IN THE CASE OF: BOARD DATE: 3 June 2010 DOCKET NUMBER: AR20090015701 THE BOARD CONSIDERED THE FOLLOWING EVIDENCE: 1. Application for correction of military records (with supporting documents provided, if any). 2. Military Personnel Records and advisory opinions (if any). THE APPLICANT'S REQUEST, STATEMENT, AND EVIDENCE: 1. The applicant requests that he be granted authorization to ship his privately owned vehicle (POV) from Orlando, Florida to Bogota, Colombia. 2. The applicant states, in effect, that while serving an unaccompanied tour in Paraguay, he received orders transferring him to Bogota, Colombia on an accompanied tour after only serving 8 months at his assigned station. He goes on to state the move required approval by the Secretary of the Army and that his orders authorized him to ship his POV to Colombia. At the time he had a 1985 POV and he intended to sell the vehicle because it was 24 years old and was no longer reliable. However, he had been in country less than 1 year and the sale was subject to excessive Paraguayan taxes that made the sale impractical, so he shipped it back to Orlando. He also states that his wife picked up the 1985 POV and attempted to ship a 2006 POV to Colombia and was informed that she was not entitled to do so. He concludes by stating that because of his accelerated departure from Paraguay, there was no detailed discussion regarding his POV shipping entitlements. Additionally, the move was made to meet operational requirements, not for his personal convenience. 3. The applicant provides a one-page explanation of his application, and a copy of his permanent change of station (PCS) orders to Colombia with amendments. CONSIDERATION OF EVIDENCE: 1. The applicant was commissioned as a United States Army Reserve second lieutenant in the Aviation branch on 25 May 1985 with a concurrent call to active duty. He has remained on continuous active duty in the Regular Army and was promoted to the rank of Colonel on 1 August 2007. His records show that all of his overseas assignments have been in Central and South America (Panama, Colombia, and Paraguay). 2. On 13 April 2009, while serving in the Embassy in Paraguay, the applicant received PCS orders reassigning him to the Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, with a report date of 30 April 2009. His orders directed that he serve a 24-month accompanied tour and authorized shipment of a POV. He was subsequently authorized deferred travel of his dependents. 3. In the processing of this case a staff advisory opinion was obtained from the Department of the Army, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4 which indicates, in effect, that the applicant exhausted his POV shipping entitlement for his assignment to Colombia when he made the personal choice to ship his POV back to Orlando instead of shipping it to Colombia. The advisory opinion was provided to the applicant for comment and to date, no response has been received by the staff of the Board. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: 1. The applicant’s contention that he should be granted an additional POV shipment because he received a short notice on his PCS assignment from Paraguay to Colombia and determined that it was impractical to sell his POV in Paraguay due to excessive taxes has been noted and found to lack merit. 2. At the time the applicant shipped his 20+ year old POV to Paraguay 8 months earlier, he had accepted the risk associated with a vehicle of that age. The fact that he deemed it impractical to sell the vehicle is not a sufficient reason for granting his request. 3. In any event, he was entitled to ship a POV to Colombia and he used that entitlement to return his 20+ year old vehicle back to Orlando. His personal decision to do so does not constitute any additional entitlements or obligation on the part of the Government to pay to ship an additional POV. 4. There does not appear any error or injustice on the part of the Government in this case. The applicant has served multiple tours in Latin America and should be familiar with his entitlements. Accordingly, there does not appear any basis to grant an exception in the applicant’s case. 5. In order to justify correction of a military record the applicant must show or it must otherwise satisfactorily appear that the record is in error or unjust. The applicant has failed to submit evidence that would satisfy this requirement. BOARD VOTE: ________ ________ ________ GRANT FULL RELIEF ________ ________ ________ GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF ________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING ____X___ ____X___ ____X___ DENY APPLICATION BOARD DETERMINATION/RECOMMENDATION: The evidence presented does not demonstrate the existence of a probable error or injustice. Therefore, the Board determined that the overall merits of this case are insufficient as a basis for correction of the records of the individual concerned. _______ _ _X______ ___ CHAIRPERSON I certify that herein is recorded the true and complete record of the proceedings of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in this case. ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20090015701 3 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS 1 ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20090015701 2 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS 1