PROCEEDINGS

	IN THE CASE OF: 

	BOARD DATE:            30 September 1998                                     
	DOCKET NUMBER:   AC98-10329

	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	
	Mrs. Nancy Amos .		Analyst	

  The following members, a quorum, were present:

	Ms. Irene N. Wheelwright		Chairperson	
	Mr. Raymond V. O’Connor, Jr.		Member	
	Mr. James M. Alward		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 that his rank of Sergeant be restored and he receive back pay for both his active duty service and his service in the Reserve from 1953 until 1967.

3.  The applicant states he served in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) with the 784th Tank Battalion.  Sometime in 1944 his company commander summoned him to his office and told him “    you are a private as of today, do you understand?”  No reason was given.  He considered himself a model soldier even after he was reduced to Private.  He is sure his Captain was very prejudiced.

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

5.  He enlisted in the Regular Army on 7 January 1942.  He arrived in the ETO on 12 November 1944 where he served as a medium tank crewman/commander in the rank of Sergeant in the Rhineland and Central Europe campaigns.  He departed the ETO on 24 December 1945.  He separated on 6 January 1946 in the rank of Private.  He had completed 4 years of creditable active service and had no lost time.  He earned the Army Good Conduct Medal.  

6.  There is no evidence of record to show he served in a Reserve component from 1953 until 1967.

7.  Title 32, U. S. Code, section 3702 provides for a 6-year statute of limitations on payment claims.

CONCLUSIONS:

1.  The applicant served in the ETO as a tank crewman/commander at the highest grade of Sergeant.  

2.  For an unknown reason he was reduced to Private.

3.  The applicant served honorably for at least three years, through 5 January 1945, so as to earn the Army Good Conduct Medal.  He had no lost time.

4.  Although the applicant’s service records are not available, it is plausible to presume that he was reduced to Private simply because his Captain felt like reducing him.

5.  The barring statute prevents the applicant from receiving any back pay at this late date.

6.  In view of the foregoing, it would be in the interest of justice to correct the applicant’s records as recommended below.

RECOMMENDATION:

1.  That all of the Department of the Army records related to this case be corrected by showing the individual concerned separated from the Army on        6 January 1946 in the rank of Sergeant.

2.  That so much of the application as is in excess of the foregoing be denied 

BOARD VOTE:  

________  ________  ________  GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

________  ________  ________  GRANT FORMAL HEARING

________  ________  ________  DENY APPLICATION

		______________________
		        CHAIRPERSON