A Real-World Navy Discharge Upgrade Lesson: How the BCNR Weighs Misconduct Against Rehabilitation
When people talk about discharge upgrades, they often imagine a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down decision, as if the Navy is re-judging whether someone was “good” or “bad.” In practice, the Board for Correction of Naval Records (BCNR) treats these cases as a disciplined review of the paper trail: what the service record proves, what process […]
Will the Military Automatically Upgrade My Discharge?
One of the most common urban legends throughout the military is that a negative service characterization or discharge will be upgraded after six months. Throughout the last decade and a half that I have been practicing military law, I have heard this idea repeated many times.