U.S. Navy

The U.S. Navy is the institution William Stanley Milligan entered in 1972 after his expulsion from school had worsened an already difficult home situation. His enlistment initially offered a way to leave home and begin military training; within weeks, however, the Navy’s response to his changing conduct led to a psychiatric assessment and his discharge. The episode links the practical purpose of enlistment with the limits of what the service could accommodate once his behavior and medical history came to light.

Enlistment and the reason for leaving

Five weeks after William Stanley Milligan turned seventeen, Tommy and Allen joined the Navy, a week before Jim was due to leave for the Air Force. On March 23, 1972, Allen went with Dorothy to the recruiting office, where he and Tommy signed enlistment papers. Dorothy had mixed feelings about allowing her younger son to enlist, but she understood that getting him out of the house and away from Chalmer mattered. His expulsion from school had made the situation worse.

The recruiting officer moved rapidly through the paperwork and questions, with Dorothy doing most of the answering. One question asked whether he had ever been in a mental institution or been diagnosed as mentally ill. The later discovery that William Stanley Milligan had lied on the recruitment papers makes this exchange consequential: the enlistment began with a question about precisely the kind of history the Navy would later find in Ohio records. The account does not establish what answer Dorothy gave at the office, but it does show that the Navy ultimately learned the relevant history only after training had begun.

Training at Great Lakes

Within a week, Allen was on his way to the Naval Training Center at Great Lakes, Illinois. He was assigned to Company 109, Battalion 21, to begin basic training. His prior experience in the Civil Air Patrol led to his appointment as RPOC, or Recruit Petty Officer in Charge, over 160 young recruits. In that role, Allen was a strict disciplinarian.

The early account presents him as energetic and intent on improving the company’s performance. When he learned that the company most proficient in the sixteen-count manual would become the honor company, he and Tommy set out to find minutes to save in the morning schedule. The ambition was specific and practical: the pair tried to make the routine more efficient so the company could excel at its drill. That initial initiative contrasts with the later report from the company commander, who described a rapid decline in participation and reliability.

Evaluation and psychiatric findings

On April 12, two weeks and four days after Tommy joined the Navy, Philip was assigned to the Recruit Evaluation Unit. The company commander’s report traced a sequence of changes. At first, the recruit had been RPOC; after being relieved of that position, he was said to have tried to boss others, begun reporting to sick call, and found reasons to miss classes. The commander described him as falling behind the rest of the company and recommended that he be watched. The account thus records not simply a poor training performance but an observable shift from responsibility for a large group to increasing absence and difficulty keeping pace.

A psychiatrist interviewed David, who did not understand what was happening. The Navy checked records from Ohio and discovered both that William Stanley Milligan had been in a mental hospital and that he had lied on his recruitment papers. The psychiatric report judged him to lack the maturity and stability needed to function effectively in the Navy and recommended discharge as temperamentally unsuitable for further training. The evaluation converted the earlier problems in the company into a formal judgment about his ability to continue in service. It does not present the psychiatrist’s finding as a diagnosis explaining every change; it records the recommendation and the service’s decision that followed.

Discharge and immediate aftermath

On May 1, a month and a day after his enlistment, William Stanley Milligan was discharged from the U.S. Navy under honorable conditions. He received his pay and an airline ticket to Columbus. The short interval between signing the papers and discharge closes the attempted military passage almost as soon as it began: he had gone from the recruiting office to basic training, taken responsibility for 160 recruits, and then entered psychiatric review after his performance deteriorated.

The discharge did not take him directly to the destination printed on the ticket. Traveling from Great Lakes toward O’Hare Airport in Chicago, Philip learned that two recruits on leave were going home to New York City. Instead of using the airline ticket, he joined them on the bus. New York was a place he knew he was from but had never seen. The episode therefore ends with an immediate departure from the Navy and a change of route, rather than a return to Columbus as planned.

Significance in the account

The Navy’s role is confined to a short but consequential period: it offers a route away from Chalmer and a structured assignment, then responds to the recruit’s increasingly troubled conduct through review of his records and psychiatric assessment. The company’s early pursuit of the honor-company standard and the later reports of missed classes form a pointed contrast, while the discovery of the Ohio hospital history exposes the gap between the recruitment paperwork and what the service eventually learned.

The sequence also distinguishes several kinds of judgment. The recruiting question concerned past hospitalization and mental illness; the company commander reported present difficulties in training; and the psychiatrist assessed suitability for continued Navy service. The resulting discharge was an administrative outcome, not a finding about the later legal questions in William Stanley Milligan’s life. By ending with Philip abandoning the ticket for a bus to New York City, the narrative gives the failed enlistment a further consequence: the Navy’s return arrangements did not determine where he went next.