1. Applicant's Name: a. Application Date: 14 November 2019 b. Date Received: 15 November 2019 c. Counsel: 2. REQUEST, ISSUES, BOARD TYPE, AND DECISION: a. Applicant's Requests and Issues: The current characterization of service for the period under review is general (under honorable conditions). The applicant, through counsel, requests an upgrade to honorable along with a narrative reason, reentry eligibility (RE) and separation program designator (SPD) code change. The applicant's counsel seeks relief contending, in effect, the applicant's life unraveled upon returning from a deployment. The applicant began experiencing symptoms of undiagnosed post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. The applicant began to use alcohol to self- medicate. The applicant received non-judicial and was subsequently separated. The Department of Veteran Affairs diagnosed the applicant with PTSD and granted the applicant a 30-percent service-connected disability rating. The applicant's PTSD excuses or mitigates and outweighs the discharge. The applicant has been rehabilitated and is a valued employee and member of the community. b. Board Type and Decision: In a records review conducted on 12 August 2022, and by a 5 - 0 vote, the Board determined that the characterization of service was inequitable based on the applicant's quality of service, to include combat service, and the circumstances surrounding the discharge (OBHI and PTSD diagnoses). Accordingly, the Board voted to grant relief in the form of an upgrade to the characterization of service to Honorable and changed to the separation authority to AR 635-200, paragraph 14-12a, the narrative reason for separation to Misconduct (Minor Infractions), with a corresponding separation code of JKN. 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: Pattern of Misconduct / AR 635-200, Paragraph 14-12b / JKA / RE-3 / General (Under Honorable Conditions) b. Date of Discharge: 18 November 2004 c. Separation Facts: (1) Date of Notification of Intent to Separate: 18 October 2004 (2) Basis for Separation: The applicant was informed of the following reasons: The applicant had constantly been FTR and neglected paying bills. (3) Recommended Characterization: General (Under Honorable Conditions) (4) Legal Consultation Date: 20 October 2004 (5) Administrative Separation Board: NA (6) Separation Decision Date / Characterization: 1 November 2004 / General (Under Honorable Conditions) 4. SERVICE DETAILS: a. Date / Period of Enlistment: 12 December 2002 / 3 years b. Age at Enlistment / Education / GT Score: 18 / HS Graduate / 82 c. Highest Grade Achieved / MOS / Total Service: E-4 / 63B10, Light Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic / 4 years, 23 days d. Prior Service / Characterizations: 26 October 2000 - 11 December 2002 / HD e. Overseas Service / Combat Service: SWA / Kuwait/Iraq (10 September 2002 - 26 August 2003) f. Awards and Decorations: ARCOM, AAM, PUC, AGCM, NDSM, AFEM, GWOTEM, GWOTSM, ASR, ALB g. Performance Ratings: NA h. Disciplinary Action(s) / Evidentiary Record: CG Article 15, dated 13 May 2004, reflects the applicant failed to go at the prescribed time to the appointed place of duty on six separate occasions and wrongfully and lawfully uttering two checks knowing there were not sufficient funds for payment of the checks. The punishment consisted of reduction to private first class/E-3; forfeiture of $369 pay for one month, suspended, to be automatically remitted if not vacated by 15 August 2004; and extra duty and restriction for 14 days. A Report of Mental Status Evaluation, dated 25 June 2004, reflects the applicant had the mental capacity to understand and participate in the proceedings and was mentally responsible. The applicant received several Counseling Developmental Forms for various acts of misconduct. i. Lost Time / Mode of Return: None j. Diagnosed PTSD / TBI / Behavioral Health: The applicant provides a VA Rating Decision, dated 28 December 2016, which reflects the applicant was granted a 30-percent service-connected disability rating for PTSD effective 12 August 2016. 5. APPLICANT-PROVIDED EVIDENCE: DD Form 293, Counsel's Brief with 18 exhibits (total 123 pages) 6. POST SERVICE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: The applicant's counsel states applicant has been rehabilitated and is a valued employee and member of the community. 