What Can You Do When the Command Blows Up Your Career?

When you have drawn the critical eye of your military command, life can become very difficult. First, they investigate. This can be a very long process, and frequently your career is stalled while it continues. No PCS moves, no promotions, no EAS.

Even if the investigation does not lead to criminal charges and a court-martial, the command has a number of administrative actions it can take that will permanently affect your career, your pay, and your chance at a military retirement.

Commands can act to revoke your security clearance. They can issue you an adverse fitness report or evaluation. The command can give you an adverse counseling, a letter of reprimand, or nonjudicial punishment. They can delay a promotion you have already earned and even remove you from the promotion list altogether. They can administratively separate you, sometimes without even the option of a hearing. Most of the time, commands take several of these actions all at once, creating an avalanche of bad paper and bad outcomes.

A court-martial conviction requires the Government meet their burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Administrative actions can be taken on very little evidence and it becomes your burden to rebut these actions and reclaim your military career.

If your command has taken unfair administrative actions against you, you can fight back! Usually, you will have to wage this war on several fronts. Unfavorable discharges have to be addressed by your service's Discharge Review Board. Promotion delays, nonjudicial punishments, adverse paperwork, unjust administrative separations, and adverse evaluations are tackled with a petition to your service's Board for Correction of Military (or Naval) Records. Security clearance revocations are handled by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Each has its own regulations, its own forms, its own timelines.

If you have been unfairly targeted for administrative actions by your command, you can reclaim your career!  For a consultation about your case and the path forward, call me at (760) 239-7294. Together, we can work towards restoring your military standing.