PROCEEDINGS

	IN THE CASE OF:  

	BOARD DATE:           19 May 1999
	DOCKET NUMBER:   AC98-11842
                                              AR1998014434

	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. Michael L. Engle.		Analyst	

  The following members, a quorum, were present:

	Mr. John N. Slone 		Chairperson	
	Mr. Robert G. Hinkle		Member	
	Mr. Roger W. Able		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, as the next-of-kin of the deceased former service member (FSM), that her brother’s records be corrected to show he was promoted from technical sergeant to second lieutenant.  She also asks that his rank be changed on the cross at the Lorraine American Cemetery & Memorial in France. 

3.  The applicant states that the FSM was promoted on the same day he was killed.  She provides an excerpt from a document relating historical events of the 11th Infantry Regiment, Fifth Infantry Division, the unit to which the FSM was assigned.  That document states that the FSM was killed in a booby-trapped minefield on the day of his appointment to second lieutenant without knowledge of the promotion.  The applicant also submitted copies of morning reports showing that two other enlisted soldiers mentioned in the same article with her brother as being appointed second lieutenants were in fact discharged from enlisted status to accept commissions as second lieutenants.    

4.  The FSM’s military records were lost or destroyed in the National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973.  Information herein was obtained from alternate sources.

5.  The unit morning report dated 18 November 1944 for the events of 16 November 1944, shows that the FSM was killed in action (KIA) on 16 November 1944.  The FSM, with three other soldiers standing near him, was checking out a new German antitank mine.  The FSM asked one of those soldiers for a pair of wire cutters to cut the wire that was taped around the mine.  After giving him the cutters, the soldier went into the another room, where the other men of the platoon were making bangalor torpedoes.  Shortly thereafter, there was an explosion.  When the men entered the room after the explosion they found that the FSM had been blown through the ceiling and two other soldiers were lying inside the room.  The morning report identified the FSM as a technical sergeant.

6.  Army Regulation 624-100 prescribes the policies and procedures for promotion of active duty commissioned officers in the Army.  Paragraph 1-12 of that regulation provides that no persons will receive any bonus, gratuity, pay or allowance because of a posthumous promotion.  However, the officer’s name will be carried on military records in the higher grade.  An officer may be posthumously promoted if, at the time of death, the proper authority had approved the recommendation of the promotion, the death was not due to the officer’s own misconduct, and the officer was in a promotable status at the time of death.

CONCLUSIONS:

1.  The evidence of record (morning report) shows that the FSM was a technical sergeant at the time he was killed.  Excerpts documenting the history of the 11th Infantry Regiment indicate, however, that the FSM was to receive a battlefield appointment to the rank of second lieutenant on the same day he was killed in action.  

2.  Morning reports confirm that two other enlisted soldiers who were also mentioned in the article along with the FSM as being appointed second lieutenants were in fact appointed second lieutenants.  

3.  Under the circumstances and since there is no evidence that the FSM was in a non-promotable status, it would be proper and just to correct his records to show he was posthumously promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.  It will then be the responsibility of the FSM’s next of kin to coordinate the correction of his rank on the cross in France with the American Battle Monuments Commission.  

4.  In view of the foregoing, the applicant’s records should be corrected 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 was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant on 16 November 1944; and by issuing a posthumous commission certificate to the next of kin.

BOARD VOTE:  

____X___  ____X___  ____X___  GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

________  ________  ________  GRANT FORMAL HEARING

________  ________  ________  DENY APPLICATION

		_____John N. Slone____
		        CHAIRPERSON

INDEX

CASE ID	AC98-11842/AR1998014434	
SUFFIX		
RECON	YYYYMMDD	
DATE BOARDED	19990519	
TYPE OF DISCHARGE	(HD, GD, UOTHC, UD, BCD, DD, UNCHAR)	
DATE OF DISCHARGE	YYYYMMDD	
DISCHARGE AUTHORITY	AR . . . . .  	
DISCHARGE REASON		
BOARD DECISION	GRANT 	
REVIEW AUTHORITY		
ISSUES         1.	102.00	
2.		
3.		
4.		
5.		
6.