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 14-3 prescribes a discharge under other than honorable conditions is normally appropriate for a Soldier discharged under this chapter. However, the separation authority may direct a general discharge if such is merited by the Soldier's overall record. (6) Paragraph 14-2b addresses a pattern of misconduct consisting of either discreditable involvement with civilian or military authorities or discreditable conduct and conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline including conduct violating the accepted standards of personal conduct found in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Army Regulations, the civilian law and time-honored customs and traditions of the Army. (7) Chapter 15 provides explicitly for separation under the prerogative of the Secretary of the Army. Secretarial plenary separation authority is exercised sparingly and seldom delegated. Ordinarily, it is used when no other provision of this regulation applies, and early separation is clearly in the Army's best interest. Separations under this paragraph are effective only if approved in writing by the Secretary of the Army or the Secretary's approved designee as announced in updated memoranda. Secretarial separation authority is normally exercised on a case-by-case basis. e. Army Regulation 635-5-1 (Separation Program Designator (SPD) Codes) provides the specific authorities (regulatory or directive), reasons for separating Soldiers from active duty, and the SPD codes to be entered on the DD Form 214. It identifies the SPD code of "JKA" as the appropriate code to assign enlisted Soldiers who are discharged under the provisions of Army Regulation 635-200, Chapter 14, paragraph 12b, pattern of misconduct. f. Army Regulation 601-210, Regular Army and Reserve Components Enlistment Program governs eligibility criteria, policies, and procedures for enlistment and processing of persons into the Regular Army, the U.S. Army Reserve, and Army National Guard for enlistment per DODI 1304.26. It also prescribes the appointment, reassignment, management, and mobilization of Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets under the Simultaneous Membership Program. Chapter 4 provides the criteria and procedures for waiverable and nonwaiverable separations. Table 3-1 defines reentry eligibility (RE) codes: RE-3 Applies to: Person who is not considered fully qualified for reentry or continuous service at time of separation, but disqualification is waiverable. Eligibility: Ineligible unless a waiver is granted. 8. SUMMARY OF FACT(S): The Army Discharge Review Board considers applications for upgrade as instructed by Department of Defense Instruction 1332.28. The applicant's Army Military Human Resource Record (AMHRR) of service, the issues and documents submitted with the application were carefully reviewed. The applicant, through counsel, requests an upgrade to honorable along with a narrative reason, RE and SPD code change. The applicant's counsel requests the narrative reason for the discharge be changed. The applicant was separated under the provisions of Chapter 14, paragraph 14-12b, AR 635-22 with a general (under honorable conditions) discharge. The narrative reason specified by Army Regulations for a discharge under this paragraph is Pattern of Misconduct," and the separation code is "JKA." Army Regulation 635-8, Separation Processing and Documents, governs the preparation of the DD Form 214 and dictates the entry of the narrative reason for separation, entered in block 28 and separation code, entered in block 26 of the form, will be listed in tables 2-2 or 2-2 of AR 635-5-1, Separation Program Designator (SPD) Codes. The regulation stipulates no deviation is authorized. There is no provision for any other reason to be entered under this regulation. The applicant's counsel requests a RE and SPD code change. Separation code are three- character alphabetic combinations that identify reasons for and types of separation from active duty. The primary purpose of the SPD codes is to provide statistical accounting of reasons for separation. They are intended exclusively for the internal use of DoD and the Military Services to assist in the collection of and analysis of separation data. SPD codes are controlled by OSD and then implementation in Army policy AR 635-5-1 to track types of separations. The SPD code specified by Army Regulation for a discharge under Chapter 14, paragraph 14-12b, is "JKA." Army Regulation 635-8, Separation Processing and Documents, governs the preparation of the DD Form 214, and dictates the entry of the separation code entered in block 26 of the form, will be as listed in tables 2-2 or 2-3 of AR 635-5-1, Separation Program Designator (SPD) codes. The regulation stipulates no deviation is authorized. There is no provision for any other SPD code to be entered under this regulation. RE-3 Applies to: Person who is not considered fully qualified for reentry or continuous service at time of separation, but disqualification is waiverable. Eligibility: Ineligible unless a waiver is granted. The applicant's counsel contends the applicant began experiencing symptoms of undiagnosed PTSD and depression after being deployed and the applicant has been granted a 30-percent service-connected disability rating. The available medical evidence in the AMHRR is void of any indication the applicant was suffering from a disabling medical or mental condition during the discharge