1. Applicant's Name: a. Application Date: 7 February 2019 b. Date Received: 11 February 2019 c. Counsel: None 2. REQUEST, ISSUES, BOARD TYPE, AND DECISION: The current characterization of service for the period under review is general (under honorable conditions). The applicant requests an upgrade to honorable. The applicant seeks relief contending, in effect, he had mental health issues and was given pain medication and became addicted. He needed help and all he received was detox, he needed more than that. He had a great record prior to his only incident in the Army. Since his discharge, he went to rehabilitation and has not used drugs since 20 December 2013. His discharge prevents him from obtaining a promotion. In a records review conducted on 30 April 2021, and by a 4-1 vote, the Board denied the request upon finding the separation was both proper and equitable. Please see Section 9 of this document for more detail regarding the Board's decision (Board member names available upon request) 3. DISCHARGE DETAILS: a. Reason / Authority / Codes / Characterization: Misconduct (Drug Abuse) / AR 635- 200, Paragraph 14-12c(2) / JKK / RE-4 / General (Under Honorable Conditions) b. Date of Discharge: 26 November 2013 c. Separation Facts: No (1) Date of Notification of Intent to Separate: NIF (2) Basis for Separation: NIF (3) Recommended Characterization: NIF (4) Legal Consultation Date: NIF (5) Administrative Separation Board: NIF (6) Separation Decision Date / Characterization: NIF 4. SERVICE DETAILS: a. Date / Period of Enlistment: 2 August 2012 / 3 years b. Age at Enlistment / Education / GT Score: 26 / HS Graduate / 121 c. Highest Grade Achieved / MOS / Total Service: E-4 / 11B10, Infantryman / 5 years, 1 month, 7 days d. Prior Service / Characterizations: ARNG, 20 October 2008 to 6 January 2009 / NA IADT, 7 January 2009 to 8 May 2009 / HD ARNG, 9 May 2009 to 2 December 2009 / HD RA. 3 December 2009 to 1 August 2012 / HD e. Overseas Service / Combat Service: SWA / Iraq, 7 July 2010 to 1 August 2011 f. Awards and Decorations: ARCOM, AAM-2, NDSM, ICM-2CS, GWOTSM, ASR, OSR g. Performance Ratings: NA h. Disciplinary Action(s) / Evidentiary Record: NIF i. Lost Time / Mode of Return: None j. Diagnosed PTSD / TBI / Behavioral Health: NIF 5. APPLICANT-PROVIDED EVIDENCE: DD Form 293 (two pages) 6. POST SERVICE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: None submitted with the application. 7. STATUTORY, REGULATORY AND POLICY REFERENCE(S): a. Section 1553, Title 10, United States Code (Review of Discharge or Dismissal) provides for the creation, composition, and scope of review conducted by a Discharge Review Board(s) within established governing standards. As amended by Sections 521 and 525 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, 10 USC 1553 provides specific guidance to the Military Boards for Correction of Military/Naval Records and Discharge Review Boards when considering discharge upgrade requests by Veterans claiming Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), sexual trauma, intimate partner violence (IPV), or spousal abuse, as a basis for discharge review. The amended guidance provides that Boards will include, as a voting board member, a physician trained in mental health disorders, a clinical psychologist, or a psychiatrist when the discharge upgrade claim asserts a mental health condition, including PTSD, TBI, sexual trauma, IPV, or spousal abuse, as a basis for the discharge. Further, the guidance provides that Military Boards for Correction of Military/Naval Records and Discharge Review Boards will develop and provide specialized training specific to sexual trauma, IPV, spousal abuse, as well as the various responses of individuals to trauma. b. Multiple Department of Defense Policy Guidance Memoranda published between 2014 and 2018. The documents are commonly referred to by the signatory authorities' last names (2014 Secretary of Defense Guidance [Hagel memo], 2016 Acting Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness [Carson memo], 2017 Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness [Kurta memo], and 2018 Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness [Wilkie memo]. (1) Individually and collectively, these documents provide further clarification to the Military Discharge Review Boards and Boards for Correction of Military/Naval Records when considering requests by Veterans for modification of their discharge due to mental health conditions, including PTSD; TBI; sexual assault; or sexual harassment. Liberal consideration will be given to Veterans petitioning for discharge relief when the application for relief is based in whole or in part on matters relating to mental health conditions, including PTSD; TBI; sexual assault; or sexual harassment. Special consideration will be given to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) determinations that document a mental health condition, including PTSD; TBI; or sexual assault/harassment potentially contributed to the circumstances resulting in a less than honorable discharge characterization. Special consideration will also be given in cases where a civilian provider confers diagnoses of a mental health condition, including PTSD; TBI; or sexual assault/harassment if the case records contain narratives supporting symptomatology at the time of service or when any other evidence which may reasonably indicate that a mental health condition, including PTSD; TBI; or sexual assault/harassment existed at the time of discharge might have mitigated the misconduct that caused a discharge of lesser