who to report abuse to when your child is being mistreated in the Navy?

I would say the chaplain but she would probably need witnesses and if she is truly being abused then there should be at least one witness.

1) While she is your child, she is an ADULT as she is at least 20 years old. So SHE needs to put on her big girl panties and do that job she signed up to do.

2) The military is NOT slavery, it is called good old fashioned hard work. And slavery would mean she wasn't getting paid and she is along with 3 meals a day, roof over her head, clothing allowance, medical, dental along with other things. She should be at least an E3 if not an E4, if she is not then there is the issue right there. If she went in Undesignated then she should have chosen her Rating (job) by now.

3) The painting and cleaning on a ship - EVERYONE does it at a time period but especially if she picked BM as her job because that is part of it. Part of being an Officer is ordering people around, just like if she worked in any other job, people of higher Rank/Position tell her to do things. You think it would be any different if she worked at McDs? Amazon? Starbucks? Toys R Us?

4) If she has an issue that is what her NCO is for, if not then her Chief, and it keeps going up from there. But SHE has to do something, not run to her daddy/mommy to help fix the problem. Again she is an ADULT.

I won't pretend to know the specific details of your daughter's experiences that led you to post this question. However, I think you and your daughter may have the wrong impression of the military in general. When you start out enlisted at a low rank, of course you are going to get the worse duties assigned to you. The senior enlisted or officers assigning those duties almost certainly had to perform undesirable duties when they were a lower rank, it's just the way the system works. Your daughter isn't being singled out, there are a ton of other new recruits going through the same thing she is. If you expected her Navy career to be like they pitch it on their TV advertisements, then I can see why you might be disappointed. During my Army career I cleaned toilets, mopped floors, and picked up more trash than I care to think about. Consider that I did these things even though my job that I was trained for was fixing electronics. I agree that menial labor is not always the best use of time for service members, but it still has to be done right? Why should the Admiral have to empty his trash and clean his office? He's in charge of hundreds if not thousands of people and he usually doesn't have time to perform every little menial task. Good leaders don't try to do all of the work themselves, but rather delegate responsibilities effectively and supervise to ensure everything gets done correctly.

Now, if that's not you or your daughter's cup of tea, she always has the option of exiting the service when her contract expires. She can then use the plethora of benefits that are available to veterans these days. I'm using my VA educational benefits right now, and I can tell you that the assistance I receive has been well-worth all the late nights, weekends worked, toilets scrubbed, etc. Another way to look at the experience is a means to stay humble. I have run across employees in the civilian world that have the "I don't clean bathrooms, I'm above it" attitude. They don't always get fired for their crappy outlook, but I can tell you that no one respects them and when layoffs happen they are the first to go. The military is everything you make of it. I'm not going to lie and say that there weren't times when I was hating life doing some undesirable work or task, but I chose to keep a good attitude and perform those tasks to the best of my ability. Pretty soon I was getting tapped for promotions, special schools, rewarding assignments.... do you see the connection? How you go about any work assigned to you reflects upon you directly.

I apologise if I read your query wrong. If your daughter's officers are making her shine their shoes, wash their cars, clean up their house, or any other personal service then that is dead wrong and she can file a complaint within her chain of command and I assure you it will be handled. Painting the ship and picking up trash falls into a perfectly acceptable category. As we used to say - "Suck it up and drive-on".

If she joined in 2009 and it is now 2012, she should be reaching the end of her enlistment. Getting out is one option available to her, or soon to be. The services are also required by law to brief their members at least annually on how to file grievances concerning fraud, waste, and abuse. In that case she should be aware of what legal steps she has to do to file a complaint. Those are two things she can do to help herself.

How can you report abuse? I suppose you could write your Congressman. But since your daughter is a legal adult, she is responsible for her own life.

I spent about 30 years in the military. My first "job" was building a parking lot using a pile of gravel, a garbage can, and an entrenching tool. I also became very proficient using a floor buffer. Those work details were in addition to the training I received. Want to know a secret? The lower ranks do those type of details. Higher ranks can, and do, tell those of lower rank what to do. They have the legal right to do so, backed by military law. And yes, people who do not do their work get written up and punished.

You question makes me interested and curious about the whole story concerning your daughter. Is she the oppressed super sailor you think she is, or is she a lazy whiner who is blaming her own failings on others? I've seen both types during my time in the military, but more of the latter than the former.

If your daughter is actually being abused she (not you) needs to report the abuse higher. There are several channels she can go through to do so. Other than that, it sounds like she just isn't happy and is telling you what is going on in a way that makes you think she is being abused.

That is just the way the military is: lower ranks do the manual labor while the higher ranks handle paperwork and lead the troops. Being told to sweep and mop is a lawful order, refuse and it is no different than refusing to do your duties in a combat zone (although you probably won't be punished as harshly).

It's no different than McDonald's; when the shift leader tells the guy on the grill to mop while they handle operations. Or how you don't see the principal of the school cleaning bathrooms like the janitor is. If your daughter doesn't like the Navy she is free to get out when she is done.

