Military Discharge Overturn?

Question

My Father in Law was in Vietnam from 1970-1971. Once he returned to the states he ended up with an Under Conditions other than Honorable; Discharge. Right now we are going through the Discharge Reversal process, the VA wants him to write a letter saying why he thinks he deserves this to be reversed. We are having a tough time writing the letter. Does anyone know of a site where we may be able to look at example letters? Also, our neighbor told us there was some act congress passed about Vietnam Vets automatically getting their Discharges overturned if they were over there during certain time periods or something like that...

Answer 1

The discharge will only be upgraded if your father can show that the discharge was given to him either by mistake or in violation of the regulations of the time.

Generally an OTH is given as a punishment for some sort of misconduct.  This makes it espically hard to get overturned as there will be a paper train showing the offense in his records.

And there is no 'automatic' upgrade of discharges - all requests go to a review board for adjudication.

Answer 2

I don't know much about OTH discharge but I found a few web sites for you.

Try to type "oth discharge upgrade" in a search engine.

I found a few. I don't know if any of these sites will help. Some are links to lawyers who specialize in military law.

Answer 3

Call the DAV. They can handle this for you.

Disabled American Veterans National Headquarters

3725 Alexandria Pike

Cold Spring, KY 41076

877-I Am A Vet (877-426-2838)

[phone]