Docket No:  3048-19
Ref: Signature Date 
 
MR 
 
 
Dear Mr. : 
 
This letter is in reference to your reconsideration request received on 12 March 2019.  You previously petitioned the Board for Correction of Naval Records (Board) and were advised that your application was disapproved.  Your case was reconsidered in accordance with Board procedures that conform to Lipsman v. Sec’y of the Army, 335 F. Supp. 2d 48 (D.D.C. 2004).  After careful and conscientious consideration of the entire record, the Board found that the evidence submitted was insufficient to establish the existence of probable material error or injustice.  Consequently, your application has been denied. 
 
The Board determined that your personal appearance, with or without counsel, would not materially add to their understanding of the issues involved.  Accordingly, the Board determined that such an appearance was not necessary and considered your case based on the evidence of record. 
 
Because your application was submitted with new evidence not previously considered, the Board found it in the interest of justice to reconsider your application.  Your current request was carefully examined by a three-member panel of the Board, sitting in executive session on 10 August 2020.  The names and votes of the panel members will be furnished upon request.  Documentary material considered by the Board included your application and all material submitted in support of it and your previous application, relevant portions of your naval and medical records, an advisory opinion (AO) provided by a qualified mental health professional, dated 10 May 2020, and your response to that AO dated 11 May 2020. 
 
As new evidence supporting your request for reconsideration, you provided several letters of support, a current resume, various certificates of achievement, evidence of education and treatment programs, and some medical correspondence.  You did not, however, provide any clinical records or other evidence of an in-service or post-discharge mental health condition.  You also made several new assertions, including that the upgrade of your characterization of service is warranted due to your experiencing of “personal problems at home, as well as [your] severe alcohol addiction” which resulted in your misconduct.  You also asserted that you felt that you had to remain at home past your leave period, as you were “afraid to leave [your] mother alone with your step father” due to domestic violence concerns.  Finally, you asserted that you “started drinking again after graduation from  and continued to drink during your time in the USMC, to escape the thoughts of home,” and that you did not receive any support from your chain of command which may have enabled you to be a good Marine.  After careful and conscientious consideration of the entire record, however, the Board determined that your statements and the new evidence you provided, even though not previously considered by the Board, was insufficient to establish the existence of probable material error or injustice. 
 
You cited as a basis for upgrading the characterization of your service the fact that you were suffering from severe alcoholism.  The Board noted that your response to the mental health professional’s AO asserted that you have never claimed to be suffering from a mental health condition, but considered that you did assert severe alcoholism with the possibility of depression, and that in your 3 March 2019 letter to the Board you described yourself as “a mentally underdeveloped teen with much more serious mental problems.”  Based upon these assertions, your application was carefully considered by the Board in light of guidance from the Secretary of Defense (“Supplemental Guidance to Military Boards for Correction of Military/Naval Records Considering Discharge Upgrade Requested by Veterans Claiming Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,” 3 September 2014), as supplemented by the Acting Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (“Consideration of Discharge Upgrade Requests Pursuant to Supplemental Guidance to Military Boards for Correction of Military/Naval Records (BCMRs/BCNR) by Veterans Claiming Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI),” 24 February 2016).  It was also considered in light of the guidance from the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (USD(P&R)) (“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,” 25 August 2017).  As such, the Board applied a liberal standard of review to your assertions of a mental health condition, as well as your asserted pre-service trauma or abuse, and the potential impact that these circumstances may have had upon your conduct. 
 
As noted above, a qualified mental health professional further reviewed your case and provided the Board with an AO, dated 10 May 2020.  You provided a rebuttal to this AO, dated 11 May 2020.  In particular, the AO noted that your in-service records did not contain any evidence of any mental health disorder.  Based on the available evidence, the AO concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support the existence of an in-service mental health condition to which your misconduct could be attributed. 
 
Even under the liberal standard of review described above, after careful and conscientious consideration of the entire record the Board determined that the additional evidence that you provided was insufficient to establish the existence of probable material error or injustice.  Accordingly, the Board determined that your application did not warrant relief on this basis. 
 
In addition to reviewing your case for error or injustice, the Board also considered your application in light of recent guidance provided by the USD (P&R) (“Guidance to Military Discharge Review Boards and Boards for Correction of Military / Naval Records Regarding Equity, Injustice, or Clemency Determinations,” 25 July 2018) to determine whether equitable relief is appropriate in your case.  In this regard, the Board considered, among other factors, the difficult and violent conditions that you described in your upbringing and the impact that this experience may have had upon you; your stated concern for the safety of your mother which influenced you to remain absent from the Marine Corps; the letters of support that you providing reflecting your favorable character and post-discharge employment record; the evidence of your post-service rehabilitative efforts; your educational and skill training efforts; your post-service volunteer activities; and your relative youth at the time of your misconduct.  The Board acknowledged your favorable post-discharge actions and commended your rehabilitative efforts.  However, it did not find that the evidence provided was sufficient to warrant equitable relief in the form of an upgrade to the characterization of your service at this time.  
  
It is regretted that the circumstances of your reconsideration petition 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 the absence of 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. 
 
Sincerely,