RTC Orlando

So in 1982 I enlisted in the U S Navy.  Entered boot camp at RTC Orlando.  In the early days there was hours of paperwork.  Including the new recruits reporting "page 2" data for the enlisted service record.  Which was next of kin, and other relatives.

One of the things you were required to report was all marriages, previous marriages, and children.  This was tied into pay you could draw at the "with dependent" rate.  And possibly other reasons I am unaware of.

So while you are filling out forms for this, you are sternly told more than once you are legally obligated to report this information.  I assume in the past people had used the military to try and escape bad marriages and wiggle out of paying child support.  So all recruits are told if they fail to report ex spouses and children, they are guranteed, not promised, they will be brought up on charges.  This is emphasized several times.

A recruit who was appointed over me, we called him a section leader told the company commander (what the navy called a drill instructor) he suspected I was married.  They were specifically instructed to snitch us out on this topic.  This is how serious the Navy was on having all this data correctly reported.  So I was taken to the company commander and dropped into push up position and repeated several times I had no spouse, ex spouse, or child.  And was dismissed.  The section leader acted embarrassed, saying something about thinking us people from farm country married young.

I blog this as an example of the military having jurisdiction over peoples romantic life, and possibly a basis for the mentality of people above me in the chain of command fuckin with me like they did over Lisa Morris.  Of course other factors had to be in play.

I knew several guys personally who got pulled in commanding officer's offices over romantic relations with spouses when things went bad.  As a civilian, I would have never believed this.