There is No Such Thing as an Automatic Upgrade of your Military Discharge

Everyone makes mistakes. It could be that you regret eating that extra donut for breakfast, or more profoundly, you made mistakes during your military service that will follow you for the rest of your life because you have a General Discharge or an Under Other than Honorable Conditions Discharge. 

You may have been told as you were being administratively separated from the military that you "can apply for an automatic upgrade of your discharge in a year." Automatic upgrades by the Board of Corrections for Military Records is a myth that have been circulating for decades. Attorney Joe Owens remembers those statements when he was a junior enlisted Infantry Soldier in the Army and he remembers fighting them as an Officer and a Judge Advocate in the Army. 

The Boards of Correction for Military Records are formal and legal boards of review. They do no independent investigation, and they have to comb through literally thousands of petitions every year. They look for reasons to deny relief.

The best way to persuade a Corrections Board is to present it with a proper legal brief with exhibits, regulatory citations and legal argument from an attorney. A military lawyer's brief to the Board of Corrections gives them all the reasons, citations and regulatory authorities in the packet to grant you the relief you need. In other words, it takes the Board by the hand and leads them to the conclusion. 

** IRL ** We wish we could have made this case up. A Marine was falsely accused by his ex-wife of assault and she pressed charges in civilian court. His case was dismissed by the prosecutor and fully expunged from his record. Two months before his retirement, the Marine Corps removed his approved retirement and retirement date from the personnel system and gave him less than 24 hours of an administrative separation hearing based on her accusations. Despite being represented by a Marine Defense Attorney (who did not show up to the hearing) and in full violation of his Due Process rights, he had to go before the board, which separated him from the Marine Corps, effective the next business day. After a full legal brief to the Navy Marine Board of Corrections for Military Records citing all the provision of the Marine Corps Instruction that were violated, exhibits, and affidavits obtained by the Owens Law Firm from his senior commanders in support of his petition, the Marine was granted full retirement, back pay and allowances and retired medical benefits.