RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS AIR FORCE BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS IN THE MATTER OF: DOCKET NUMBER: BC-2011-04273 COUNSEL: NONE HEARING DESIRED: NO _________________________________________________________________ APPLICANT REQUESTS THAT: His character of discharge be upgraded to honorable. _________________________________________________________________ APPLICANT CONTENDS THAT: 1. He served honorably while in the Air Force. There were no issues other than his requested job was not available. He was given the option to go into another career field or be discharged. 2. He is applying for federal and state education benefits, which requires an honorable discharge. In support of his request, the applicant provides a copy of his DD Form 214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty. The applicant's complete submission, with attachment, is at Exhibit A. _________________________________________________________________ STATEMENT OF FACTS: On 13 Jul 04, the applicant entered the Regular Air Force. On 19 Oct 04, the applicant was eliminated from the Electronic Principals portion of the Communications Cable Systems Apprentice course for academic deficiency. On 28 Oct 04, the applicant was notified by his commander that he was recommending his discharge from the Air Force under the provisions of AFPD 36-32, Air Force Military Training and AFI 36-3208, Administrative Separation of Airmen, paragraph 5.22.2.3., Unsatisfactory Entry Level Performance or Conduct for failure to make satisfactory progress in a required training program. The reason for the proposed action was the applicant failed block IV tests, on two occasions, with scores of 55 and 45 percent respectively. The commander indicated the applicant was unable to comprehend complex electronic concepts at the current rate of presentation. Also, he did not put forth the effort required to successfully complete the course. The applicant acknowledged receipt of the notification of discharge, waived his right to seek counsel and to submit a statement in his own behalf. On 1 Nov 04, the discharge authority approved the separation. The applicant received an uncharacterized entry-level separation, by reason of entry-level performance or conduct, and was issued a reentry (RE) code of 2C. He served on active duty for a period of 3 months and 22 days. The remaining relevant facts pertaining to this application are contained in the letter prepared by the appropriate office of the Air Force which is attached at Exhibit C. _________________________________________________________________ AIR FORCE EVALUATION: AFPC/DPSOS recommends denial. DPSOS states Airmen are given entry-level separation/uncharacterized service characterization when separation is initiated in the first 180 days of continuous active service. The Department of Defense (DoD) determined if a member served less than 180 days continuous active service, it would be unfair to the member and the service to characterize their limited service. Therefore, his uncharacterized service is correct and in accordance with DoD and Air Force instructions. DPSOS states that based on the documentation on file in the master personnel records, the discharge, was consistent with the procedural and substantive requirements of the discharge regulation and was within the discretion of the discharge authority. The applicant did not provide any evidence of an error or injustice in the processing of his discharge warranting a change to his type of separation or RE code. The complete DPSOS evaluation is at Exhibit C. _________________________________________________________________ APPLICANT'S REVIEW OF AIR FORCE EVALUATION: A copy of the Air Force evaluation was forwarded to the applicant on 13 Jan 12 for review and comment within 30 days (Exhibit D). As of this date, this office has not received a response. _________________________________________________________________ THE BOARD CONCLUDES THAT: 1. The applicant has exhausted all remedies provided by existing law or regulations. 2. The application was not timely filed; however, it is in the interest of justice to excuse the failure to timely file. 3. Insufficient relevant evidence has been presented to demonstrate the existence of error or injustice regarding the applicant’s request to change his character of service. The Air Force office of primary responsibility has provided an adequate assessment of the applicant’s case and we are in agreement with their opinion and recommendation. In addition, only on a case by case basis, if a member is within 180 days of service, and it is clearly warranted by unusual circumstances of personal conduct and performance of military duty, can a member be given an honorable characterization of service. Therefore, we find no basis to favorably consider this portion of his application. 4. Notwithstanding the above, sufficient relevant evidence has been presented to demonstrate the existence of an injustice warranting corrective action to the applicant’s narrative reason for separation and separation code. In this respect, no evidence has been presented that would lead us to believe his discharge was improper or contrary to the directive under which it was effected. Nor does the applicant allege any error occurred. Nevertheless, it appears his narrative reason for separation and separation codes were assigned based primarily on his lack of performance at the time and not conduct. In view of this, we believe it would be appropriate to change the applicant’s separation to Secretarial Authority and the separation code to “KFF.” Therefore, in order to preclude a possible injustice to the applicant, we recommend his records be corrected to the extent indicated below _________________________________________________________________ THE BOARD RECOMMENDS THAT: The pertinent military records of the Department of the Air Force relating to APPLICANT, be corrected to show that on 4 November 2004 he was separated under the provisions of AFI 36- 3208, (Secretarial Authority), with a separation code of KFF. _________________________________________________________________ The following members of the Board considered Docket Number BC- 2011-04273 in Executive Session on 10 Apr 12, under the provisions of AFI 36-2603: All members voted to correct the record as recommended. The following documentary evidence was considered: Exhibit A. DD Form 149, dated 27 Oct 11. Exhibit B. Applicant's Master Personnel Records. Exhibit C. AFPC/DPSOS, Letter, dated 5 Jan 12. Exhibit D. SAF/MRBC, Letter, dated 13 Jan 12.