Is requesting mast career suicide?

[unhappycamper]

Is requesting mast career suicide?
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 22, 2008 7:39:12 EDT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — For the better part of a year, then-Master Sgt. Isaac Ford traveled to local and regional recruiting stations, meeting with officer procurement recruiters and potential candidates, training recruiters and analyzing data on recruiting efforts and trends in the Western Recruiting Region.

Along the way, he shared this information with his boss, an officer who ran a four-person recruiting shop in California. What had been a normal working relationship, Ford said, began to change two years ago when he began to clash with that commander, often about his role and contributions and what he saw as her marginalizing and demeaning him.

Talks with her went nowhere, he said, and he got no relief from their immediate superiors. After he filed the first of two separate applications for requesting mast, his hopes of getting support from the commanding general fell flat, and he said the situation soon spiraled out of control.

Promoted to master gunnery sergeant, Ford was reassigned to a gunnery sergeant billet at the recruiting station level. The new position had little responsibility or training opportunities. His government credit card was cancelled.

A year went by with two missed fitness reports. His most recent eval — a backdated one — was adverse, his first in his 24 years on active-duty and in the reserves, most of it spent as a career recruiter.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/09/marine_requestmast_092108w/%2e

[Enrique]

1. i give up

what's mast?

Google was no help :-(

n.
Nautical. A tall vertical spar, sometimes sectioned, that rises from the keel or deck of a sailing vessel to support the sails and the standing and running rigging.
A vertical pole.
A tall vertical antenna, as for a radio.
A captain's mast.



mast2 (măst)
n.
The nuts of forest trees accumulated on the ground, used especially as food for swine.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. I believe a mast is a formal request up-channel to meet informally with a superior officer

It is a naval term and comes from the old tradition of the ship's captain having an "open session" at the ship's main mast, where even the lowest ranking cabin boy may seek redress of problems. It is similar to the way a nobleman or king would hold an open court.

Added I found this: Naval Terminology, Jargon and Slang FAQ, Part 1 (A-M) and Part 2 (N-Z)

Captain's Mast - Non-judicial disciplinary procedure, usually meted out by unit commanders.

[Enrique]

3. that makes sense

it fits the article. Thanks!

[MrScorpio]

4. Recruiting duty, a lot of times, is a sure ticket to a fucked up career

Thank God I found out early and avoided it like the plague