Summary. Say nothing, call defense counsel, put every SCRA protection in writing, elect the board, and document every medical condition before you separate.

For the framework — the UCMJ, the SCRA, USERRA, and the correction boards — see Military Legal Issues. This guide is what to do.

Four sentences worth memorizing:

  1. "I want to speak with a lawyer, and I am not going to make a statement."
  2. Free defense counsel is independent of your chain of command. Call before deciding anything.
  3. Almost every SCRA protection requires written notice with a copy of your orders.
  4. Document every medical condition before you separate.

Part One: When something goes wrong

The moment an investigator appears

Invoke, out loud, and then stop. "I want to speak with a lawyer, and I am not going to make a statement." Then say nothing else about the matter — not to the investigator, not to your supervisor, not to your roommate, not on a phone call home.

Why this matters more here than in a civilian case. Article 31 requires a warning whenever a person subject to the code questions a suspect, without any custody requirement — a broader protection than civilians get. But the protection only works if you use it, and the single most common way military cases are made is the accused explaining.

Distinguish a demand for a statement from a lawful order. An order to provide a handwriting exemplar, produce a document, submit to a properly authorized search, or report to a location is different from a demand for a statement, and refusing a lawful order is itself an offense. If you are unsure, comply and object, then call counsel — do not refuse and hope.

Then call defense counsel the same day. Trial Defense Service, Defense Service Office, or Area Defense Counsel, depending on the service. It is free, it is independent of your chain of command, and the consultation is confidential.

Preserve what you have: texts, emails, photographs, duty logs, schedules, and the names of anyone present. Do not delete anything, and do not ask anyone to.

Deciding on an Article 15

You will be handed paperwork and told signing is simpler. Do not sign anything until you have talked to defense counsel.

What accepting means: a commander decides, on a lower standard of proof, with limited punishment and no federal conviction — but a record that follows through promotion boards, assignments, retention, and possibly a separation action.

What demanding court-martial means: proof beyond a reasonable doubt, appointed counsel, rules of evidence, and a real chance of acquittal — with a federal conviction and far greater punishment if convicted.

The variables: the strength of the evidence; the likely punishment on each path; whether a separation action follows either way; whether you are near a retention or promotion decision; and whether the facts are sympathetic.

If you accept: present matters in extenuation and mitigation — a written statement, letters from supervisors and peers, evaluations, awards, evidence of corrective steps taken. And appeal to the next superior authority if the punishment is disproportionate. Both steps are free and both are routinely skipped.

If it becomes a court-martial

You get free detailed military defense counsel, you may request a specific military counsel by name, and you may additionally retain civilian counsel at your own expense without giving up the detailed counsel.

Use the Article 32 preliminary hearing. For a general court-martial it is a genuine defense opportunity: hear the government's evidence, examine witnesses within the permitted scope, and shape the recommendation on disposition.

Practical points:

  • Say nothing to anyone but your counsel. Barracks conversations produce witnesses.
  • Do not discuss the case on social media or by text. Assume everything is retrievable.
  • Gather your own evidence early — witnesses transfer, deploy, and separate.
  • Build the mitigation package from day one, not after findings: evaluations, awards, letters, evidence of rehabilitation, and any behavioral health documentation.
  • Understand the appellate structure. Service Courts of Criminal Appeals may reweigh the evidence and judge factual sufficiency — an unusual and valuable form of review.

The administrative separation board

More careers end here than at courts-martial. The standard is lower, the process is faster, and the consequences — particularly the characterization of service — can be just as severe.

Elect the board if you have the right to one. Generally you do if an other-than-honorable characterization is proposed or you have six or more years of service. Waiving it "to get it over with" is the most consequential error in this area.

Prepare it like a hearing:

  • Free defense counsel handles these routinely; use them.
  • Assemble evaluations, awards, letters from supervisors and peers, and training records.
  • Document any behavioral health condition connected to the conduct — post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, substance use — with records, not assertions.
  • Argue characterization separately from retention. A board may recommend separation and still recommend an honorable characterization, which is worth more over a lifetime than the separation decision itself.
  • Understand the collateral effects: recoupment of bonuses or education assistance, loss of transferability of education benefits, and the separation and reenlistment codes.

A security clearance action

A statement of reasons proposing to deny or revoke a clearance can end a career independently of any discipline.

Respond in writing, on time, with documentation. Address each stated concern specifically, and address mitigation by the recognized factors: how long ago, whether it was isolated, the circumstances, evidence of rehabilitation, and whether the underlying vulnerability has been removed — a debt paid, a treatment completed, a relationship ended.

