This is dedicated to everyone who ever tried to turn in a piece of gear still in the plastic and had it rejected for being dirty.
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Too accurate. LOL
Yeah wow.
I almost broke out in a cold sweat
Owwww…*shudders*. Me too. Like going through MEPS all over again.
I still laugh every time I hear people complain about their experiences at the DMV. They have no idea what purgatory is really like…
What does one really expect? Good home training?
This just triggered my PTS
lol
Pretty sure I’m gonna show this to my girlfriend.
The joke is that this isn’t an exaggeration of how CIF is.
This is a documentary, pure and simple.
Lol
some things never change, out processed in ’79.
Glad to know that people are still experiencing the frustration to this date..
When my coworkers ask why I have failed to work for the remainder of the day, I will point them in the direction of this video. Hopefully then they will understand how someone can breeze through Marine Corps boot camp and a military career, but feel permanently traumatized by the check out process…
No joke, one post I cleared would turn everything back For being dirty until you brought in a receipt for having your ta50 cleaned at one of the local cleaners. Then they wouldn’t even take a second look. It was pretty sketchy since they would recommend what cleaner to take it to off post…
Ha! and I know you are not supposed to put all your gear in the giant washing machine off post but its more or less mandatory.
…because they KNOW that someone who is trying to get outta dodge isn’t gonna go to the IG…
Korean mafia at Hood would magically clear you with the tag of the preferred off-post cleaner. Always had to budget three days for turn-in…
Of course, the E-7 and up “Senior” line was much easier to get through and didn’t skyline how terribly the CIF clerks treated Soldiers in the E-6 and below line to the folks in a position to unfuck the the situation.
Oh my god i think i had to process through her!
One does not simply walk into CIF…
I ETS’d in ’96. I have a dream about once a year which revolves around trying to get out-processed and CIF is always the night sweats part that jars me awake.
It’s a great scam; I bought a couple of hundred bucks worth of new gear or decent surplus stuff to turn in. Imagine a system which expects an e-tool to be like new after it was used for three or four years by a light infantryman. So big army terrorizes joe into replenishing issue stocks with new shit…but then issues the next guy used stuff that’s “serviceable.” So what does “serviceable” look like in three or four years? It magically turns into new. And if you tried to DX it, it was usually deemed to be fine, until it was time to clear CIF.
Yeah, spot on.
Spot on about the E-Tool. I never got how they couldn’t get that through their heads…
“Its dirty and scratched”
“Its a shovel…”
“You can’t turn that in”
“Its a f****** shovel, you put it in the dirt”
“Sir, don’t take that tone with me”
“take the f****** shovel”
I’ve had e-tools turned back at CIF that were still in the cardboard. I had one I used and I’d leave the one I got at in processing in the duffel they give you where it would sit in the closet for the whole tour.
Wow – I got out in December ’86, and that video took me right back there!!
I must be the only person who never had any stress over CIF despite six duty stations.
The only thing I ever had returned was a duffle bag that I never used that still had the previous soldier’s unit stenciled on the bottom.
“This needs to be spray painted black.” “That’s how you gave it to me. That’s not even my unit.” “It still needs to be black.” “No problem.”
Since my unit was located at a satellite about three hours off post, I drove over to the airfield to hit up a battle for some spray paint. Buying a can never occurred to me. He didn’t have anything except some black CARC in a preval. I shrugged and painted it not really thinking about how long CARC takes to dry. It was all I had available. I folded it up so the painted bottom of the duffle folded over on itself and didn’t smear paint on any other part of the bag.
I cruised back over to CIF and walked up to the same lady that told me to paint it and handed it to her. She unfolded it and you could plainly hear the sticky paint sound. It was like tearing fabric loud. She looked at it closely than looked up at me with a slight frown.
“It’s black,” I said with a shrug. She took it off the table without a word and signed my inventory.
The best part is when you get to CIF at your next duty station and they try to issue you gear that is dirty and/or unserviceable. They’re pretty quick to pitch a fit when you refuse to sign for it.
In other news, I inquired with CIF at FTCKY about UCP gear turn-in procedures. I politely informed them that everything I have in UCP, I have in OCP and no longer need to maintain two sets of the exact same stuff. They chastised me and told me, “No, we’re only taking UCP gear if you’re ETSing or PCSing”. So much for that!
Now would they take it if your PCS’ing into you next duty station. I’m currently at a place where the nearest CIF is an 6-7 hr drive. So my Unit supply clerk told us that our Company CDR will give everyone memo’s stating all CIF gear will travel with Soldier to next duty Station. We are getting ready to get issued everything in OCP uniforms and TA-50 so now I get to take 2 of everything with me when I PCS. I hope I can turn in UCP when I get to my next duty station.
Pretty much that yea.
The Army could just issue all the kit upon initial entry and have Soldiers retain it until they ETS, but of course the thousands of CIF folks like the one in this video would then be off the dole.
Interesting idea, but for the Corps it wouldn’t work because it would mean acquiring all brand new gear to give to our 2 MCRDs. I don’t know about the Army but all the stuff they issue out in boot camp in the Corps is pretty well worn from all of the thousands of recruit that have used it before it got issued to you. Still, it would make a lot of sense and save a lot in logistics, instead of buying all of this gear and sending it to all of these bases just send it out to a few boot camps and all of the turn ins at the various bases could be just used for replacements for the poor schmucks how lost something.
I remember that I got a good scrub brush and I wore my armor carrier in the shower and scrubbed the ever living hell out of it then turned it around backwards and did the same. People made fun of me, big time, but my armor carrier passed final inspection and CIF with no issues. However, all was not roses. People kept stealing my stuff (I had more petty theft in basic thatn I have ever seen in my life) so I had put my initials on some of my gear. Let me tell you the employees at CIF are demons who have been exiled from hell and are very angry about it.
Remember the old days of having two of everything. LBE, Ruck etc. Just so the field stuff could get beat up and the new stuff just for CIF. Sad but true. Those anal retentive D-bags at Bragg CIF still gave me shit. E-Tool had a spot of rust. GMAFB!
Yep, I had a parade set/inspection set and the crap that CIF gave me.
At Fort Bliss in 1991 or 1992 the Post Commander had his aide draw a full set of gear and had his driver turn it in 1 day later without ever using any gear or removing it from the bags since it was a standard set at the time. He instituted new policies after 20% of the gear was rejected as dirty or serviceable.
I was delighted but he retired and 2 years later when I tried to clear they rejected 10 of my items including an E-tool that never deployed. I had my own after my first assignment and the last minute painting required.
Easiest Clear was in Korea 1996. Every item was clean and serviceable when I showed up. I had about 20 items rejected. I returned later in the day and they accepted 10. I returned the next day and they took 8. I had lunch in town and they accepted the final 2; I had re-cleaned nothing.