The monthslong ordeal two Marine recruits experienced while awaiting a medical discharge has met its conclusion. Both will leave Parris Island, S.C., and be home by mid-June.

Justin Henderson, 20, took a bus home to his family in Raleigh, N.C., on June 13 after being stuck at the Corps' East Coast recruit depot since January 2011. He was put into the holding pattern after coming down with pneumonia 13 days into boot camp, and developing scarring on his lungs.

His plight, and that of fellow recruit Leonard Carter, was documented in a Marine Corps Times cover story appearing in the June 18 issue. The story apparently surprised some.

"People higher up came in and asked us a lot of questions," Henderson said. "It seemed like they were trying to understand why I was there that long."

With less than 24 hours as a civilian, Henderson said he wasn't sure what to do with himself yet. He left the island with a 10 percent disability rating, which means he received severance pay but nothing else.

"I would've taken anything just to get to leave," he said.

Henderson said that Carter, who suffered nerve damage after undergoing surgery to remove a tumor on his leg bone, received his discharge paperwork right before Henderson left. Carter, 21, is set to return home to Indian Trail, N.C., the week of June 18 after 14 months on the island, said his aunt, Beth Carter.

Henderson said there were no negative repercussions following the publication of their story. The two recruits covertly contacted Marine Corps Times in hopes of expediting their departure.

Maj. Shawn Haney, a spokeswoman for Manpower and Reserve Affairs in Quantico, Va., said the story did not affect the release timeline for the two because of where their cases stood. But there are still some things the Marine Corps can take a look at, she said of the process.

First Lt. Melanie Salinas, a spokeswoman for Parris Island, addressed questions about sick and injured recruits who are kept at boot camp while awaiting a Physical Evaluation Board, including a claim made by Carter that he felt "like a prisoner." She said recruits awaiting the PEB still follow customs the Corps requires of its newest members, but that the environment for them is relaxed.

They are allowed opportunities to go to the depot's library, movie theater, Marine Corps Exchange and bowling alley on Fridays, and church on Sundays, she said. And they are required to keep their squad bay clean for medical reasons.

"Cleanliness is important because the recruits there are ill or injured," Salinas said. "So it's very important that they maintain a sanitary environment because they live in close quarters."

Henderson and Carter were stuck on the Integrated Disability Evaluation System, which held recruits going through medical separation on active duty. A Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery order dated May 3 announced a return to a previously used system that releases recruits from active duty faster.

"These cases have the attention of our senior leaders, who recognize the length of time it has taken to process them," Haney said. "They are very involved, as was evident in the action taken to advocate for a return to the [previously used] process, in order to decrease that time."

Carter's aunt said she was glad to hear about the change to move sick and injured recruits off active duty.

"They just need something a little better," she said. "That system they had sure wasn't working well - and for some, it wasn't working at all."

Now that their time in the Marine Corps is over, Henderson said he might want to become a welder, and Carter said he is planning to go to college.

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