Request the hearing. There is an administrative judge, a hearing, and appeal rights. Do not treat the statement of reasons as a formality, and do not respond without counsel if the stakes are your career.

Part Two: The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act

Almost nothing here happens automatically. Each protection is triggered by a written notice with a copy of your orders. Send them.

The six percent interest cap

For obligations incurred BEFORE entering service, the rate is capped at six percent during service and the excess is forgiven, not deferred.

Send this, with orders attached:

I am on active duty as of [date], as shown by the enclosed orders. This obligation was incurred on [date], before my entry into service. Pursuant to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, I request that the interest rate be reduced to six percent for the period of my military service, that all interest above six percent be forgiven, that the payment be recalculated accordingly, and that the reduction be applied retroactively to the date my service began. Please confirm in writing.

Send it to every pre-service creditor: credit cards, car loans, personal loans, mortgages, and student loans. This is the most valuable and least-used provision in the statute.

Stays and default judgments

If you are sued while serving, you may obtain a stay of at least ninety days on a written request stating how your service materially affects your ability to appear, when you will be available, and — with your commander's communication — that leave is not authorized.

If a default judgment was already entered while you were serving, it may be reopened. The court could not lawfully enter it without an affidavit of military status, appointment of counsel, and a stay where a defense requiring your presence may exist. File promptly after service ends and show a meritorious defense. See Defending a Debt Collection Lawsuit.

Leases, eviction, and foreclosure

Residential lease termination: on entry into service, or on qualifying permanent change of station or deployment orders. Deliver written notice with a copy of the orders; termination is effective on the schedule the statute sets.

Motor vehicle lease termination is available in defined circumstances.

Eviction: a landlord may not evict from premises within the statutory rent threshold without a court order, and the court may stay it.

Foreclosure on a pre-service obligation, during service and for a period after, generally requires a court order or a valid waiver.

In every case: written notice, orders attached, sent so you can prove delivery, and a copy kept.

Waivers, and what to watch for

A waiver of SCRA rights is effective only if in writing, in a separate instrument, in the specified type size, and executed during or after the period of service. A waiver buried in a pre-service contract is not effective. Read anything a creditor asks you to sign in response to an SCRA letter.

Part Three: Your civilian job

Before you leave

Give written notice to your employer of the service, as far in advance as possible. Keep a copy and the orders. Notice may be oral and may be given by an appropriate military officer, but written notice you keep is what proves it later.

Do not resign. Resigning ends reemployment rights.

Elect whether to use accrued vacation — the choice is yours, and the employer may not require it.

While you are gone

You are treated as on furlough or leave of absence, entitled to the non-seniority benefits generally provided to employees on comparable leave. Health coverage continuation rights apply for a period, at your election.

Coming back

Report or apply within the deadline, scaled to the length of service:

  • Under 31 days: report at the next scheduled shift after travel and eight hours' rest.
  • 31 to 180 days: apply within 14 days.
  • Over 180 days: apply within 90 days.

Then the escalator principle applies. You are entitled not to the old job but to the position you would have attained with reasonable certainty had you remained continuously employed — including promotions, raises, and seniority.

And you may not be discharged without cause for one year after service exceeding 180 days, or 180 days after service of 31 to 180 days.

If the employer refuses

Gather: the notice given; the orders; the discharge document; your application to return with its date; the organizational chart before and after; the promotions and raises given to comparable employees during your absence; and any statement reflecting irritation about the absence — which matters even if made by someone other than the decision-maker.

Then file. The Department of Labor's veterans employment service handles complaints at no cost, with referral to the Department of Justice; or you may sue directly.

The remedies are strong: lost wages and benefits, liquidated damages doubling the award for a willful violation, attorney's fees, and reinstatement. There is no statute of limitations.

Part Four: Fixing the record

Discharge upgrade

Where to apply: the service's Discharge Review Board, generally within fifteen years of discharge. After that, the records correction board.

The two grounds:

  • Propriety — the discharge was contrary to law, regulation, or policy in effect at the time.
  • Equity — the discharge was unjust considering the totality of the circumstances, including your entire record.

What makes an application succeed:

  • Evidence of a behavioral health condition connected to the misconduct — post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, substance use. Boards have been directed to give liberal consideration to such evidence, and this has changed outcomes materially.
  • The complete service record, showing what else you did.
  • Post-service conduct — employment, education, treatment, community involvement, letters from people who know you now.
  • A clear narrative connecting the condition or circumstances to the conduct, and describing what has changed.

