IN THE CASE OF: BOARD DATE: 14 June 2012 DOCKET NUMBER: AR20110024573 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 her retired rank be corrected to show sergeant major (SGM)/E-9 vice master sergeant (MSG)/E-8. 2. The applicant states she was selected for promotion to SGM/E-9 in November 2007 while serving in Iraq. She claims she arrived back in the United States in January 2009 and was immediately assigned to the Warrior Transition program having been diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and several injuries that resulted in her disability retirement. She claims she received incorrect counseling from administrative officials while processing through medical channels and as a result delayed resubmitting her promotion packet. 3. The applicant provides a 70th Regional Readiness Command (RRC) November 2007 Senior Enlisted Promotion Recommended List in support of her request. CONSIDERATION OF EVIDENCE: 1. The applicant’s record shows on 25 January 2007, while serving in the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) in the rank of MSG/E-8, she was ordered to active duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and deployed to Iraq on 28 April 2007. 2. The record shows, on 7 November 2007, the applicant was placed on the 70th RRC Senior Enlisted Promotion Recommended List for promotion to SGM/E-9 in military occupational specialty (MOS) 44C (Financial Management Technician). 3. On 18 November 2009, the applicant departed Iraq and returned to the United States where she was retained in the Warrior Transition Program for continued medical treatment. 4. The record contains Soldier Readiness Center Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA Orders 238-002 which directed the applicant’s retirement by reason of disability, temporary, dated 26 September 2011, and placement on the Temporary Disability Retirement List (TDRL), in the rank of MSG/E-8, on 27 September 2011, under the provisions of Title 10 of U.S. Code, Section 1202 and 1372. 5. The DD Form 214 issued to the applicant upon retirement on 26 September 2011 shows she held the rank and pay grade of MSG/E-8 at the time of separation and that she had completed a total of 12 years, 9 months, and 4 days of active military service and 16 years, 2 months, and 20 days of military service for pay purposes. 6. Title 10 of the U.S. Code, section 1372 provides the legal authority for the grade to be awarded to members retiring for physical disability. It states, in pertinent part, that at the time any member of an armed force who is retired for physical disability is entitled to a grade equivalent to the highest of the following: the grade in which he/she is serving on the date when his/her name is placed on the Retired List; the highest grade in which he/she served satisfactorily; the grade to which he/she would have been promoted had it not been for the physical disability that resulted in retirement. 7. Army Regulation 600-8-19 (Enlisted Promotions and Reductions), paragraph 1-20c, states that, per the provisions of Title 10, U. S. Code, section 1372, Soldiers on a promotion list at the time of retirement for disability will be retired for disability at the promotion list grade. Further, the Soldier will be promoted to the designated grade effective the day before placement on the retired list. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: 1. The evidence of record confirms the applicant was on a promotion recommended list as of 2007 at the time her disability was discovered and should have been retained on that list while undergoing medical processing. 2. The evidence of record confirms that the applicant had been selected for promotion to SGM/E-9 prior to being processed for retirement by reason of physical disability. By law and regulation, members who are retired for physical disability are entitled to be placed on the Retired List in the permanent Regular Army or Reserve grade to which they would have been promoted had it not been for the physical disability that resulted in the retirement. By regulation, she should have been promoted effective the day before she was placed on the TDRL. BOARD VOTE: ____X____ ____X____ ___X_____ GRANT FULL RELIEF ________ ________ ________ GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF ________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING ________ ________ ________ DENY APPLICATION BOARD DETERMINATION/RECOMMENDATION: The Board determined that the evidence presented was sufficient to warrant a recommendation for relief. As a result, the Board recommends that all Department of the Army records of the individual concerned be corrected by: a. showing she was promoted to SGM/E-9 effective 26 September 2011 and paying her any pay and allowances due; b. amending her DD Form 214 to show her rank and grade as SGM/E-9 and her effective date of promotion as 26 September 2011; and c. showing that she was placed on the Retired List in the rank and pay grade of SGM/E-9 on 27 September 2011, and providing her any back retired pay due. _______ _ _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) AR20110024573 3 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS 1 ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20110024573 2 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS 1