1. Applicant's Name: a. Application Date: 17 May 2019 b. Date Received: 20 June 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 was discharge for driving in Germany without a license. He was punished with an Article 15 and does not believe he did anything to deserve a general, (under honorable conditions) discharge. The applicant also contends he served the best he could. In a records review conducted on 29 September 2021, and by a 5-0 vote, the Board determined the discharge is inequitable based on the applicant's length and quality of service, prior period of honorable service, to include the circumstances surrounding combat related PTSD, and post- service accomplishments. Therefore, the Board voted to grant relief in the form of an upgrade of the characterization of service to honorable and changed the separation authority to AR 635- 200, Chapter 15, and the narrative reason for separation to Secretarial Authority, with a corresponding separation code to JFF. 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: Unsatisfactory Performance / AR 635- 200 / Chapter 13 / JHJ / RE-3 / General, (Under Honorable Conditions) b. Date of Discharge: 19 October 2012 c. Separation Facts: (1) Date of Notification of Intent to Separate: NIF (2) Basis for Separation: The applicant was informed of the following reasons: The applicant received a Relief for Cause NCOER and received a company grade Article 15. (3) Recommended Characterization: General, (Under Honorable Conditions) (4) Legal Consultation Date: NIF (5) Administrative Separation Board: The applicant waived his rights to an Administrative Separation Board by failing to respond to his notification to appear before the Administrative Separation Board within 7 days. (6) Separation Decision Date / Characterization: NIF / General, (Under Honorable Conditions) 4. SERVICE DETAILS: a. Date / Period of Enlistment: 18 October 2007 / 6 years b. Age at Enlistment / Education / GT Score: 22 / HS Graduate / 99 c. Highest Grade Achieved / MOS / Total Service: E-6 / 13B, Cannon Crewmember / 8 years, 3 months, 7 days d. Prior Service / Characterizations: RA, 13 July 2004 - 17 October 2007 e. Overseas Service / Combat Service: Korea, SWA / Iraq (14 July 2005 - 8 March 2006), Afghanistan (11 February 2011 - 25 September 2011) f. Awards and Decorations: ICM-CS-2, ARCOM-3, AAM-3, AGCM, NDSM, ACM-CS-2, GWOTSM, KDSM, NCOPDR, ASR, OSR, NATO Medal, Driver and Mechanic Badge-Driver- Wheeled Vehicle(s) g. Performance Ratings: 1 August 2008 - 31 July 2009 / Fully Capable 1 August 2009 - 31 July 2010 / Fully Capable 1 August 2010 - 31 July 2011 / Among The Best 1 August 2011 - 4 April 2012 / Fully Capable 5 April 2012 - 30 July 2012 / Marginal h. Disciplinary Action(s) / Evidentiary Record: A Military Police Report dated 6 May 2012, reflects the applicant was charged with driving while mentally impaired (Off Post) and operating a USAREUR plated vehicle without a valid driver's license (Off Post). A Report of Mental Status Evaluation, dated, 5 June 2012, reflects the applicant could understand and participate in administrative proceedings and could appreciate the difference between right and wrong. CG Article 15, dated 30 July 2012, reflects the applicant failed to go at the prescribed time to his appointed place of duty on or about 26 June 2012 and on 6 May 2012, violate a general regulation by failing to present on request by a German law-enforcement official his official U.S. Forces certificate of license. The punishment consisted of forfeiture of $733.00 per month for one month, suspended, to be automatically remitted if not vacated by 31 September 2012; extra duty for 14 days; and restriction for 14 days. i. Lost Time / Mode of Return: None j. Diagnosed PTSD / TBI / Behavioral Health: NIF 5. APPLICANT-PROVIDED EVIDENCE: DD Form 293, DD Form 214 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 13 contains the policy and outlines the procedures for separating individuals for unsatisfactory performance, and provides, in pertinent part, that commanders will separate a member under this Chapter when, in the commander's judgment, the member will not develop sufficiently to participate satisfactorily in further training and/or become a satisfactory Soldier. Army policy states that a general, under honorable conditions discharge is normally considered appropriate; however, an honorable discharge may be granted in meritorious cases. 