Correction of military records

Broader power, broader reach. The correction boards may correct any military record to remove an error or injustice — promotions, pay, awards, evaluations, retirement, medical retirement, separation and reenlistment codes, and characterization.

The nominal three-year deadline is routinely waived in the interest of justice. Apply.

Both boards are administrative agencies, and their decisions are reviewable in court under the arbitrary and capricious standard — which means the record you build before the board is the record a court will see. See Challenging a Government Agency Decision.

Free representation is available from veterans service organizations, law school veterans clinics, and pro bono programs.

Part Five: Transition

In the last 180 days:

  1. Document every medical condition, however minor. Tinnitus, a knee, a back strain, sleep, mood. This is the single highest-value action of the entire transition, because service connection is far harder to prove years later without a contemporaneous entry. See Filing and Appealing a VA Disability Claim.
  2. Get a complete copy of your medical and personnel records.
  3. File the VA claim in the pre-discharge window where the program allows.
  4. Read the DD-214 before signing. Characterization, narrative reason, separation code, reenlistment code, awards, education, and deployments. Fix errors now — corrections afterward go through the correction board.
  5. Transfer education benefits to dependents if you intend to — it generally must be initiated while serving and can never be done afterward.
  6. Plan health coverage continuity, with the transitional program windows on the calendar.
  7. Ask about licensure and credentialing in your destination state — expedited and reciprocal routes exist for members and spouses.
  8. Use legal assistance while you still have it — wills, powers of attorney, and consumer questions, all free, all ending at separation.

Six situations, worked through

The specialist accused of a barracks theft

Day one: an investigator appears at the shop. He is friendly, says it is probably nothing, and asks for "your side to clear it up."

What to do: "I want to speak with a lawyer, and I am not going to make a statement." Then go to the defense counsel office that day.

What not to do: explain where you were; volunteer that you were short on money that month; text a friend about it; ask the alleged victim what happened; or search anyone's locker to prove your innocence.

Why the friendliness is not a trick, exactly. Investigators are doing their job, and many genuinely close cases where the explanation checks out. But an explanation given without counsel, without the file, and without knowing what else the government has is how contradictions get created — and a contradiction is worth more to the government than the underlying allegation.

What defense counsel will do in week one: identify the charge being considered, find out whether an Article 15 or charges are contemplated, preserve evidence, and identify witnesses before they transfer.

The petty officer whose urinalysis came back positive

The first question is always the chain of custody, and it is a technical inquiry: collection procedures, observation, the bottle seal and labeling, the transfer documentation, the laboratory's internal quality control, and the reported concentration against the cutoff.

The second question is innocent ingestion, which is a recognized defense but a hard one, and one that requires specifics — a named product, a purchase record, a supplement analysis — rather than a theory.

The third question is what happens regardless. Even where a case does not proceed criminally, a positive result routinely triggers an administrative separation action, which is where the career is actually decided. Elect the board.

And the underlying issue. Where substance use is genuinely present, addressing it — evaluation, treatment, documented engagement — matters at every stage, and it matters far more if initiated before the result comes back than after.

The lieutenant told she is being processed for separation

The mistake to avoid: signing the acknowledgment waiving the board because a well-meaning supervisor said it will "go easier."

What she does instead:

  1. Elect the board. She has the right if an other-than-honorable characterization is proposed or she has six or more years of service.
  2. Get free defense counsel, who does these weekly.
  3. Assemble the record: every evaluation, award, letter of commendation, training certificate, and letters from supervisors and peers who will write honestly.
  4. Separate the two questions. Retention is one; characterization is another, and a board may recommend separation with an honorable characterization. Over a lifetime, that distinction is worth more than the retention fight.
  5. Address any behavioral health condition connected to the conduct, with records.
  6. Understand the money: recoupment of any bonus or education assistance, and whether education benefits can still be transferred.

The Guard member fired after a drill weekend

The employer says it was performance. The timing says otherwise.

USERRA covers drills, not only mobilizations, and the standard is favorable: service as a motivating factor, with the burden then on the employer to show it would have acted anyway.

And under the imputed-bias theory, a supervisor's hostility that proximately causes the decision creates liability even where the person who signed the termination knew nothing about the military service.

What to gather: the drill schedule and orders; every request for time off and the response; performance reviews before and after the service began; comparators who were not disciplined for similar performance; and any remark about "always being gone," including secondhand accounts with the names of who heard them.

