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Understanding Discharge Upgrades: The Truth Behind the Rumors There's a common myth floating around in military circles: that if you received an Other than Honorable or General discharge, you can simply wait six months and automatically upgrade to an Honorable discharge. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. If your military discharge is less than Honorable, you’ll need to build a strong case to justify an upgrade. Building Your Case for an Upgrade Your request for an upgrade c

Your command can blow up your career without even taking you to court-martial. Commands can take administrative actions that permanently affect your career, your pay, and your chance at a military retirement.

Your Rights in Military Court-Martial Appeals When a servicemember goes through a military court-martial, it is important to know that they have certain rights to appeal once a sentence is given. These rights depend on the type of sentence received. If a servicemember is sentenced to a dismissal, a bad conduct discharge, a dishonorable discharge, or confinement for two years or more, their case will automatically be appealed to their service's Court of Criminal Appeals. If th

Fixing Errors in Military Records For active servicemembers and veterans, military records can sometimes contain mistakes or unfair negative entries in official records. These include nonjudicial punishments, reprimands, performance reports, negative page 11 entries, and even administrative separations or Boards of Inquiry. Each of these entries can greatly impact a servicemember's or veteran's career and future chances. What to Do: The Petition Process Fixing or removing th

Are you applying for a job with a government agency or another employer? You might be wondering: will your background check come back clean? For many servicemembers who have never faced charges or been convicted of any offense, the answer can still be a surprising "no." This is because, during investigations by military law enforcement, your name and Personally Identifiable Information (PII) often find their way into the FBI's database—even if no criminal charges are filed. U