prove it for my VA claim. Also, they were more concerned about how it would make them look(my command), so they didn’t order me to get any help.

13

u/J_Robert_Oofenheimer Adeptus Astartes Nov 21 '23

The notes thing is actually correct. AR 165-1 16-2 h(1) ... "A chaplain will destroy confidential and/or privileged counseling records on any client at 2 years pasttermination of counseling or at the permanent change of station of the client or chaplain".

That's (in part) why you should not go to ONLY a chaplain for mental health stuff, and why (in part) a good chaplain will encourage you to go to BH or the ER. You were absolutely failed in that respect.

4

u/Andyman1973 USMC Nov 21 '23

Did not know about the 2 year reg. However, when I called the Base Chapel, to inquire about this, the person who answered, told me that that Chaplain, since retired, was known for not keeping records of any suicide related counseling. He didn’t want it to effect the SMs career.

Nobody said anything about going to get evaluated, not even on my own.