I was late for duty but no one ever told me I had CQ. Don’t my leaders have to inform me I have duty? | AskTOP.net – Leader Development for Army Professionals

I was late for duty but no one ever told me I had CQ. Don’t my leaders have to inform me I have duty?

I was late to Staff duty and got counseled and had to pull 2 shifts of CQ on the weekend. Here is the background. I was on Staff Duty when the new roster came out and then went on leave so I never knew I had duty. No one in my leadership informed until I was several hours late. Can they give me corrective training and counsel me?

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1st thanks for contacting ASKTOP.net.

I reached out to one of our Legal experts.   Unfortunately you are the one holding the bag because you are responsible to check duty rosters before and after leave.  Usually this is a unit policy.  It would have been nice for your Squad Leader to let you know but they are under no obligation to do so.  This is one of those cases where you might just want to embrace the “Suck” and take the corrective training with a positive attitude.  If the Chain of Command wanted to push the issue they could have went for a Field Grade Article 15 for failure to be at appointed place of duty with 45 days extra duty, 45 days restriction, and potential loss of rank/money.  Then with an Article 15 you would most likely be separated from the Army because of the current drawdown.

So in comparison the two days of weekend CQ doesn’t seem to bad but I get it.  It might be best just to take it as a lesson learned.  If you want to pursue this you would first need to see if the unit has a written policy about checking the unit bulletin board, etc.  Keep in mind they can still recommend an Article 15 even after they have counseled you and completed corrective training….so again it might be best to let sleeping dogs lie.  My experience tells me your chain of command sees you as a good Soldier and they just wanted to get your attention.  Otherwise they would have most likely gone straight for UCMJ.

 

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Mark is a Retired Command Sergeant Major with 26 years of military leadership experience. He held 3 military occupational specialties (Field Artillery, Nuclear Weapons Tech, and Ammunition Ordnance). Mark is one of the leading military authors in the fields of leadership, counseling, and training.

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