Changing of military discharge?

Question

My husband was discharged from the Navy for simply being drugged at a party. I think the Navy was wrong to discharge him seeing as the MA's submitted a statement to his C.O. stating they believed that my husband did not willingly injest the drugs. He was given 5 days to appeal to court martial, all of which were working days (he worked day check). He did not have time to travel the 4 hours necessary to go home (Connecticut from Maine) to gather evidence to appeal. Is it possible to get the discharge reversed?

...oops!! the word is spelled ingest...not injest..what was I thinking!

shrty: "gone to get the evidence" was IMPOSSIBLE. Base was in Maine, party was in CT and he didn't know drugs were present. He wouldn't have GONE if drugs were present. He isn't stupid. And you think "telling his C.O he had to do this" would have done anything..NO. They would have told him too bad, you deal with it.

bux..my husband would never lie to me. How do you expect a man to travel 8 hours in one night, gather the information needed, and make it back in time to go to work, and be awake enough to work the next day. My husband had to be at work at 6am, and wasn't let out until after 5 pm. And for the information of everyone else, he wasn't given a Court Martial, he was given a Captains Mast, in which he couldn't have representation.

Airdale...I couldn't help him, I was in the hospital...My husband didn't know he could do any of the things you listed. He figured if he asked for time to go take care of business, his C.O would tell him "too bad". He consulted his LPO and he told my husband that there was nothing he could do as far as getting leave time to go gather the evidence. He knew nothing else to do but brace himself for the eminent disaster of our finances that lie ahead. I think I am the one that is the most concerned with what happened to us. He took it, accepted it, and dealt with it.

Answer 1

Sorry to hear what happened, Your husband put himself in this situation and only he knows what really happened. The Navy has a pretty straight forward policy about failing a drug test so the is pretty no recourse for a reversal. I would recommend that he and you let it go and get on with your lives. This is not the end of the world your husband can still have a very productive life, you know he is not the 1st person to get popped on a drug test. I am Ret Navy and I currently work for the govt at a Naval Shipyard and I have a supervisor who was popped on a drug test when he was in the Navy and now he is working for the Govt and is in a supervisor role. Look everyone will tell you gloom and Doom stories but the bottom line is learn from this and do not put your self in that position and always understand the risk.

Answer 2

Something sounds fishy about this situation. I can buy your husband not being able to travel the round trip and be ready and competent (not suffering from sleep deprivation) to do his job the next day. The thing is, this is his CAREER. There are a few things that come to mind that could have been done.
1. Submit a leave request for the purpose. If the request was 'shot down', then it could also be used as evidence that he attempted to get the evidnce, follow the rules, but was 'shot down' by the command.

2. Submit a 24 hour Special Liberty request chit. Only his department and in some cases, only his division would have to approve it. We are talking about a turn around time to process it of less than 24 hours...if he walked it through. Meaning, he talk to everyone face to face and get a signature on the spot. If it was denied, then it could also be used as evidence of an effort.

3. Talk to a co-worker to cover him while he gets a nap after his return for a few hours. He could have made up the favor or just paid for their time. I don't think there is anyone in the military that hasn't done a favor for money or a return favor.

4. Talk to his Chief or Div O. They could just change the schedule or assign someone else to cover for him. Pretty much, their concern is his where abouts. To cover themselves, they may ask him to submit a special request chit. So, if he gets into trouble or an accident, they have the chit to verify that he was accounted for.

There HAS to be some underlying issues or information that you aren't providing, or your husband is not telling you. If your husband was just the average sailor, I haven't been at a command or even heard of a situation where the command or department wouldn't go to bat for the individual. The loss puts them short one fully trained person. God forbid they are already undermanned. The loss magnifies the problem and adds a strain to other personnel. On the other hand, someone considered to be a 'F' up will catch hell, and a situation like this is the perfect opportunity to get rid of them.

5. Where were you, and how come you couldn't get the evidence on his behalf? If it happened in his home town, then wasn't there family and/or friends he could have contacted to assist him? Send the information/material overnight, and he has something to work with.

I can't imagine your husband just sat back and allowed his career to slam into a brickwall like this. Essentially, he pissed away his opportunity to defend himself (the court martial). I don't know of any other means. I think someone else mentioned JAG, but I don't see them lifting a finger since he failed to get evidence that would have cleared him. He probably should have contacted JAG when he was notified of a court martial. THEN they could have assisted in possibly getting him the time off to get the evidence, or sending someone from their office to get it, as well as dig for evidence and ask questions of other people that attended the party. Also, they could have possibly gotten the date pushed back.

Provided there is no way to clear his name and get reinstated, the issue you/he will have to deal with is his discharge. It will be a dishonorable discharge. Start looking up the process NOW on how to appeal a discharge status. Meaning, a dishonorable discharge can SOMETIMES be changed to a general discharge. Paperwork has to be filed, the case will be reviewed, and a ruling made. I think there is even an appeal process for this as well. Getting it changed to a general discharge will help his employment chances in some cases. There are employers out there that will see a dishonorable discharge and not consider a candidate. An old friend of mines that is now a HR and hiring manager for a company, and Marine veteran told me if the military didn't want them, then why in the hell would I want them. The brother of a mutual friend was talking about doing something to get kicked out of the military because he was tired of it and having problems.

I hope you are successful in getting ALL the facts, and resolving the situation. I have 18 years in the Navy, and hate to see ANY shipmate leave the wrong way. GOOD LUCK!!!

Answer 3

You can contact the Navy JAG Corps in Maryland. In my opinion, they will turn his request down.

During a court martial, your husband should have been read his Miranda rights and advised to have an attorney. If he, your husband, waived his rights to an attorney, that is his fault.

If he had representation, that attorney would have filed all the necessary paperwork needed to get your husband off base and home to prove his innocence.

if it were me, and I only had a 4 hour drive, you would bet I would have made that trip in 3 and gotten all the evidence I needed to clear my name.

Maybe your husband is lying to you. Maybe he willingly ingested the drugs but wants to make himself out to be the victim. If there were sufficient evidence proving his innocence, it would have come out at the court-martial.

In my time in the Army, drugs were as commonplace as beer. Not everyone partook, and those who did got caught.

Your husband made a bad choice and now he is paying the price. I am sorry for that, but there is something he is not telling you. Before you go and bite off more than you can chew with the government, your husband needs to come clean with you and tell you the entire truth, not just the parts that SOUND good.

Besides, he found the 4 hours to go party....why couldn't he find the 4 hours to clear his name?????

Answer 4

Yes but the important thing you forgot is to add that you have to prove the military is at fault for the discharge you received. If you just would have served your contract honorably you wouldn't have this problem. This isn't a process that will happen overnight either.

Answer 5

He could have gone to gather evidence when he got off. He should have told his co's that he needed to do this....

What was he doing at a party with drugs? Not behavior becoming of a military member - and depending on his rank, a huge no-no. (as in boot you out no-no).

Answer 6

one does NOT get discharged at Captain's Mast. One gets RIR, forfeiture of pay and extra duty, but one is NOT summarily discharged.

He had no excuse, he could have taken the time off to get this taken care and his LPO, chief and DIVO were obligated to give it to him.

there is something missing here. either there were other things going on, or he has a past history of being less than stellar.

Answer 7

some times you think they should give the benefit of the doubt some commanders do and give a brake the first offense seen it happen to one of my troops but not all co ,s are willing to trust someone on the drugs

good luck

Answer 8

Once you get yourself in a quagmire it's extremely difficult to get out of it, especially if you failed to file the proper appeal in due course. I don't see how he can "backpedal" now that he's out unless he appeals to his congressman or some such.

Answer 9

No.