characterization. (2) Conditions documented in the service record that can reasonably be determined to have existed at the time of discharge will be considered to have existed at the time of discharge. In cases in which a mental health condition, including PTSD; TBI; or sexual assault/harassment may be reasonably determined to have existed at the time of discharge, those conditions will be considered potential mitigating factors in the misconduct that caused the characterization of service in question. All Boards will exercise caution in weighing evidence of mitigation in cases in which serious misconduct precipitated a discharge with a less than Honorable characterization of service. Potentially mitigating evidence of the existence of undiagnosed combat related PTSD, PTSD-related conditions due to TBI or sexual assault/harassment as causative factors in the misconduct resulting in discharge will be carefully weighed against the severity of the misconduct. PTSD is not a likely cause of premeditated misconduct. Caution shall be exercised in weighing evidence of mitigation in all cases of misconduct by carefully considering the likely causal relationship of symptoms to the misconduct. c. Army Regulation 15-180 (Army Discharge Review Board), dated 25 September 2019, sets forth the policies and procedures under which the Army Discharge Review Board is authorized to review the character, reason, and authority of any Servicemember discharged from active military service within 15 years of the Servicemember's date of discharge. Additionally, it prescribes actions and composition of the Army Discharge Review Board under Public Law 95-126; Section 1553, Title 10 United States Code; and Department of Defense Directive 1332.41 and Instruction 1332.28. d. Army Regulation 635-200 provides the basic authority for the separation of enlisted personnel. (1) Chapter 3, Section II provides the authorized types of characterization of service or description of separation. (2) Paragraph 3-7a states an Honorable discharge is a separation with honor and is appropriate when the quality of the Soldier's service generally has met the standards of acceptable conduct and performance of duty for Army personnel or is otherwise so meritorious that any other characterization would be clearly inappropriate. (3) Paragraph 3-7b states a General discharge is a separation from the Army under honorable conditions and is issued to a Soldier whose military record is satisfactory but not sufficiently meritorious to warrant an honorable discharge. (4) Chapter 14 establishes policy and prescribes procedures for separating members for misconduct. Specific categories include minor disciplinary infractions, a pattern of misconduct, and commission of a serious offense, to include abuse of illegal drugs, convictions by civil authorities and desertion or being absent without leave. Action will be taken to separate a member for misconduct when it is clearly established that rehabilitation is impractical or unlikely to succeed. (5) Paragraph 14-12c(2) terms abuse of illegal drugs as serious misconduct. It continues; however, by recognizing relevant facts may mitigate the nature of the offense. Therefore, a single drug abuse offense may be combined with one or more minor disciplinary infractions or incidents of other misconduct and processed for separation under paragraph 14- 12a or 14-12b as appropriate. (6) Army policy states that an under other than honorable conditions discharge is normally considered appropriate; however, a general (under honorable conditions) or an honorable discharge may be granted. 8. DISCUSSION OF FACT(S): The Army Discharge Review Board considers applications for upgrade as instructed by Department of Defense Instruction 1332.28. The applicant's record of service, the issues and documents submitted with the application were carefully reviewed. The applicant's record is void of the specific facts and circumstances concerning the events which led to his discharge from the Army. However, the applicant's record does contain a properly constituted DD Form 214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty), which was authenticated by the applicant's digital signature. This document identifies the reason and characterization of the discharge and government regularity is presumed in the discharge process. The DD Form 214 indicates the applicant was discharged under the provisions of AR 635-200, Chapter 14, paragraph 14-12c(2), by reason of misconduct (drug abuse), with a characterization of service of general (under honorable conditions). Barring evidence to the contrary, the presumption of government regularity prevails as it appears all the requirements of law and regulation were met and the rights of the applicant were fully protected throughout the separation process. Further, the DD Form 214 shows a Separation Code of JKK (i.e., misconduct (drug abuse), with a reentry eligibility (RE) code of 4. The applicant contends he had mental health issues and was given pain medication and became addicted; he needed help and all he received was detox, he needed more than that; he had a great record prior to his only incident in the Army. The applicant further contends, since his discharge, he went to rehabilitation and has not used drugs since 20 December 2013. The applicant also contends his discharge prevents him from obtaining a promotion. If the applicant desires a personal appearance hearing, it is his responsibility to meet the burden of proof and provide the appropriate documents (i.e., the discharge packet) or other evidence sufficient to explain the facts, circumstances, and reasons underlying the separation action, for the Board's consideration because they are not available in the official record. 