Legal Question in Military Law in Illinois

My husband served 4+ years in the Marine Corps. He was a decorated Marine with many awards (including a Bronze Star). He has many Combat Action Ribbons (also has been to war 3 times as a Force Recon Marine). He never once popped on a drug test until the week he was to get out of the corps. He tried to fight the "Bad Conduct" discharge. He was sent to the brigg and stripped of rank. He tried to fight this case with a lawyer provided to him by the Corps that did not help him or provide any type of case for him. He was discharged and stripped of all the good he has done for the US. He feels the drug test was tampered with or may have had something to do with his unwillingness to re-inlist. We'd like to try and get his discharge changed to Honorable. He is a proud veteran and just wants a better name for himself. He has never been a user and has no past record what-so-ever. Do we have a chance of aquiring this change without much proof or back-up for our case?


Asked on 1/28/11, 10:37 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
William J. Holmes Attorney at Military Law

Since he was convicted by a court-martial and was given a bad conduct discharge, the only thing to be done is to appeal the court-martial conviction and sentence and try to get it reversed on appeal. You did not say when this happened. Has an appeal already been done or is it pending? This is really your only option to get things changed. All of this should have been fought at the court-martial so the appeal is the only other option. A BCD will not be changed to an honorable discharge unless the court-martial sentence is overturned.

I hope this has helped. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me directly

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Answered on 2/09/11, 7:17 am


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