processing, warranting separation processing through medical channels The applicant's counsel contends the applicant began to use alcohol to self-medicate. There is no evidence in the AMHRR the applicant ever sought assistance before committing the misconduct, which led to the separation action under review. The applicant's counsel contends the applicant's PTSD excuses, mitigates, and outweighs the discharge. The AMHRR shows the applicant underwent a MSE on 25 June 2004, which reflects the applicant had the mental capacity to understand and participate in the proceedings and was mentally responsible. The applicant provides a VA Rating Decision, dated 28 December 2016, which reflects the applicant was granted a 30-percent service-connected disability rating for PTSD effective 12 August 2016. The applicant's counsel states the applicant has been rehabilitated and is a valued employee and member of the community. The Army Discharge Review Board is authorized to consider post-service factors in the recharacterization of a discharge. No law or regulation provides for the upgrade of an unfavorable discharge based solely on the passage of time or good conduct in civilian life after leaving the service. The Board reviews each discharge on a case-by-case basis to determine if post-service accomplishments help demonstrate previous in-service misconduct was an aberration and not indicative of the member's overall character. 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 the applicant's DOD and VA health records, applicant's statement, and/or civilian provider documentation and found the following diagnoses or experiences which can, under certain circumstances, potentially mitigate or excuse misconduct leading to separation: PTSD related to combat. (2) Did the condition exist, or experience occur during military service? Yes. The Board's Medical Advisor found the VA has established service connection (30%) for applicant's diagnosis of PTSD. (3) Does the condition or experience excuse or mitigate the discharge? Partially. The Board's Medical Advisor applied liberal consideration and opined that the applicant has a BH condition, PTSD, which mitigates some of his misconduct. As there is an association between PTSD and avoidant behavior, there is a nexus between his diagnosis of PTSD and his multiple FTRs. PTSD, however, does not mitigate neglecting to pay bills and writing bad checks given that PTSD does not affect one's ability to determine right from wrong and act in accordance with the right. (4) Does the condition or experience outweigh the discharge? Yes. The Board considered the opinion of the Board's Medical Advisor, a voting member. As a result, the ADRB applied liberal consideration and found that the applicant's condition outweighs the FTRs and writing bad checks basis for separation. b. Response to Contention(s): (1) The applicant's counsel contends the applicant began experiencing symptoms of undiagnosed PTSD and depression after being deployed. Additionally, the applicant began to use alcohol to self-medicate and the PTSD excuses, mitigates, and outweighs the discharge. The Board determined this contention was valid after review of the applicant's DOD and VA health records. It revealed the applicant was service connected by the VA for PTSD and Anxiety Disorder. c. The Board determined the Board determined that the characterization of service was inequitable based on the applicant's quality of service, to include combat service, and the circumstances surrounding the discharge (OBHI and PTSD diagnoses). Accordingly, the Board voted to grant relief in the form of an upgrade to the characterization of service to Honorable and changed to the separation authority to AR 635-200, paragraph 14-12a, the narrative reason for separation to Misconduct (Minor Infractions), with a corresponding separation code of JKN. d. Rationale for Decision: (1) The Board voted to change the applicant's characterization of service to Honorable because the applicant had a BH condition which mitigated the applicant's misconduct of multiple FTRs, the applicant total quality of service to include combat service was sufficiently meritorious for an honorable characterization despite the writing of bad checks. Thus, the prior characterization is no longer appropriate. (2) The Board voted to change the separation authority to AR 635-200, paragraph 14- 12a, the narrative reason for separation to Misconduct (Minor Infractions), with a corresponding separation code of JKN. (3) The RE code will not change, as the current code is consistent with the procedural and substantive requirements of the regulation. 10. BOARD ACTION DIRECTED: a. Issue a New DD-214: Yes b. Change Characterization to: Honorable c. Change Reason / SPD Code to: Misconduct (Minor Infractions)/JKN d. Change RE Code to: No Change a. Change Authority to: AR 635-200, paragraph 14-12a 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 AR20190014276 1