Where to file: the Department of Labor at no cost, or directly in court. No limitations period, fees available, and double damages for a willful violation.

The sergeant whose car was repossessed during a deployment

Two SCRA provisions are in play, and both are frequently violated.

Repossession of a vehicle securing an obligation incurred before service generally requires a court order during the period of service. A self-help repossession without one is a violation.

The interest cap applies to the same pre-service obligation, retroactively to the start of service, with the excess forgiven.

What to do: send a written demand with orders attached, stating both violations, demanding return of the vehicle or its value, recalculation of the obligation at six percent, and refund of the excess. Copy the lender's legal department, and note that federal enforcement in this area has produced very large settlements — which is why these letters are taken seriously.

And check the whole file. A servicemember with one SCRA violation usually has three: an unlawful repossession, an uncapped interest rate, and possibly a default judgment obtained without the required affidavit.

The veteran with a fifteen-year-old other-than-honorable discharge

What it costs him: VA health care and disability benefits, education benefits, home loan eligibility, some employment, and an answer he has to give on every application.

The route: he is at the edge of the Discharge Review Board's fifteen-year window, so file there immediately and, if the window has closed, file with the Board for Correction of Military Records, whose three-year deadline is routinely waived in the interest of justice.

What the application needs:

  • The service record entire, not just the incident.
  • Evidence of a behavioral health condition connected to the conduct — a diagnosis, treatment records, a nexus opinion, or lay statements describing changes after a deployment. Boards have been directed to give liberal consideration to such evidence, and this has changed outcomes materially.
  • A narrative tying the condition or the circumstances to the conduct, honestly, without excusing it.
  • Post-service evidence: employment, education, treatment, community involvement, and letters from people who know him now.

And free help exists: veterans service organizations, law school veterans clinics, and pro bono programs handle these regularly. Nobody should pay for this.

The free help, and how to actually use it

The military legal system provides more free legal services than any comparable institution in American life, and they are used by a fraction of those eligible. Knowing which office does what saves weeks.

Legal Assistance. Civil matters for servicemembers and dependents: wills, powers of attorney, advance medical directives, landlord and consumer disputes, SCRA questions, family law advice, tax questions, and notary services. Walk in. No appointment is often needed for a notary or a power of attorney, and the wills are prepared at no cost.

Defense Counsel — Trial Defense Service, Defense Service Office, or Area Defense Counsel depending on the service. Independent of your chain of command. For anything disciplinary: an investigation, an Article 15, charges, a separation board, a letter of reprimand, or a clearance action. The consultation is free and confidential regardless of the outcome, and it does not appear anywhere.

Special Victims' Counsel / Victims' Legal Counsel. Independent representation for victims of certain offenses, including advocacy in the investigation and at proceedings.

Inspector General. For complaints about the exercise of authority, reprisal for protected communications, and systemic problems. Not a substitute for defense counsel, and not confidential in the same way.

Family Advocacy Program and victim advocates. For domestic abuse and child abuse, with confidential and restricted reporting options in some circumstances. See Domestic Violence and Protective Orders.

Chaplains, whose confidentiality is broader than most people realize and who can be the right first conversation.

Financial counseling on every installation, free, and worth more than most legal advice for the problems that actually recur.

Off the installation:

  • Department of Labor veterans employment service for USERRA complaints, at no cost.
  • Veterans service organizations — accredited representatives who handle VA claims and board applications for free.
  • Law school veterans clinics — discharge upgrades, records corrections, benefits appeals.
  • State bar military and veterans pro bono programs.
  • Legal aid, for civil matters after separation.

Two habits that make all of it work better: bring an organized file — orders, records, correspondence, and a one-page chronology — and go early. Nearly every office on this list can do far more at the beginning of a problem than at the end.

The deployment checklist

Thirty days before a deployment, an afternoon at the legal assistance office prevents the great majority of problems families actually encounter.

Documents to prepare:

  • General power of attorney for the spouse or a trusted person, plus special powers of attorney for specific tasks — vehicle registration, housing, banking, the children's medical and school matters. Prepare a second set held in reserve, because institutions sometimes retain the original.
  • Will, and a living will / advance medical directive.
  • Beneficiary designations reviewed and current — life insurance, retirement accounts, bank accounts. A designation that was never updated after a divorce pays the ex-spouse, regardless of the will.
  • Family care plan, where required, and in every case a written plan for who cares for children and pets in a crisis.
  • Guardianship or caregiver authorization for children, where the household is a single parent or both parents deploy.

