Posted on Nov 30, 2016
Advocacy Group Calls On Obama To Pardon Post-9/11 Vets With ‘Bad-Paper’ Discharges
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I've seen the effects of a "bad paper" discharge firsthand. My first daughter's husband was discharged under "other than honorable conditions."
During my son-in-law's deployment to Iraq, he broke several vertebrae when he fell into a hole at night. He was treated and given a temporary profile. After he redeployed, he was treated and issued a permanent profile for spondylolysis. He also showed signs of PTSD, but he was never diagnosed with it. Being no angel, this young soldier used his profile and his medical appointments to get out of doing a variety of jobs. Instead of starting the medical board process on him, his unit just wanted to get rid of him. So, he was given an "other than honorable" discharge. Because he had no VA medical benefits, he self-medicated with drugs and alcohol.
Nine months after he and my daughter celebrated the birth of their second child, he left her. He moved in with a girlfriend and left his wife with two little boys who were 19-months-old and 9-months-old respectively. He only took care of his sons when their mother was working. As soon as she would get home, he would leave.
One night in November 2009, my daughter worked until midnight. When she got home, both boys were wide awake. Their father spent most of the night drinking and ignoring his sons. He didn't even try to get them to sleep. My daughter was exhausted, but she stayed awake the rest of the night with children who refused to sleep. After breakfast the following morning, she put the older boy in the shower with the drain open. Wanting to be with him, the younger brother fell into the bathtub and hit his head, knocking himself unconscious. He suffered a near drowning and passed away the next day. His mother was convicted of second degree manslaughter and child neglect because she was the only adult in the apartment at the time.
Do I blame my son-in-law for leaving my daughter two weeks before my grandson died? Absolutely. Do I blame the military medical establishment for not investigating his PTSD symptoms? Definitely. Do I blame his unit for discharging him under "other than honorable" conditions? Certainly.
If this soldier had been properly diagnosed and treated, he would have VA medical benefits and perhaps, my second grandson would have celebrated his 7th birthday this year. Instead, we are left with the 7th anniversary of his death.
During my son-in-law's deployment to Iraq, he broke several vertebrae when he fell into a hole at night. He was treated and given a temporary profile. After he redeployed, he was treated and issued a permanent profile for spondylolysis. He also showed signs of PTSD, but he was never diagnosed with it. Being no angel, this young soldier used his profile and his medical appointments to get out of doing a variety of jobs. Instead of starting the medical board process on him, his unit just wanted to get rid of him. So, he was given an "other than honorable" discharge. Because he had no VA medical benefits, he self-medicated with drugs and alcohol.
Nine months after he and my daughter celebrated the birth of their second child, he left her. He moved in with a girlfriend and left his wife with two little boys who were 19-months-old and 9-months-old respectively. He only took care of his sons when their mother was working. As soon as she would get home, he would leave.
One night in November 2009, my daughter worked until midnight. When she got home, both boys were wide awake. Their father spent most of the night drinking and ignoring his sons. He didn't even try to get them to sleep. My daughter was exhausted, but she stayed awake the rest of the night with children who refused to sleep. After breakfast the following morning, she put the older boy in the shower with the drain open. Wanting to be with him, the younger brother fell into the bathtub and hit his head, knocking himself unconscious. He suffered a near drowning and passed away the next day. His mother was convicted of second degree manslaughter and child neglect because she was the only adult in the apartment at the time.
Do I blame my son-in-law for leaving my daughter two weeks before my grandson died? Absolutely. Do I blame the military medical establishment for not investigating his PTSD symptoms? Definitely. Do I blame his unit for discharging him under "other than honorable" conditions? Certainly.
If this soldier had been properly diagnosed and treated, he would have VA medical benefits and perhaps, my second grandson would have celebrated his 7th birthday this year. Instead, we are left with the 7th anniversary of his death.
Advocacy Group Calls On Obama To Pardon Post-9/11 Vets With ‘Bad-Paper’ Discharges
Posted from taskandpurpose.com
PTSD
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Discharge
Medical
Edited 8 y ago
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 8
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at one time there was a 5 year wait and a Board that accepted applications...
they would review on a case By case and In many cases would get UP grade the Discharges... and in many cases the Codes were also upgraded to RE-1
they would review on a case By case and In many cases would get UP grade the Discharges... and in many cases the Codes were also upgraded to RE-1
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LTC Peter Hartman
There is an Army Board for the Correction of Military Records. They don't approve many applications. I serve on the Coast Guard's Board.
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SPC Jill Drushal, RN, MA
There is now an Army Discharge Review Board - part of the Army Review Boards Agency. Under "New" Discharge Upgrades and PTSD, the purpose of the Board is outlined. See: http://arba.army.pentagon.mil/adrb-ptsd.cfm
Army Review Boards Agency (ARBA)
The Army Review Boards Agency serves as the highest administrative level for review of personnel actions taken by lower levels of the Army and administers a number of boards including those listed below.
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I'm so sorry to read this brother. Completely terrible situation. This is one of those second and third order of effects the Army is supposed to help us mitigate. This whole situation is mind blowing
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Everyone this is not a new conversation.
-----1963 Congressional Report below Proves this----
Lets muster, identify problems and also offer solutions to create systemic cultural system changes that do not first take into account illness caused by stress of duty, thereby stopping punitively adverse discharges harming otherwise brave service members and their families that actual need the team still and help.
