Docket No: 7378-19/
           8768-08
Ref: Signature Date                          

 
Dear  : 
  
This letter is in reference to your reconsideration request received on 3 August 2019.  You previously petitioned the Board for Correction of Naval Records (Board) and were advised that your application had been 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 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 request has been carefully examined by a three-member panel of the Board, sitting in executive session on 26 October 2020.  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 and all material submitted in support of your application.    
 
You presented no new evidence other than the following statement in your application, “My DD 214 lists my discharge date as well as my type of discharge.  Yet I am still being shown as a deserter.  Due to this, any time a background check is being performed on me, it is returning failed.  I would like this record corrected.”  The Board noted that you provided no additional evidence to support your contentions.  After careful and conscientious consideration of the entire record, the Board determined that the statement you provided, even though not previously considered by the Board, was insufficient to establish the existence of probable material error or injustice and thus not material.  
 
The Board also reviewed your application under the recent guidance provided in the Under Secretary of Defense’s memorandum dated 25 July 2018 entitled, “Guidance to Military Discharge Review Boards and Boards for Correction of Military/Naval Records Regarding Equity, Injustice, or Clemency Determinations” (USD Memo).  However, even in light of the USD Memo, the Board still concluded given the totality of the circumstances, your request does not merit relief. 
 
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,