Dear 

This letter is in reference to your application for correction of your naval record pursuant to Title 
10, United States Code, Section 1552. After careful and conscientious consideration of the entire 
record, the Board for Correction of Naval Records (Board) found that the evidence submitted 
was insufficient to establish the existence of probable material error or injustice. Consequently, 
your application has been denied. 

Although your application was not filed in a timely manner, the Board found it in the interest of 
justice to waive the statute of limitations and consider your application on its merits. A three-
member panel of the Board, sitting in executive session, considered your application on 
11 July 2019. The names and votes of the members of the panel will be furnished upon request. 
Your allegations of error and injustice were reviewed in accordance with administrative 
regulations and procedures applicable to the proceedings of this Board. Documentary material 
considered by the Board consisted of your application, together with all material submitted in 
support thereof, relevant portions of your naval record, as well as applicable statutes, regulations, 
and policies. 

You enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on 7 June 2013, and commenced inactive duty for 
training on 29 July 2013. Following a period of inactive duty for training, where you received an 
honorable discharge on 30 January 2014, you were assigned to a Selected Marine Corps Reserve 
(SMCR) unit in a distance of less than 50 miles from your home in     .
However, you failed to attend reserve drills and received unexcused absences for your 
drills in May, June, and September 2014. Following the May 2014 drill weekend, you 
personally signed a “Page 11” counseling warning acknowledging your unauthorized absence 
from your weekend drills. 

On 20 October 2014, your command initiated administrative proceedings to separate you from 
the naval service by reason of unsatisfactory participation in the ready reserve for failure to 
attend regularly scheduled drills. By late October 2014, you had missed twenty-one weekend 
drills. Your command sent the administrative separation notification and acknowledgement of 
rights forms to your address by certified mail, return receipt requested. On 
24 October 2014 the separation paperwork was properly received and signed for at your home of 
record. The separation paperwork clearly stated that a failure to timely respond within twenty 
days would constitute a waiver of rights in connection with your proposed administrative 
separation. Your record indicates that you did not fill out and return the paperwork to your 
command as proscribed. On 16 March 2015, you were ultimately discharged from the Marine 
Corps with a General (under honorable conditions) (GEN) characterization of service, and were 
assigned an RE-4 reentry/reenlistment code. At the time of your discharge in March 2015, you 
had accumulated no less than 40 unexcused absences from weekend drills. 

The Board carefully weighed all potentially mitigating factors in your case, including your 
contentions that you never received any phone calls or letters stating that you could correct your 
status, what you understood from the separation paperwork you received at home was that you 
were going to be discharged with an OTH, and that if you had known you could have still 
corrected your status you would have done so. The Board, however, concluded that these factors 
were insufficient to warrant relief in your case. Your record indicates that you received the 
separation paperwork, and failed to complete and return it to the command – thereby waiving 
your procedural rights. The Board concluded that the seriousness of your misconduct supported 
your separation authority’s determination to separate you with a GEN characterization of service. 
Additionally, the Board relies on a presumption of regularity to support the official actions of 
public officers and, in the absence of substantial evidence to rebut the presumption, to include 
evidence submitted by the Petitioner, the Board presumes that you were properly processed and 
discharged from the Marine Corps Reserve. Accordingly, the Board determined that there was 
no probable material error or injustice in your discharge. 

It is regretted that the circumstances of your case are such that favorable action cannot be taken. 
You are entitled to have the Board reconsider its decision upon the submission of new matters, 
which will require you to complete and submit a new DD Form 149. New matters are those not 
previously presented to or considered by the Board. In this regard, it is important to keep in 
mind that a presumption of regularity attaches to all official records. Consequently, when 
applying for a correction of an official naval record, the burden is on the applicant to 
demonstrate the existence of probable material error or injustice.