The Military is notorious for not catching mental illness during screening, testing, enlisting, criminal trials, and early service. I recently helped a veteran who received a less-than-honorable discharge from the Army nine years ago.
I was appalled to learn how the Army had enlisted a polite, highly intelligent, but severely mentally ill young man and after enlistment was unable to tell the difference between a criminal and a severely sick person. I was disappointed that the Army overlooked the telltale signs of mental illness that this young 17-year-old exhibited before he joined the Army and the highly visible signs of his mental illness worsening after he joined the Army.
The military and society, in general, have learned that our civilian and military criminal justice systems have done a bad job in the past in recognizing mental illness. They have been equally terrible at properly helping those who suffer from things like Major Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Bi-Polar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and other mental health problems.
The tragic results of these military and societal shot comings have resulted in thousands of Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Sailors, and Coast Guardsmen going undiagnosed, recruited when they should have been disqualified for service, and being convicted of crimes, imprisoned, and less than honorably discharged.
The less-than-honorably discharged soldier I had the honor to help was not only mentally ill with major anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, and Persistent Depressive Disorder when he joined the Army but his illnesses were significantly worsened by his short military service. In the Army’s rush to enlist a polite and highly intelligent young man into the military, it failed to properly interview, screen, observe, counsel, and determine that this person was unqualified for military service due to serious mental illness.
The good news in this story includes:
Each branch of military service has a discharge review board, which has the authority to change, correct, or modify discharges. The armed forces and American society have changed, and many actions, events, and standards affecting military discharges have changed also. What were once guaranteed reasons for less-than-honorable discharge are no longer applicable reasons for involuntary termination from military service.
With the help of a Charleston County Veterans Service Officer (VSO), limited help from a highly qualified and kind attorney who had handled these kinds of appeals in the past, my past certification as a VSO, my longtime work as a patient Adviser at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center, my work as the volunteer VP for Veteran Affairs for the Coastal S.C. Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) Chapter, the VA successful treatment of me for PTSD, my ability and willingness to work hundreds of hours on the appeal, my ability to pay for the veteran and me to fly to DC and go before the review board, and my own close relationship with a kind and most highly esteemed psychiatrist, I was able to prepare the appeal for this veteran, represent him before an Army Discharge Appeal Board in Washington, D.C., and win a unanimous decision to have his discharge changed to honorable.
The bad news in this story is that:
Had I not been an enlisted man, warrant officer, and commissioned officer for 24 years and of almost sound mind and body, …
Had I not offered to prepare his appeal and represent him before the Army Discharge Review Board in D.C., …
Had I not had training and experience working with and for veterans had a strong university undergraduate and graduate education, …
Had I not been able to get a lawyer to provide free advice and research more than 30 studies and medical articles linking brilliance and other factors to mental illness, …
Had I not been able to find a copy of the veteran’s Record of Trial by Court Martial (DD Form 2329) and his Offer to Plead Guilty (no matter what the consequences) to his AWOL, …
Had I not had the ability to pay for the expenses of the appeal (research, books, computer, printer, paper, copying, postage, background check, request for records, travel to D.C., lodging in D.C., and more), …
Had I not been able to help this very ill veteran apply for VA emergency mental health care, …
Had I not been able to help him file for Social Security Disability, which was awarded at 100%, …
Had I not been retired from the Army and the hospice, aerospace, and law enforcement fields and been available (and willing) to work for nine months on the appeal, …
Had I not read Touched by Fire, the medical field’s Bible on Bi-Polar and Depression Disorders, and …
Had I not been a seasoned Veterans Benefits columnist…
… the veteran would probably never have attempted to appeal his outrageously wrong discharge.
More bad news
The veteran could never have, on his own, done the research, obtain all the witness and doctor statements, conducted and recorded a one-hour face-to-face interview with his mental health doctor, requested his military and medical records, requested his civilian medical records, requested statements from his past employees, requested copies of his elementary and high school records, paid for a background check and the more than $1,000 in expenses (not including labor), request a supporting statement from his minister-priest-rabbi-etc., called the Discharge Review Board’s help desk a dozen times, spent hundreds of hours preparing his appeal, and done a myriad other things required to successfully appeal his grievously unjust less-than-honorable discharge.
