Discharge Upgrade

[gp747]

i was discharged under honorable conditions,recently granted 30%

sc for the reasons i was discharged. examiner cited that my disorder

was the cause for the actions that lead to discharge. i recently applied

for upgrade in discharge and told them i did not see any reason i needed

someone to represent me. is this going to be a battle? i sent them copy

of my disability award.

[carlie]

A hardship discharge is usually an Honorable Discharge, even

tho the entire enlistment was not served.

carlie

[USACID]

If you were in less than three years, you were not entitled to a discharge board. Your commander would have been the sole authority on the discharge with the BCD or General Court Martial Covening Authority giving the final say. Examine the discharge packet. If you dont have it, apply to the DRB for an upgrade, they will obtain your file then ask you if you want to review your file prior to giving a formal presentation to the board. (Make sure you indicate on the application that you want to give a formal appearance before the Board, your chance of an upgrade is much higher) Look at the regulation they used to discharge you and determine that it is accurate. A common error that commanders make, is if a SM is court-martialed and found not guilty, they use the aquitted offense to support the admin discharge since the standard of proof is less(i.e. criminal is proof beyond a reasonable doubt whereas admin is preponderance of the evidence). Unless they obtain HQ Department approval first of thier respective branch, this is improper and the Appeals Board will reverse the discharge.

[rentalguy1]

Thanks MT and Carlie. I did not know those things.

[gp747]

i don't deny that they had good reasons to discharge me as i was

not able to carry out my duties any more. when they discharged me

i saw a psychologist for about 15 minutes and he gave me a clean bill

of health. not once did he ask me about Vietnam or anything about

the time i had been hospitalized in Vietnam, for nervous condition.

the only thing is i should have been given a medical discharge as it

was obvious i was suffering from mental problems.

[john999]

I had my general discharge upgraded to honorable, but I asked for the upgrade within a year or two of my discharge. I had a hearing, and me and my representative told such a sad and true story some of the people in the room were crying. I felt so sorry for myself I almost cried. Anyway, after the first 3 years after discharge it gets harder to upgrade, but going from general under honorable to honorable should not be that hard. If it has been more than 15 years you have to gain the military's permission to appeal at a discharge review board. That can be tricky. If there is nothing for them to lose then they will probably do it. If they think you are after a pension forget it. For instance, if you ask that your discharge be changed to a medical with any sort of pension or payment you need a lawyer because they will just slam/dunk you for every technicality they can find to deny it. If you are getting significant compensation from the VA it is probably not worth the effort because you can't get both and VA is more. Kicking people out who are sick on general discharges has always been a cheap way for the military to get rid of people. Hence the large population of homeless Vietnam vets.

[USACID]

What Wings said is correct, you cannot go to the Board and say you want your Discharge Upgraded for Mental health reasons. The Board will be compassionate and tell you they appreciate your position, but they will deny the upgrade barring some exceptional reason which occurred outside the military. If you have already submitted, you can amend your request and I would do so immediately after doing some research. Your eyes will go cross-eyed reading the material in the research room but it is well worth it. Try to find a case that is similar to yours where te Board upgraded and use that as an example. Come to DC or whereever the Board meets. It is well worth the money especially since the upgrade is important to you.