9. BOARD DISCUSSION AND DETERMINATION: a. As directed by the 2017 memo signed by A.M. Kurta, the board considered the following factors: (1) Did the applicant have a condition or experience that may excuse or mitigate the discharge? (YES) The Board's Medical Advisor, a voting member of the board, reviewed the applicant's DOD and VA health records, and found no BH diagnoses while in service. Post- service, the VA has diagnosed the applicant with Anxiety Disorder, but this diagnosis is not service-connected. The ADRB determined that applicant did not provide sufficient evidence to convince the Board, when applying liberal consideration, of a possible mitigating BH condition. (2) Did the condition exist or experience occur during military service? (NO) While the applicant holds a post-service diagnosis of Anxiety Disorder, he is not service connected for the condition nor do the available medical records otherwise connect the post-service Anxiety Disorder to the applicant's service. While the applicant reports experiencing mental health issues during service, the Board found, despite applying liberal consideration, that the applicant has not demonstrated by a preponderance of evidence the existence of a behavioral health condition during military service. (3) Does the condition or experience actually excuse or mitigate the discharge? (N/A) The ADRB is unable to apply liberal consideration, because the applicant had no condition or experience during service to excuse or mitigate the misconduct leading to discharge. (4) Does the condition or experience outweigh the discharge? (N/A) The ADRB is unable to apply liberal consideration, because the applicant had no condition or experience during service to outweigh the misconduct leading to discharge. b. The applicant contends he had mental health issues and was given pain medication and became addicted. He needed help and received detox, but he needed more than that. He had a great record prior to his only incident in the Army. The ADRB's Medical Advisor, a voting member of the Board, found documents within the DOD health record indicating that the applicant had multiple ASAP enrollments, inpatient detox, and that the applicant declined residential or more intensive treatment despite continuing to test positive for drugs. The Board found that the applicant's Command provided multiple opportunities to repair and recover. c. The applicant further contends, since his discharge, he went to rehabilitation and has not used drugs since 20 December 2013. The applicant is to be commended for his efforts. However, this positive improvement is unrelated to the applicant's service, since it came subsequently to discharge. d. The applicant also contends his discharge prevents him from obtaining a promotion. The Board does not grant relief for the purpose of gaining employment or enhancing employment opportunities. e. The ADRB determined the separation was both proper and equitable based on the documents within the applicant's AMHRR, as well as the Medical Advisor's review of DOD and VA health records. The Board found that the applicant did not hold an in-service behavioral health diagnosis and post-service is diagnosed with Anxiety Disorder; however, not service-connected and the greater weight of the evidence does not otherwise support a finding of a condition existing during military service. The Board determined the applicant does not have a BH diagnosis that is mitigating for or outweighs the misconduct which led to separation from the Army. However, the applicant may request a personal appearance hearing to address the issues before the Board. The applicant is responsible for satisfying the burden of proof and providing documents or other evidence sufficient to support the applicant's contention(s) that the discharge was improper or inequitable. a. Rationale for Decision: (1) The board voted not to change the applicant's characterization of service because the application has no evidence or mitigations to the command's separation decision. His history of drug abuse ruled out a one-time use mitigation, so the separation was proper and equitable. (2) The board voted to not change the reason as it was proper and equitable. (3) Because the characterization and reason were not changed, the SPD/RE codes will not change. 10. BOARD ACTION DIRECTED: a. Issue a New DD-214 / Separation Order: No b. Change Characterization to: No Change c. Change Reason to: No Change d. Change Authority to: No Change e. Change SPD / RE Code to: No Change Authenticating Official: Legend: AWOL - Absent Without Leave GD - General Discharge NCO - Noncommissioned Officer SCM - Summary Court Martial BCD - Bad Conduct Discharge HS - High School NIF - Not in File SPCM - Special Court Martial BH - Behavioral Health HD - Honorable Discharge NOS - Not Otherwise Specified SPD - Separation Program Designator CG - Company Grade Article 15 IADT - Initial Active Duty Training OAD - Ordered to Active Duty TBI - Traumatic Brain Injury CID - Criminal Investigation Division MP - Military Police OMPF - Official Military Personnel File UNC - Uncharacterized Discharge ELS - Entry Level Status MST - Military Sexual Trauma PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder UOTHC - Under Other Than Honorable Conditions FG - Field Grade Article 15 NA - Not applicable RE - Reentry VA - Veterans Affairs ARMY DISCHARGE REVIEW BOARD CASE REPORT AND DIRECTIVE 1