He was too sick to perform such a complicated and prolonged appeal. The veteran was also too sick to get on an airplane to fly to D.C. or attend a traveling board meeting that would require him to drive to a hearing.
The basics of appealing a military discharge
Read carefully the information at the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) How to Apply for a Discharge Upgrade website found at https://bit.ly/3NHh5KP.
Answer a series of questions to get customized step-by-step instructions on how to apply for a discharge upgrade or correction. If your application goes through and your discharge is upgraded, you’ll be eligible for the VA benefits you earned during your period of service.
This informative VA website states that all branches of the military consider you to have a strong case for a discharge upgrade if you can show your discharge was connected to any of these categories:
Mental health conditions, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Sexual assault or harassment during military service (military sexual trauma) or Sexual orientation (including under the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy).
The DVA’s How to Apply for a Discharge Upgrade website provides detailed answers to the following questions:
- Can I get VA benefits without a discharge upgrade?
- What if I already applied for an upgrade or correction and was denied?
- What if I have discharges from more than one period of service?
- What if I served honorably, but did not receive discharge paperwork?
- What I have a DD215 showing an upgraded discharge, but my DD214 still is not correct? Each of the answers to these questions should be read carefully.
The VA’s website at https://bit.ly/3urYGv0 provides easy-to-understand instructions and a get-started button where the veteran answers a series of questions to help him or her to begin filing an appeal. However, the total process is complicated and usually takes months to a year to complete.
U.S. Air Force veterans should also go online to the USAF Board of Correction of Military records website at https://bit.ly/3P5kgNw, read everything, and follow the instructions exactly.
U.S. Army veterans should go online to the Army Review Boards Agency at https://bit.ly/3bVmkcY and read everything and follow the instructions to the letter under the Army Discharge Review Board (ARBA) section.
U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps veterans should go online to the Board of Correction of Naval Records at https://bit.ly/3AtngPQ and read everything and follow the instructions without error.
Since this writer has only helped soldiers to appeal their discharge, I am not an expert on the discharge appeal process of the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard. However, the appeal process for all of the services is similar.
With the help of a good Veterans Service Officer, family, friends, volunteers, and perhaps a lawyer, anyone, should be able to file an Appeal for a Discharge upgrade. With that said, a severely mentally ill person could never do an appeal on his own.
For discharged soldiers (veterans) Department of Defense Din striction 1332.28, titled Discharge Review Board (DRB) Procedures and Standards, found at https://bit.ly/3Rd9SFB, and Army Regulation 15-180, titled Army Discharge Review Board found at https://bit.ly/3uqvuUX are required references.
Veterans can file their appeals on their own but the process is so complicated, that it is recommended that veterans seek the help of a Veterans Service Officer (VSO). Veterans can find VSOs in their area online at https://www.benefits.va.gov/vso/varo.asp. Lowcountry veterans can find their local County Veterans Affairs Office at the S.C. Department of Veteran Affairs website https://scdva.sc.gov/ and https://scdva.sc.gov/county-veterans-affairs-offices
Veterans can read more about Requests for Military Discharge Upgrades and Appeals at the Military.com website https://bit.ly/3yFtCdw and https://bit.ly/3AlO9VU.
So, what is the bottom line?
Do not miss out on your valuable VA and State Veterans benefits. And if you are the family member or friend of a veteran who may have been unfairly discharged, please help the veteran to request his or her discharge be upgraded.
Larry Dandridge is a Vietnam War wounded warrior, disabled veteran, ex-Enlisted Infantryman, ex-Warrant Officer Pilot, and retired Lt. Colonel. He is a past Veterans Service Officer, a Patient Adviser at the RHJ VA Hospital, the Fisher House Charleston Good Will Ambassador, and the VP for Veteran Affairs for the local Army Association Chapter. Larry is the author of the award-winning book Blades of Thunder and a contributing free-lance writer with the Island News. Contact him at LDandridge@earthlink.net or 843-276-7164.
