{"id":74502,"date":"2017-09-05T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T13:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=74502"},"modified":"2017-09-05T08:46:20","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T12:46:20","slug":"oth-discharge-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=74502","title":{"rendered":"OTH Discharge upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connecting with Vets<\/a> reports that you might get your “bad paper” other-than-honorable discharges upgraded at no expense, if you use the American Legion and other veterans’ service organizations (VSO) to help navigate the process since it’s their job. You don’t have to be a member of the organization in order to take advantage of their expertise;<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s free to all veterans not just Legion members,\u201d American Legion Alex Zhang tells ConnectingVets.com. \u201cIf you show up at our offices, and you have a DD-214, we will help you with that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerardo Avila, the Legion\u2019s Deputy Director of DoD issues says there are typically two issues that can lead to an upgrade of discharge status from OTH to General. The first is if a command didn\u2019t go about things the proper way when discharging the individual, and the second is if the punishment truly fit the \u201ccrime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a service member was separated and they think they got a raw deal where maybe the DoD or the respective branch did not follow due process, just like in the civilian world\u2026 there\u2019s some issues right there with propriety,\u201d Avila says. \u201cEquity issues would be was the punishment too harsh or maybe there was more than one person involved and one got an OTH and one got a general discharge. the board can provide relief on that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, your behavior before the punishment as well as your conduct after the discharge works for, or against you, too.<\/p>\n

Connecting with Vets<\/a> also discusses new guidance from the Pentagon on victims of sexual trauma who got “bad paper” as a result.<\/p>\n

Alex Zhang, assistant director of DoD Board and national cemetery at the American Legion said the organization is still reviewing the new guidance and how it can help veterans with discharge upgrades.<\/p>\n

For the Legion\u2019s own work in discharge upgrades, the new guidance \u201csupports the efforts that we make,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like less of a hurdle so now it makes it easier. But it also clarifies things for the DoD board to say hey, now you really have to take this into further consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhang also said that over 700,000 veterans need or are seeking upgrades to their discharges and hopes that this new guidance will help reduce those numbers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Connecting with Vets reports that you might get your “bad paper” other-than-honorable discharges upgraded at no … OTH Discharge upgrades<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-veterans-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}