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 AMHRR record of service, the issues and documents submitted with the application were carefully reviewed. The applicant requests an upgrade to honorable. The applicant contends he was discharge for driving in Germany without a license. He was punished with an Article 15 and does not believe he did anything to deserve a general, under honorable conditions discharge. The applicant also contends he served the best he could. The applicant's service accomplishments and the quality of his service prior to the incidents that caused the initiation of discharge proceeding were carefully considered. The applicant is to be commended for his accomplishments. 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, reviewed DoD and VA medical records and found the applicant held in-service diagnoses of Adjustment Disorder and combat related PTSD which in the opinion of the Board's Medical Advisor, a voting member, could potentially mitigate the misconduct which led to separation from the Army. (2) Did the condition exist or experience occur during military service? Yes. Review of the VA medical records indicate that the applicant's diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder and combat related PTSD, could mitigate the basis for discharge, occurred during military service, and has service-connected the applicant. (3) Does the condition or experience actually excuse or mitigate the discharge? Partially. Based on liberal consideration, the applicant's service connected PTSD is partially mitigating for DWI and Failure to Report, but driving without a license. (4) Does the condition or experience outweigh the discharge? Yes. The Board concurred with the opinion of the Board's Medical Advisor, a voting member, that PTSD mitigated the DWI and FTRs. As a result, the ADRB applied liberal consideration and found that the BH conditions outweighed the cause for separation. b. Response to Contentions: (1) The applicant requests an upgrade to honorable. The Board voted to upgrade the discharge based on PTSD mitigating DWI and FTRs. (2) The applicant also contends he served the best he could. The applicant's service accomplishments and the quality of his service prior to the incidents that caused the initiation of discharge proceeding were carefully considered. The applicant is to be commended for his accomplishments. (3) The applicant contends he was discharge for driving in Germany without a license. He was punished with an Article 15 and does not believe he did anything to deserve a general, under honorable conditions discharge. The Board concurs that after medical mitigation, driving without a license is a minor offense. c. The Board granted the request upon finding the separation was inequitable. The ADRB determined that the applicant's characterization of service was inequitable because of the applicant's service connected diagnosis for Adjustment Disorder, Combat related PTSD, his length and quality of service, and post service accomplishments. d. Rationale for Decision: (1) The Board voted to change the applicant's characterization of service to Honorable based the combat-related PTSD mitigating DWI and FTRs. The remaining offense of driving without a license is relatively minor. Thus the prior characterization is no longer appropriate. (2) The Board voted to change the narrative reason for separation to Secretarial Authority under the same pretexts, with a corresponding SPD code of JFF. (3) The Board voted to maintain the RE-3 due to service-limited PTSD diagnosis. 10. BOARD ACTION DIRECTED: a. Issue a New DD-214: Yes b. Change Characterization to: Honorable c. Change Reason to: Secretarial Authority d. Change Authority to: AR 635-200, paragraph 5-3 e. Change SPD / RE Code to: JFF / No Change Authenticating Official: Legend: AWOL - Absent Without Leave AMHRR - Army Military Human Resource Record BCD - Bad Conduct Discharge BH - Behavioral Health CG - Company Grade Article 15 CID - Criminal Investigation Division ELS - Entry Level Status FG - Field Grade Article 15 GD - General Discharge HS - High School HD - Honorable Discharge IADT - Initial Active Duty Training MP - Military Police MST - Military Sexual Trauma N/A - Not applicable NCO - Noncommissioned Officer NIF - Not in File NOS - Not Otherwise Specified OAD - Ordered to Active Duty OBH (I) - Other Behavioral Health (Issues) OMPF - Official Military Personnel File PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder RE - Re-entry SCM - Summary Court Martial SPCM - Special Court Martial SPD - Separation Program Designator TBI - Traumatic Brain Injury UNC - Uncharacterized Discharge UOTHC - Under Other Than Honorable Conditions VA - Department of Veterans Affairs ARMY DISCHARGE REVIEW BOARD CASE REPORT AND DIRECTIVE AR20190012282 1