Expert: Rod Powers - 11/8/2007

Question
I was discharged from the Navy about three years ago for misconduct but it was for me being in a group smoking marijuana, I told them I didn't and the drug test was negative but at Captain's mast he believed it to be true so it was true I had a Review for the case but I was late to meeting by 8 minutes and tried to charge me with UA and my lawyer advised me to drop the review board to drop the UA charge based on those facts what are my chances on upgrading my discharge from RE-4 to RE-3

Answer
Hi Tyrone,

To be "blunt," your chances are probably not all that good. You have two options: The first is to request a records review board to change your RE code, if you can prove the code was not compatible with the reason for discharge. As your "reason for discharge," was (presumably) drug use, that's probably not going to happen. However, if you feel there's a chance, the procedures to have your Military records considered for change can be read in my article at: http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/airforcebase/a/chgrecords.htm

The second option is to try and convince a civilian discharge review board to upgrade your discharge characterization (i.e., from "general" to "honorable," etc. If approved, this would automatically include a change in your RE Code (see my article at: http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/generalinfo/a/dischargeupg.htm

Your chances of either are not great. Less than 10 percent of discharge upgrade and record change requests are granted, and you haven't presented me with any information which shows that you were not at fault in this situation.

I'm going to be blunt, but you asked for my opinion -- first of all, you (apparently) allowed yourself to be with, and stayed with a group who were using illegal narcotics. Second, you were late to your own hearing. This was the most important factor going on in your life, at the time, and you were late -- you should have been there like two hours early.

In my opinion, your chances of getting any of this overturned are very, very small. Just to have a chance, I would recommend you obtain the services of an attorney, experienced in the areas of board actions. This, of course, will probably cost you a couple of thousands of dollars, but (again, in my opinion), is your only possible chance.

I have a small listing of attorneys who offer such services on my site at: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/lawyers/Lawyers_Who_Specialize_in_Military_Law.ht...

For more information about the United States Military, feel free to visit my U.S. Military Careers information site at: http://usmilitary.about.com

Hope this helps!

Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com