I really do not know how our system would ever allow for punitive discharges without first documenting duty reviewing identifying medical illness as the root cause.
Remember the "Oath of Enlistment"
"I,, do solemnly swear, that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all....
"Constitutional Rights of Military Personnel"
Summary-Report 88th Congress Washington
1963
----EXERPTS----
"No persons should be more entitled to protection of their constitutional rights than the servicemen engaged in protecting the sovereignty of the United States. Appropriately, the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights has been concerned"
"On the other hand, a serviceman may be viewed as discharged "under honorable conditions" or, in the words of title 38, United States Code, section lOl(2) "under conditions other than dishonorable" even though he did not receive an honorable discharge. The terminology is confusing on its face and, as Congress- man Doyle acknowledged in his testimony, few persons understand the difference between a dishonorable discharge given by a general court-martial and an undesirable discharge given administratively. He also commented with respect to the stigma created by an undesirable discharge:
"He is an undesirable. You don't want to have anything to do with him. You
don't go into detail to find out what makes him undesirable. You think he may
be a thief, he may be a homosexual, he may not be supporting his children, his
family in the minds of some people, but he is undesirable, you don't want him
around. And I think the ordinary patriotic, sound-thinking American citizen
doesn't want to have anything to do with an undesirable man and that applies
to an undesirable man from the military, something has occurred there in the
military for which he has gotten an undesirable discharge; it is a stigma. It is a
liability, and a heavy one."
Jn a similar vein, Chief Judge Quinn of the Court of Military Appeals, testified concerning the undesirable discharge, that:
I think, generally speaking, Mr. Chairman, it is worse than a bad conduct discharge, as far as its implications are concerned, and the results also are quite severe. You cannot get a job in a bank or a trust company or for the Govern- ment; for Electric Boat, for instance, at New London or any of the places where there is any confidential requirement. They will not give work to a man with an undesirable discharge. It is a very severe penalty. I think that an undesirable discharge is a very severe penalty, and I believe that it should not be given except as a result of a court-martial, except in the instance where the individual, after proper legal advice, and proper legal protection, decides to accept it for his own personal protection. I mean in the case of homosexuals, I can see there where they might want to take the undesirable discharge. But I think they ought to have a right to a trial. I think it is a very severe penalty.
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/what-is-your-response-to-constitutional-rights-of-military-personnel-summary-report-88th-congress-washington-1963
-----1963 Congressional Report below Proves this----
Lets muster, identify problems and also offer solutions to create systemic cultural system changes that do not first take into account illness caused by stress of duty, thereby stopping punitively adverse discharges harming otherwise brave service members and their families that actual need the team still and help.
I really do not know how our system would ever allow for punitive discharges without first documenting duty reviewing identifying medical illness as the root cause.
Remember the "Oath of Enlistment"
"I,, do solemnly swear, that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all....
"Constitutional Rights of Military Personnel"
Summary-Report 88th Congress Washington
1963
----EXERPTS----
"No persons should be more entitled to protection of their constitutional rights than the servicemen engaged in protecting the sovereignty of the United States. Appropriately, the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights has been concerned"
"On the other hand, a serviceman may be viewed as discharged "under honorable conditions" or, in the words of title 38, United States Code, section lOl(2) "under conditions other than dishonorable" even though he did not receive an honorable discharge. The terminology is confusing on its face and, as Congress- man Doyle acknowledged in his testimony, few persons understand the difference between a dishonorable discharge given by a general court-martial and an undesirable discharge given administratively. He also commented with respect to the stigma created by an undesirable discharge:
"He is an undesirable. You don't want to have anything to do with him. You
don't go into detail to find out what makes him undesirable. You think he may
be a thief, he may be a homosexual, he may not be supporting his children, his
family in the minds of some people, but he is undesirable, you don't want him
around. And I think the ordinary patriotic, sound-thinking American citizen
doesn't want to have anything to do with an undesirable man and that applies
to an undesirable man from the military, something has occurred there in the
military for which he has gotten an undesirable discharge; it is a stigma. It is a
liability, and a heavy one."
Jn a similar vein, Chief Judge Quinn of the Court of Military Appeals, testified concerning the undesirable discharge, that:
I think, generally speaking, Mr. Chairman, it is worse than a bad conduct discharge, as far as its implications are concerned, and the results also are quite severe. You cannot get a job in a bank or a trust company or for the Govern- ment; for Electric Boat, for instance, at New London or any of the places where there is any confidential requirement. They will not give work to a man with an undesirable discharge. It is a very severe penalty. I think that an undesirable discharge is a very severe penalty, and I believe that it should not be given except as a result of a court-martial, except in the instance where the individual, after proper legal advice, and proper legal protection, decides to accept it for his own personal protection. I mean in the case of homosexuals, I can see there where they might want to take the undesirable discharge. But I think they ought to have a right to a trial. I think it is a very severe penalty.
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/what-is-your-response-to-constitutional-rights-of-military-personnel-summary-report-88th-congress-washington-1963
What is your response to "Constitutional Rights of Military Personnel" Summary-Report 88th...
ReportQuote"PREFACE""No persons should be more entitled to protection of their constitutional rights than the servicemen engaged in protecting the sovereignty of the United States. Appropriately, the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights has been concerned"Reminder: Oath of Enlistment "I,, do solemnly swear, that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all....
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