How To Upgrade Your Military Discharge

[allan]

How to Upgrade Your Military Discharge

http://www.veteranstoday.com/article9424

[Wings]

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United States Code, Title 10

TITLE 10 > Armed Forces

Subtitle A > General Military Law

PART II > Personnel

CHAPTER 79—CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS

<LI class=tocitem>§ 1551. Correction of name after separation from service under an assumed name

<LI class=tocitem>§ 1552. Correction of military records: claims incident thereto

<LI class=tocitem>§ 1553. Review of discharge or dismissal

<LI class=tocitem>§ 1554. Review of retirement or separation without pay for physical disability

<LI class=tocitem>§ 1554a. Review of separation with disability rating of 20 percent disabled or less

<LI class=tocitem>§ 1555. Professional staff

<LI class=tocitem>§ 1556. Ex parte communications prohibited

<LI class=tocitem>§ 1557. Timeliness standards for disposition of applications before Corrections Boards

<LI class=tocitem>§ 1558. Review of actions of selection boards: correction of military records by special boards; judicial review

<LI class=tocitem>§ 1559. Personnel limitation

Source http://www.law.cornell.edu/

[john999]

My question is how can the army discharge someone with no rating at all, and then the VA gives you a disability rating that starts one day after discharge. You were OK when discharged and became disabled 24 hours later.

[Bill (USAF Retired)]

My question is how can the army discharge someone with no rating at all, and then the VA gives you a disability rating that starts one day after discharge. You were OK when discharged and became disabled 24 hours later.

John,

I'll give you the party line answer that I used to hear all the time when I worked as a civilian paralegal in Army JAG.

The way it worked was that the military would rate "service unfitting" conditions. You could have many things wrong with you according to VA, but the military didn't put you before a medical board unless a condition rendered you unfitting for continued service. If the military boarded you, you'd only get compensated for the service unfitting condition and not the other stuff.

Example: SGT Doe has pes planus and is unable to run PT. The good sergeant also has tinnitus and mild degenerative disk disease.

SGT Doe only has 9 years in the service, and needs to be rated at 30% in order to get disability retirement. The VA would award 10% for each condition (10% plus 9% plus 8% = 27%, rounded up to 30%).

Remember, though, SGT Doe's problem is that he/she can't run PT. The Army would give SGT Doe 10% for pes planus and a discharge with severance pay. The tinnitus and mild DJD weren't a problem for the Army. No disability retirement, just a one-time check and a discharge. Then former SGT Doe comes over to VA, gets awarded 30%, *AND* gets no VA checks until the entire PRE-TAX amount of the severance pay is recouped.

Anyway, that's the answer. Different systems were designed to compensate for different things. That's how I went from being a 20 year MSgt one day to being 70% disabled the following day.