When I started out as a private I probably felt the same way your daughter did. It was always "why is my sergeant making me do that while he just sits back and does nothing?" Then I became a sergeant myself and saw what needs to happen for operations to continue. You don't see that so you are just dismissing it as laziness.

Either your daughter is telling you lies or you are simply trolling. It isn't that there is not abuse in the military, but what you described is simply out of the question. And your daughter would know what to do if this were to occur. All you have to do is write to your congressman and he will have an answer back from the command within five business days on any problems identified within that unit.

I think you are just another troll and someone who hates the military. If not, do something instead of talking on YA. If you are really serious write to me about your daughter including her name, rank and unit and I will start an investigation.

So you're saying higher ranking enlisted and officers are using their ranks to make others do work? It's always been like that. They are in charge or lower ranking people and they make them do work because it is a job. Every enlisted paints. I think your daughter just expected a free ride and is now complaining because she actually has to work. Junior enlisted spend most of their time doing things outside of their rating because they have small jobs that higher ranking people don't have the time for, and they need to prove that they are trustworthy to do their real job.

But what is your daughters rating? If it is undesignated then that is basically their job.

'

EDIT

Where on broadside did you find that Boats? I've gone through most of the comics but never saw that one.

First, having abusive superiors and/or working with lazy people do not just happen in the military, but those things can happen in the civilian workplaces as well; don't just put the blame on the Navy or military as a whole.

Other military personnel also have to work their ways up from the bottom, and people at the bottom have to deal with $hitty jobs the most; no one started the military career as an admiral/general. If your daughter feels, strongly, that she is being mistreated, then she can file a formal grievance against her officer/superior. But just like in civilian workplaces, that officer/superior may retaliate against her.

No one ever said that Military Life is an Easy Life; at least now she can understand that life is not easy. I understand that you are worried about your daughter's well being, because you are her father; but don't you think it's time that you stop "bubble-wrapping" her? If she wants to file a grievance, then it is her job to do it, not yours.

BTW, there is a saying in the Navy, "Choose your rate (-ing), choose your fate."

Excuse me for saying this, Patrick, but your daughter is a GROWN WOMAN now. She's an ADULT. All branches of the military have grievance procedures, and the Navy is no exception to this. If your daughter thinks she's being mistreated, then she needs to FOLLOW the procedures, and YOU need to stay out of this situation and let her handle it, because part of being an adult is learning how to deal with adversity and solving problems by one's self, which is something that you clearly aren't allowing your daughter to do. You can't keep her a little girl forever- sooner or later she's going to have to cut the apron strings and stand on her own two feet. Yeah, that's going to be a bit painful for both of you, but she'll be a stronger, more mature person for it, believe me.

One other note: Your daughter's being required to do things like paint and clean up are the same duties that are required of anybody else in the service, pal. If she doesn't like that or doesn't want to do that, she shouldn't have signed up, PERIOD. The freedom and security that we enjoy as Americans AREN'T FREE, Patrick. Someone has to PAY FOR THEM- and often the price is very high. Be thankful that your daughter was someone who was willing to answer the call and do this. I speak as someone who came from a military family ( both my dad and grandfather were in the service, and I have an ancestor who fought in the Civil War on the Union side) but was prevented from ever being able to serve myself because of something that I was born with. I was born with a dislocated bone in one of my arms. It has never bothered me, and has never interfered with anything I've done or wanted to do- but apparently the military considers it to be an insurmountable handicap. It didn't matter that I passed their entrance exam with no problem and was mentally qualified for nearly a dozen different positions- they still rejected me anyway because of my arm. I would have given anything to have been granted the kind of opportunity that your daughter is getting now, Patrick- that's how much I care about this country. But it was never meant to be. Your daughter is in a much better position than I was or am now, so quit complaining. And while you're at it, how about telling your little girl to stop whining too, and start acting like the adult she's supposed to BE. You'll both be better off, believe me.

Uh...I don't care what MOS in what branch you are in. As a junior enlisted person in ANY branch....you are going to spend a great deal of time...

Mopping, sweeping, buffing, scrubbing, polishing, wiping, cutting, trimming, edging, scraping, painting, policing, raking, etc, etc

Ever notice how neat and tidy a military base looks? How do you think it gets that way?

It is called the SERVICE for a reason. Every single one of us in the military does the work of our Commander..in some shape or form.

That Officer she is taking out the trash for is busy putting together a $15 million dollar deployment of munitions to support operation in the Gulf Region.

Maybe she has the skills and expertise to do that huh?

I am a senior Officer currently with 23 years in the Army who started as an Private...guess what I spent my first 3 years doing?

Selfless service develops character...it is far from slavery...

Selfless service is also an idea that is as foreign to the US civilian world as ancient Greece

Or maybe we should spend some more of your tax dollars and hire a union contractor for $25.00 an hour to do all that menial labor you and her seem to think she is too good to do

Uh...

1) Navy boot camp is NOT hard, one of the easiest.

2) She`s an enlisted, she has officers. They`re her boos, she has to listen,

3) She shouldn`t have signed up not knowing what she was getting into.

4) WOW. Both YOU & YOUR child are idiots....it`s the military. That`s the way it works, and you`re over exaggerating. Seriously, you`re dumb.