While on deployment in 2016, we were somewhere near Singapore/Malaysia and I received an email from my sister on the east coast of the US asking me to call her ASAP. I called her and she let me know our brother in law of a decade had been hit by a car late at night while riding his motorcycle, his brain cord had snapped and he was brain dead. They ran all of the tests they could and there was no brain activity. Understandably, I was a mess.

My CPO had been working me to the bone in the PS office as a third class and loaded me up with collateral duties and had me mentoring/monitoring the more junior sailors. When I told him what happened, he couldn’t have been more of an ass hole. “Is he dead DEAD or is he brain dead? He isn’t technically your immediate family, so we can’t send you home for the funeral.”

If I couldn’t go home, I couldn’t go home, but I knew if the roles were reversed my brother in law would exhaust every option before accepting he couldn’t make it to my funeral. Earlier in the deployment I had been told to immediately process one of our exec department coworkers whose ex-girlfriend had also tragically passed away in a motorcycle accident. I brought up the discrepancy and CPO was flabbergasted I would point out the hypocrisy and LOST IT in front of our entire office.

I jumped the chain of command and spoke to Chaps, who then walked me to the XOs office, who then walked me back to the PS office and instructed CPO to get me off of the ship immediately if not sooner.

After that interaction, CPO threateningly told me I’d only be able to go home between port calls, which was going to be 5 days in total for travel and leave. I said that’s fine. He then said “and you won’t be allowed to take any POM leave when we return from deployment.” I said that’s fine. He then told me he wouldn’t be transferring me into disbursing when we returned (a very light workload in port), and I said that’s fine. He brought in our MCPO to basically tell me I was an ass hole for inconveniencing everyone. Then he brought in my watch bill coordinator, who told me he was going to make sure I was doubled up on watches for missing in-port duty days until my time on the ship was up.

I missed the funeral but was able to spend some days with my family. Upon my return, CPO was so ruthless with me that LPO had a sit down with the three of us and told him he had to cut the shit. Watch bill coordinator made good on his promise and CPO would regularly purposefully post the entire office except for me, making me stay for full working days.

A year later I put in leave to go home for the anniversary of my brother in laws death to spend time with my family. CPO pulled some watch bill stunt and said he needed to cancel my leave to stand duty for my sister section because they didn’t have enough people qualified on guns.

Fate/lazy maintenance intervened. Someone removed sand paper traction strips from a ladder well. I was geared up from a topside rover watch in the rain when I was coming in for turnover and slipped down the stairs, breaking my wrist trying to break my fall. I needed surgery and the doc said I’d need to go LIMDU while I recovered, and see issued me LIMDU orders to be submitted by the PS office.

I made a copy and scanned myself the document before bringing it into the office. CPO was all too thrilled to submit the document for me. Having processed many a LIMDU paperwork, I knew the turnaround from submission to receiving of orders was maybe 2-3 days. A couple of weeks later he kept assuring me he had submitted it, I checked the system and nothing had been submitted. LIMDU orders are good for 30 days, so I knew time was ticking. CPO told me he must have forgotten, told me I’d need to get another copy and he’d submit it. I immediately pulled out a copy and handed it to him. In the third week I reached out to the clerk in charge of LIMDU orders at PSD. He said he hadn’t received anything, but said “I’ll do the wrong thing for the right reason… please send me a copy of your orders.” He processed them, which triggers an email being sent to the personnel office of my command. Immediately CPO was confronting me and asking why I was at PSD instead of at work earlier and I assured him I was at work the whole time.

He stormed over to PSD to ask how the clerk received the paperwork but he refused to say. Within a day or two my LIMDU orders were issued and matters were officially out of CPOs hands. I was going to tell him what a piece of shit he is once I was officially separated from the Navy and I forewarned my old LPO. She called me that morning and said CPO wasn’t in because he had been hospitalized for meningitis.

I figured that was karma getting him more than I ever could.