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I submitted my resignation due to some financial issues. There were a number of circumstances surrounding this which took the fight out of me, thus I just wanted to move on. I was under the impression that my discharge was General, Under honorable conditions, however, in reviewing my DD314 i realized that it was Under Other than honorable conditions for "unacceptable conduct".I would like to see if my discharge can be upgraded to either Honorable or Under Honorable Conditions. Up to that point, I was a top performer.
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Thanks for the chance to help. I am an attorney with over 12 years military law experience.Depends...a resignation implies you had a commission...is that correct?If so was the resignation qualified or unqualified or do you know?
Yes, I had a commission (CPT)
I am not sure if it was qualified or unqualified, can you elaborate on what that means and/or how to find out?
Yes...there are two ways to resign. One is a qualified resignation. The other is unqualified.A qualified resignation is one where the least favorable characterization would be "general, under honorable conditions:An unqualified resignation can be characterized can be characterized with "other than honorable" (OTH)Sounds like you may have submitted an unqualified resignation.But lets back up...If you were under investigation at the time of the request to resign, the military would have, in most all cases, required an unqualified request. This is particularly true if you were pending charges. This is process is often referred to as "separation in lieu of trial" or SILT.So if you did a SILT request? The request would be unqualified.If you were not facing investigation or charges? Then your resignation should have been qualified. IF that was the case, you should NOT have received an OTH...and if that was the case you can apply to have your record corrected.But if you applied for a SILT, there is no way now to change the record.
How would I be able to determine which was processed? I have a copy of my resignation letter which says either Honorable or General under honorable conditions would be the outcome.
There was an investigation surrounding the state of my financial issues, but none were criminal. I could not pay all of my Government issue credit card following my return from TDY due to personal issues related to my ex and children.
Up until that point, my performance was exceptional.
If this was not a SILT (was not an action by you to avoid criminal processing) then you would not be subject to an OTH. The law on that is very clear.What you describe sounds like the service made a mistake.You can request our records here. http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/You should do that first.Make sure to request the entire record.Then, you apply to the Board of Corrections for military records. You do that herehttp://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/correct-service-records.htmlConsider hiring a lawyer to get this right. What you describe? Sounds like you have a winner of a case...hire a lawyer with experience to get the request done properly
Experience: Retired Marine Corps Lawyer, Veterans Services Officer (VSO)