Reasons for chaptering out

Another post from army court martial defense and a post from the military wallet describe the reasons a soldier can be chaptered out for misconduct and a soldiers rights, which can change based on how long a soldier has been in the military.

These do no include special circumstances or medical discharges.

One can be chaptered out of the army under honorable, under honorable conditions, or general discharge for these reasons:

1) Conviction by a Civil Court
2) Pattern of Minor Military Disciplinary Infractions
3) Pattern of Military or Civil Misconduct
4) Commission of a Serious Offence

Honorable Discharge gets a soldier all benefits. These soldiers have had good or excellent ratings for their service and have exceeded expectations.

General Discharge is the most common form of discharge, and is reflective of satisfactory performance. The individual however did not meet all expectations of conduct, and received non judicial punishment or reprimands for his or her conduct.

Some benefits may be lost in a General Discharge, but for the most part these two military separations are administrative discharges, and the soldiers usually receive full benefits.

Other Than Honorable Conditions Discharge is the most severe form of administrative discharge. Examples are given that include "security violations,  use of violence, conviction by a civilian court with a sentence including prison time, or being found guilty of adultery in a divorce hearing". This form of discharge usually does not include veterans benefits and you cannot re-enlist in the armed forces or army reserve. _________________________________________________________________________________
The remaining discharges are Bad Conduct Discharges, Dishonorable Discharge, Officer Discharge, And Entry Level Separation.

Bad Conduct and Dishonorable Discharge forfeit almost all veterans benefits, and differ in scope of conduct. Dishonorable is reserved for the worst offences, like sexual assault and murder. A soldier with Dishonorable Discharge cannot own guns in the U.S. These discharges may be preceded by time in military prison.

The next two are copied straight from the military wallet site, in quotations.

Officer Discharge
"Commissioned officers cannot receive bad conduct discharges or a dishonorable discharge, nor can they be reduced in rank by a court-martial. If an officer is discharged by a general court-martial, they receive a Dismissal notice which is the same as a dishonorable discharge."

Entry Level Separation (ELS)

"If an individual leaves the military before completing at least 180 days of service, they receive an entry level separation status.  This type of military discharge can happen for a variety of reasons (medical, administrative, etc.) and is neither good or bad, though in many cases, service of less than 180 may prevent some people from being classified as a veteran for state and federal military benefits." 

The rest of the articles describe ways to apply to have your discharge upgraded and the appeal process. 

A change in scope

The statistics say that there are many more people than Jerald Jensen being chapter-ed out of the army wrongly, however the topic is so under reported there are only three or four articles on it. All of them are on Jerald Jensen, basically recopies of his story. Digging through search engines I haven't found reliable sources of information about people being chapter-red out incorrectly.

However I have found many forum posts and blogs about people having difficulty getting honorable instead of general under honorable conditions discharge, and people trying to get out of the armed forces all together having difficulty. So while I will still be looking for information about people being chapter-ed out dishonorably for no good reason, I am changing the scope of the blog to include more information about the chaptering out process and how difficult it is to leave the military with the benefits a soldier deserves.

A soldiers rights

Here is a blog post from another blog about army law, presumably by the law office of David E Combs which is plastered at the top.

It outlines what seems to be the most recent versions of rights and responsibilities of soldiers to get benefits when chaptering out honorably and generally under honorable conditions. It specifies the difference between them, mainly being significant GI Bill education benefits. It also describes the right to appeal a decision for either upgrading you chaptering out condition from general to honorable, or to not be chaptered out at all but to stay in the army.

I do not own any of the content on that site, I am simply passing along something that is helpful.

Jerrald Jensen

Jerrald Jensen served in the army in Afghanistan in 2006, in 2007 he was injured by an IED that destroyed his jaw, all of his teeth, and made half of his face numb. He received a purple heart. He spent two years in rehabilitation and surgery, then volunteered to go back. While running to a military post he tripped and fell on a rock, breaking his newly formed titanium jaw and injuring his knee, but he stayed caring for the wounded until his wound was badly infected and he we forced to leave. He was sent to the Warrior Transition Unit in Fort Carson Colorado. That was when things went bad.

His commanding officers there, many who had never been on a tour of duty, wrote him up for minor infractions impossible to meet with his disability, and after failing a drug test that Jensen said was a false positive from his many medicines taken for his injury, was almost forced out of the army dishonorably, without benefits including disability. If not for another commanding officer calling the WTU and telling them to let him be medically discharged, instead of misconduct discharge, he would be without benefits unable to fix his damaged face.

These articles tell a story that is the definition of chaptering out of the military. Jensen was lucky he had a high-ranking friend to defend him. It is estimated that 76000 soldiers are chaptered out without benefits. Many of the reasons they are chaptered out are for misconduct, which can be directly related to PTSD and other battlefield psychological issues that army commanders refuse to acknowledge.
"'At a policy level the Army is saying it takes care of these guys but at a command level it is not happening,' said Lenore Warger, a counselor who has worked with discharged soldiers for 12 years at the veterans rights organization The Quaker House near Fort Bragg in North Carolina. "

http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/america-tonight-blog/2013/11/11/exclusive-76-000soldierschapteredoutofmilitarybenefitssince06.html

http://cdn.csgazette.biz/soldiers/day2.html

Investigating "Chaptering Out"

  “Chaptered Out”: US Military Seeks to Balance Budget on Backs of Disabled Veterans

Chaptering out is a practice in the military where wounded soldiers are dishonorably discharged falsely so the military does not have to pay them benfits. I think this topic is linked to the fact that the pentagons budget is terrible and cant be audited because it has horrible records, and I might investigate that as well to see if there is any cross information. 

I chose this topic because I honestly had no idea it was happening, it was the topic that surprised me most, and I know alot of people who are veterans who I could ask about the topic. I think its a disgusting practice that I want to investigate further.