Reply #52: You can outprocess from the Army in just a couple of days

[jmowreader]

Most of what you do when you're preparing to go from soldier to civilian is politely entitled "transition counseling." You take a physical, get the dental work you didn't have time to do when you were making the world safe for democracy done--it's free, take advantage of it--go to the Army Career and Alumni Program "how to find a job" classes, just lots of stuff. You can start doing those things as soon as you have your separation orders, which come to you many months before your Expiration Term of Service (ETS) date.

All those things can be done in Korea. You can get back to the states and do the final separation stuff, which consists of getting your discharge document done and taking care of your final finance, in maybe two days if they're not pushing it. It takes a while to clear in a stateside post because you're clearing post AND the army--if you clear post in Korea, clearing the Army is all paperwork.