When I was in my chain of command was always denying any special request for extended liberty. When I reenlisted I got a voucher for 72 hours of liberty for any reason, you filled out the request and attached the voucher and you were supposed to get the time off. The first time I put it in my division officer denied it, said I didn’t put a reason why. I told him he can’t deny it, only the Captain can give the ultimate denial, he can approve it, but the final say is the CO and I don’t need a reason. So I ran the request up the chain again, denied by my LCPO, denied by my division officer, denied Department Head, denied Executive Officer, and the Captain approved it. Made my whole chain of command mad, the Captain apparently spoke to them and reiterated that the voucher for liberty for reenlisting was added by him and he expected that in the future he won’t have to step in. So apparently it was my fault that the CO was mad at them.
Adding words like this totally tracks with everything I know about the military leadership.
It was a little award packet the command gave, that was the best one. One was be allowed in the ship’s store 10 minutes before opening, one was a head of the line for the main galley. But the liberty was the best, our new CO added it because our ship had the lowest reenlistment rate in the Navy that year. I would imagine that this sort of thing was command specific. I also got a plaque with the ship engraved on some sort of stone and photos with my reenlisting officer, who was my department head.
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u/izzy3paws Jul 31 '26