Army agrees to expedite appeal for WWII veteran, 95, seeking honorable discharge

Nelson Henry’s lawyers filed an appeal in March asking the Army to change his “discriminatory” blue discharge to honorable, nearly 75 years after Nelson was separated from the military in 1945. Between 1941 and 1945, more than 48,000 soldiers were given “blue discharges.” The Army replaced them in 1947 with two new classifications, general and undesirable.

The “blue discharge,” neither honorable nor dishonorable, denied veterans benefits such as the GI Bill to get a college education, or the right to have an honor guard at their funeral. A disproportionate number of those discharges were given to black, gay, and lesbian service members.