Financial:

  • Send SCRA interest-cap letters for every pre-service obligation, with orders attached.
  • Terminate the residential lease if the orders qualify, with written notice and orders.
  • Consider vehicle lease termination if eligible.
  • Set up automatic payments, and give someone the authority and the information to fix a problem.
  • Notify creditors of the deployment address for service of process, so a lawsuit does not become a default judgment.
  • Freeze credit for the servicemember and dependents. See Recovering from Identity Theft and Fixing a Credit Report.

Family law:

  • If a custody order exists, confirm it addresses deployment — temporary modification, delegation of visitation to a family member, and a prohibition on permanent modification based on deployment.
  • Confirm support obligations are current and documented.

Records:

  • Copy of orders, DD-214s from prior service, medical records, and vaccination records, in a place the family can reach.
  • A one-page contact sheet: unit, rear detachment, legal assistance, family readiness, and the family's own attorney if any.
  • Photograph household goods before any government-arranged move, for the damage claim that has a short deadline.

And a habit for the deployment itself: if legal mail arrives — a lawsuit, a foreclosure notice, a debt collection letter — send it to legal assistance immediately rather than setting it aside. The SCRA stay and the default judgment protections work best when invoked before a judgment, and they work at all only if someone acts.

Writing to a board: what persuades

Discharge Review Boards and Boards for Correction of Military Records read thousands of applications, most of which say some version of "this was unfair." The ones that succeed share a structure.

1. State the relief precisely. "I request that my discharge characterization be upgraded from Under Other Than Honorable Conditions to Honorable, and that the narrative reason be changed to Secretarial Authority with separation code ___." Not "I want my discharge fixed."

2. Give the service record first. Dates, unit, deployments, awards, evaluations, promotions. The board should know who you were before it learns what went wrong. Attach the documents, tabbed.

3. Tell the truth about the conduct. Boards are not persuaded by denial and they are moved by accountability. "I tested positive. I had been drinking heavily since returning from deployment and I did not seek help." That sentence does more than four pages of argument.

4. Establish the connection. This is the part that changes outcomes. Where a behavioral health condition — post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, substance use — was present, boards have been directed to give liberal consideration to evidence connecting it to the misconduct. The evidence can be a diagnosis, treatment records, a clinician's opinion, or lay statements from people who observed the change — a spouse, a squad leader, a parent describing who you were before the deployment and after.

5. Show what happened since. Employment, education, treatment, sobriety, community involvement. Letters from people who know you now, addressed to the board, describing specific things they have seen. Specific beats laudatory.

6. Address the equities explicitly. Length and quality of service, the isolated or aberrant nature of the conduct, the severity of the consequence relative to the offense, and the treatment of comparable cases.

7. Keep it organized. A cover application, a five-page statement, and a tabbed exhibit index. A box of unsorted paper is read less carefully than a tabbed binder, which is not fair and is true.

And get help. Veterans service organizations, law school veterans clinics, and bar pro bono programs do this work for free and know what a particular board responds to. Nobody should pay a company for this, and companies that charge for it exist.

Sending an SCRA letter that gets results

Creditors receive a great many letters. The ones that produce action share four features.

1. Prove the status. Attach the orders, and where useful, a printout from the Department of Defense's public verification service showing active duty status on a date. A letter without proof of status is a request; a letter with it is a legal notice.

2. Name the provision and the relief. Not "please help me." Instead: "Pursuant to the interest rate provision of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, I request reduction of the rate on this pre-service obligation to six percent for the period of my military service, forgiveness — not deferral — of all interest above six percent, recalculation of the payment, and retroactive application to [date]." Precision signals that the sender knows what the statute says.

3. Establish the timing. The interest cap applies only to obligations incurred before entering service. State the origination date and the service start date, and attach proof of both.

4. Ask for written confirmation with a deadline. "Please confirm in writing within thirty days the adjusted rate, the recalculated payment, and the amount of interest forgiven."

Send it to the right place — the creditor's designated SCRA or military benefits address if one exists, and otherwise to the customer service address and the registered agent. Send it so you can prove delivery, and keep a copy exactly as sent.

If it is ignored or refused: escalate in writing to the creditor's legal department; complain to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the state attorney general; and consult legal assistance or a private lawyer. Private suits carry fees and costs, and federal enforcement in this area has produced very large settlements — facts worth mentioning, politely, in the escalation letter.

