ARBA and the Army Discharge Review Board (ADRB) Panel

We received some good news from the Army Review Boards Agency (ARBA) a day or so ago. The decision came in from the Army Discharge Review Board (ADRB) panel we argued the case before last month in D.C. The five, active duty colonels voted unanimously to grant our client relief.  This was long in coming, but extremely gratifying on many levels …. and not a bad way to kick off the New Year!    This was also a first of its kind case for our practice.  Our client was a former active duty Army recruit in basic training, who was  administratively separated for medical reasons, within the first six months of his enlistment.  His discharge certificate (DD214) read “Uncharacterized,” and this has been causing him significant problems with potential employers over the past several years.

His service though had been exemplary in the short time he was in, and he was cited for meritorious conduct before his discharge.  We argued that and asked that his DD214 be changed to an Honorable characterization of service, which is almost never done with entry level separations.  But, this officer panel agreed with us, and voted accordingly, upgrading the discharge and changing both the narrative reason for separation and the RE Code.

If you care to know more about this case, I’d be happy to discuss it in more detail.

Office:  214 363-1828 or 866 578-0164;   Cell: 214 536-3888

v/r   Bill Meili