PROCEEDINGS

	IN THE CASE OF:  

	BOARD DATE:            26 May 1999                  
	DOCKET NUMBER:   AR1998009862

	I certify that hereinafter is recorded the true and complete record of the proceedings of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in the case of the above-named individual.  

	Mr. Loren G. Harrell		Director	
	Mr. W. E. Schnupp .		Analyst	

  The following members, a quorum, were present:

	Mr. Mark D. Manning		Chairperson	
	Mr. Arthur A. Omartian		Member	
	Ms. Barbara J. Ellis		Member	

	The applicant and counsel if any, did not appear before the Board.

	The Board considered the following evidence:

	Exhibit A - Application for correction of military 
                records
	Exhibit B - Military Personnel Records (including
	            advisory opinion, if any)

FINDINGS:

1.  The applicant has exhausted or the Board has waived the requirement for exhaustion of all administrative remedies afforded by existing law or regulations.

2.  The applicant requests promotion to the grade of major.

3.  He states that at the time of his separation his promotion to major was never implemented.  He believes that he is entitled to the promotion based on his patriotism-he voluntarily appeared three time for physical examination and entrance into the service, he spent extensive combat time as a medical officer and he transferred to another position for the purpose of promotion on 25 July 1945 but promotions were frozen at war’s end.

4.  His military record shows that he was appointed a first lieutenant, Medical Corps, and entered active duty on 3 July 1943 at age 27.  He was subsequently promoted to the grade of Captain on 3 December 1943 and served as a medical officer and commander of a Medical Collecting Company in the Southwest Pacific and the Philippines.  He was placed in a terminal leave status effective  23 March 1946 and honorably discharged on 29 April 1946.

5.  His military awards include the Bronze Star Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the Philippine Liberation Ribbon, the World War II Victory Medal, the Distinguished Unit Citation, the Meritorious Unit Citation and the Combat Medical Badge.

6.  In 1946 the War Department announced a new promotion policy (War Department Circular 140, 15 May 1946, Promotion of Officers on Relief from Active Duty), commonly referred to as terminal leave promotions, for officers released as the result of demobilization after WWII.  This policy provided, in pertinent part, for the promotion of certain officers to the next higher grade (from first lieutenant through colonel) upon their separation from active duty.  Officers were required to have held their prior grade a specified period of time.  In the case of promotions from captain to major, the period was at least 24 months in grade; however, the circular also provided that officers would be given 50 percent credit for all time spent in the lower grade overseas.

7.  The policy further prescribed that officers who had served the appropriate time-in-grade on active duty since 16 September 1940 were eligible for one-grade promotion, coincident with processing for relief from active duty.  Promotions would be effective the date the officer departed active duty on terminal leave.

8.  Promotions made in accordance with the foregoing authority, were temporary, expired automatically at the end of the official termination of the war plus             6 months, and did not affect the status of the individual in the Officers’ Reserve 

Corps, or in the National Guard of the United States, in his lower permanent grade.

9.  Army Regulation 600-8-22, Military Awards, provides that subsequent to the cessation of hostilities during World War II, the regulation governing the award of the Bronze Star Medal was changed, in part, to provide for the award of this decoration to those individuals who had been awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge or the Combat Medical Badge for meritorious achievement in ground combat against the armed enemy between 7 December 1941 and 2 September 1945.

10.  The same regulation provides that the American Campaign Medal is awarded for service during the period 7 December 1941 and 2 March 1946.

CONCLUSIONS:

1.  The evidence of record together with the pertinent instructions from War Department Circular 140 indicates that the applicant met the requisite requirements for a relief from active duty promotion to the next higher grade-major-upon his separation from active duty on 23 March 1946.

2.  Furthermore, in consideration of his geographical location during the war he is entitled to the American Campaign Medal, and since he was awarded the Combat Medical Badge he is also entitled to an 1st oak leaf cluster to the Bronze Star Medal,

3.  Accordingly, his military records should be corrected to show the aforementioned promotion and awards.

4.  In view of the foregoing, it would be appropriate to correct the applicant’s records as recommended below.

RECOMMENDATION:

That all of the Department of the Army records related to this case be corrected by showing that the individual concerned:

a.  received a relief from active duty promotion to the grade of major effective 23 March 1946; and

b.  was awarded the 1st oak leaf cluster to the Bronze Star Medal, based 

on award of the Combat Medical Badge, and the American Campaign Medal for his service during World War II.

BOARD VOTE:  

Mdm  aao  bje  GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

                       GRANT FORMAL HEARING

                       DENY APPLICATION

		 Mark D. Manning                          
		        CHAIRPERSON

INDEX

CASE ID	AR1998009862	
SUFFIX		
RECON	YYYYMMDD	
DATE BOARDED	19990526	
TYPE OF DISCHARGE	(HD, GD, UOTHC, UD, BCD, DD, UNCHAR)	
DATE OF DISCHARGE	YYYYMMDD	
DISCHARGE AUTHORITY	AR . . . . .  	
DISCHARGE REASON		
BOARD DECISION	(GRANT PLUS)	
REVIEW AUTHORITY		
ISSUES         1.  102.00		
2.   107.00		
3.   131.08		
4.		
5.		
6.