And audit the whole relationship while you are at it. A servicemember with one violation frequently has several: an uncapped rate, a repossession without a court order, a default judgment obtained without the required military-status affidavit, and a foreclosure started without one. Ask for the complete account history and look at all of it at once.

Getting the record right, before you need it

Almost every problem in this guide is easier with a complete record, and almost nobody has one until it is too late.

Build a personal file, now, and keep it forever:

  • Every set of orders — assignments, deployments, TDY, mobilizations, and separation.
  • Every DD-214 and equivalent, plus any corrected version.
  • All evaluations, in order.
  • Award citations and orders, not just the medals.
  • Training certificates and transcripts, including joint and civilian-recognized credentials.
  • Medical records — request a complete copy periodically, not only at separation, and keep the dental record too.
  • Deployment and exposure documentation, which becomes the nexus evidence in a VA claim years later.
  • Line-of-duty determinations.
  • Any counseling, reprimand, or adverse action, and your response to it.
  • Drill schedules and pay records, for reserve and Guard members, which prove USERRA notice and service periods.

Store it in two places, one of them off-site or in the cloud. Records are lost in moves, in floods, and in fires, and reconstructing them from government archives takes months.

Request corrections when you see them, not later. An evaluation with a wrong date, a missing award, or an omitted deployment is easy to fix while the people involved are still in the unit and nearly impossible a decade afterward through a records correction board.

And check the record at three moments specifically: before a promotion or retention board, because the board sees the file rather than you; before separation, when the DD-214 is prepared; and before filing any VA claim, board application, or USERRA complaint, all of which rest on it.

Twelve mistakes

  1. Explaining to the investigator. The single most common way military cases are made.
  2. Signing the Article 15 paperwork before talking to free defense counsel.
  3. Skipping extenuation and mitigation, and skipping the Article 15 appeal.
  4. Waiving the separation board to get it over with.
  5. Arguing only about retention and never separately about characterization.
  6. Treating a security clearance statement of reasons as a formality.
  7. Assuming SCRA protections are automatic. Nearly all require written notice with orders.
  8. Never sending the six percent letter to pre-service creditors.
  9. Resigning from a civilian job before service, which ends reemployment rights.
  10. Missing the USERRA reporting deadline on return.
  11. Separating without documenting medical conditions, which makes service connection far harder for decades.
  12. Signing the DD-214 without reading it, and discovering the error years later.

The one-page version

If something goes wrong:

  • "I want a lawyer and I am not making a statement." Then nothing, to anyone.
  • Call free defense counsel the same day. Independent of your chain of command.
  • Do not sign anything — Article 15, waiver, separation acknowledgment — before that call.
  • Elect the separation board. Argue characterization separately from retention.
  • Respond to a clearance statement of reasons in writing, on time, with mitigation.

For money and civil problems:

  • SCRA protections require written notice with orders. Send them.
  • Six percent cap on pre-service debts, retroactive, with the excess forgiven.
  • Terminate leases with orders attached when eligible.
  • Reopen default judgments entered during service.

For your civilian job:

  • Written notice before you go. Do not resign.
  • Report back within the deadline — next shift, 14 days, or 90 days, by length of service.
  • The escalator principle gives you the job you would have had.
  • File with the Department of Labor — no limitations period, fees, and double damages for willful violations.

For your record and your future:

  • Document every medical condition before you separate.
  • Read the DD-214 before signing it.
  • Transfer education benefits while still serving.
  • Discharge upgrades and records corrections are available, and free help exists.

Frequently asked questions

An investigator wants to talk. What do I say? "I want to speak with a lawyer, and I am not going to make a statement." Then nothing else, to anyone.

Article 15 or court-martial? Talk to free defense counsel before deciding. It is genuinely close in many cases and the exposure differs enormously.

Should I waive the separation board? Almost never. Elect it, and argue characterization separately from retention.

How do I get the six percent rate? Written notice with orders, for pre-service obligations. The excess is forgiven, retroactive to the start of service.

My employer eliminated my job while I was mobilized. The escalator principle entitles you to the position you would have attained. File with the Department of Labor or sue — no limitations period, fees available, double damages for willful violations.

Can a bad discharge be upgraded? Often, especially with behavioral health evidence connected to the conduct. Discharge Review Board within fifteen years; correction board after.

Related documents

Educational only, not legal advice. Military law and service regulations change frequently. Free legal assistance and free defense counsel are available to servicemembers and, for civil matters, to dependents — use them.