DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF NAVAL RECORDS 701 S. COURTHOUSE ROAD, SUITE 1001 ARLINGTON, VA 22204-2490 Docket No: 6808-18/ 11440-93 Dear This letter is in reference to your reconsideration request received You previously petitioned the Board for Correction of Naval Records (Board) and were advised in our letter dated that your application had been approved and your discharge was upgraded from conditions other than honorable to general (under honorable conditions) (GEN). Your case was reconsidered in accordance with Board of Correction of Naval Records procedures that conform to Lipsman v. Secretary of the Army, 335 F.Supp.2d 48 (D.D.C. 2004). After careful and conscientious consideration of the entire record, the Board found the evidence submitted was insufficient to establish the existence of probable material error or injustice. Consequently, your application has been denied. Because your application was submitted with new evidence not previously considered, the Board found it in the interest of justice to review your application. Your current discharge upgrade request from a GEN discharge to an honorable characterization has been carefully examined by a three-member panel of the Board, sitting in executive session on The names and votes of the members of the panel will be furnished upon request. Documentary material considered by the Board consisted of your application, together with all material submitted in support thereof, relevant portions of your naval record, applicable statutes, regulations and policies, and a Advisory Opinion (AO), which was previously provided to you, to which we received no response, and is enclosed. On you enlisted in the Marine Corps following a brief period of service in the Navy Reserve. On your top secret security clearance was terminated for cause for being an unsatisfactory credit risk due to your chronic indebtedness and writing multiple bad checks. On an Enlisted Performance Board (EPB) convened to consider your failure to pay debts. The EPB recommended probation with the understanding that your debts would be combined and paid in monthly payments, and that any failure to make such monthly payments would result in further action. Unfortunately, you failed to make the initial monthly payment on your consolidated debts. Accordingly, the EPB reconvened and recommended you receive an undesirable discharge by reason of unfitness due to a failure to pay debts. You waived your right to appear before the EPB. On you were discharged under conditions other than honorable (OTH). On the Board reviewed your first petition and upgraded your OTH to a GEN as a matter of clemency. The determined that you did not warrant an OTH given that you were recommended for the and had no disciplinary actions and good performance during most of your last enlistment. A qualified mental health provider also reviewed your request for correction and provided the Board an AO regarding your PTSD claim. The AO stated that there is insufficient information to determine if any PTSD is attributed to military service, and the AO concluded that there is insufficient evidence to attribute your financial mismanagement-related misconduct to PTSD symptoms. You provided no further evidence in response to the AO. You presented as new evidence your contentions and mitigating factors that included, but were not limited to: a statement that you were experiencing PTSD, you did not write any bad checks and instead your wife wrote the bad checks, that you were put into an admin job at Camp Lejeune that you knew nothing about, denied training you needed to do that job, and that you served USMC honorably for many years including as a drill instructor. Unfortunately, the Board found that your contentions and mitigating factors were not sufficient to warrant relief in your case given the overall seriousness of your misconduct. The Board also noted that, contrary to your contentions, your security clearance termination paperwork specifically identified you, and not your wife, as the person who wrote multiple bad checks returned for insufficient funds in the area. The Board concluded that your egregious financial irresponsibility clearly merited your receipt of a less than honorable discharge, and that there was no material error or injustice in your upgraded GEN discharge. Your request was fully and carefully considered by the Board in light of the Secretary of Defense’s 3 September 2014 memorandum, “Supplemental Guidance to Military Boards for Correction of Military/Naval Records Considering Discharge Upgrade Requested by Veterans Claiming Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” of, the 25 August 2017 memorandum “Clarifying Guidance to Military Discharge Review Boards and Boards for Correction of Military/Naval Records Considering Requests by Veterans for Modification of their Discharge Due to Mental Health Conditions, Sexual Assault, or Sexual Harassment,” and the 25 July 2018 memorandum, “Guidance to Military Discharge Review boards and Boards for Correction of Military/Naval Records Regarding Equity, Injustice, or Clemency Determinations.” The purpose of the USD Memo is to ease the process for veterans seeking redress and assist Boards for Correction of Military/Naval Records “in determining whether relief is warranted on the basis of equity, injustice, or clemency.” The USD Memo noted that “increasing attention is being paid to…the circumstances under which citizens should be considered for second chances and the restoration of rights forfeited as a result of such convictions,” and that “BCM/NRs have the authority to upgrade discharges or correct military records to ensure fundamental fairness.” The USD Memo sets clear standards and principles to guide BCM/NRs in application of their equitable relief authority, and further explains that boards shall consider a number of factors to determine whether to grant relief. However, even in light of the USD Memo, the Board still concluded that, given the totality of the circumstances and your lengthy pattern of financial mismanagement, your request does not merit additional relief above and beyond your upgrade. It is regretted that the circumstances of your reconsideration petition are such that favorable action cannot be taken again. 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 the absence of sufficient new matters for reconsideration, the decision of the Board is final, and your only recourse would be to seek relief, at no cost to the Board, from a court of appropriate jurisdiction. 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.