You have good judgment and I have good judgment but the troop who's whole problem is poor judgment WRT a dumb permanent solution to a temporary treatable proble

You have good judgment and I have good judgment but the troop who's whole problem is poor judgment WRT a dumb permanent solution to a temporary treatable problem is by the nature of the problem not going to react very well to "that created a chance" and "vulnerable to exploit" type of talk. If the whole point is they're coming up with a drastically wrong solution to a problem, theoretical probability talk is the same as 100% certain to them in their bad judgment situation. Or maybe another way to phrase it is if the troop inaccurately thinks he's in the worst situation humanly imaginable, telling him that the half of the guys who aren't in the very worst situation turn out fine, isn't really much encouragement, because by definition if the troop had judgment good enough to interpret the problem as something the docs can patch up, it wouldn't be a problem... From the point of view of the troop with a problem, you're publicly agreeing with me. Another important point is in the army its not as simple as civilians see everything not forbidden is compulsory and everything not compulsory is forbidden. Its much more nuanced and for lifers losing out on a competitive slot or promotion or MOS reclass is a major problem. There's a difference in the army between "we're kicking you out" and "we're not supporting your career progression anymore". Essentially the latter is waiting for them to leave, the army can be surprisingly passive-aggressive as a policy. Yes if you go to BH you almost certainly won't get kicked out for that reason, but a hoped for career and retirement could evaporate just as effectively as if the troop got kicked out. I haven't filled out a SF86 in probably 30 years, but I found a copy online at opm.gov and its right there on page 84 they want all the info on any mental health counseling. If it truly didn't matter then they wouldn't be wasting time asking. I can sympathize with the Army's need to kick mentally ill people out (preferably with treatment). The problem with a depressed chopper pilot is if he decides to CFIT into a mountain that's a very expensive helicopter and the passengers almost certainly didn't want to come along. The fundamental nature of the army mission is an individual's problem is the team's problem.