Helping Out:
A Guide to Military Discharges and GI Rights
Supporting Statements for Hardship & Dependency Claims
Other Designated Physical and Mental Conditions (ODPMC)
Discharge in Lieu of Court Martial
Erroneous, Defective, and Fraudulent Enlistment
Reservist Unsatisfactory Participation
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From the Introduction
Information is power. Information about military discharges and civil rights empowers members of the military to act on their own behalf. For over 20 years, the leading civilian source for information on military discharges and civil rights for members of the military has been this guide. This edition builds on that tradition, while expanding coverage of many necessary areas.
This guide teaches, step by step, how to advocate for clients in the military and to become a GI Advocate. As a GI Advocate, you may help recruits get out of the Delayed Enlistment Program, assist servicemembers applying for discharge as conscientious objectors, or help file sexual harassment grievances.
GI Advocacy is about making the political personal. Clients may be confronting the military's lack of civil liberties, or the military's mistreatment, harassment, and discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, race, size, disability, or sexual orientation. Others are acting on newly-formed beliefs of conscience.
GI Advocates come from all walks of life. Some are professional counselors or social workers; others are attorneys or paralegals. Most are lay people who have learned their counseling and advocacy skills from this book and from trainings conducted by members of the GI Rights Network.
Military Life
Members of the military are overwhelmingly young. Most enlisted when they were 17 or 18 years old. When they sign up, few young recruits realize the kind of commitment they are making. Recruits enlist because they want to improve themselves and see few options other than the military. Lured by military recruiting pitches, recruits do not often have a realistic impression of military life. The military's own studies reveal that members of the military consider military recruiting advertisements "essentially false."1
Members of the military who become disillusioned with military life face tough choices. They have obligated themselves to years of service in an institution ruled by regulations intended to maintain military discipline and good order, regardless of an individual's own needs. They are even forbidden to quit their jobs!
This guide explains how military regulations may be used to help a member of the military. But members of the military do not always reach a GI Advocate before they make tough choices. That is why this book also provides information on unauthorized absence, misconduct, and discharges in lieu of court-martial.
Servicemembers feel isolated when they begin to question their place in the military. When faced with the reality of shooting a gun or firing a missile, some find they can no longer support the military's mission of fighting, and preparing to fight, wars. Such feelings are often confusing to people who have not heard of conscientious objection. Counselors using this guide can help ease such member's confusion and sense of isolation.
The Fifth Edition
This guide is the fifth edition of CCCO's Military Counselor's Manual . From the time it was first published in 1970, the manual has served as a reference for thousands of counselors and advocates. To update it, nearly a hundred military regulations were consulted. But this guide is more than an interpretation of regulations from every Service; it represents the collected wisdom of numerous experienced counselors. While this is the fifth edition, it is the first complete revision in the twenty years since the manual was first published. Readers familiar with earlier editions will notice that chapters have been added on mobilization of reservists, understanding the discharge process, and GI rights.
Deciding what terminology to use is a continuing challenge. The military's use of acronyms and jargon seems limitless. While a valiant effort has been made to translate military regulations into language anyone can understand, See Guide to Acronyms, and the glossary are provided for further assistance.
Since 1994, members of the GI Rights Network have staffed the GI Rights Hotline. If this guide fails to answer any of your questions, or if you are a servicemember in need of assistance, please call the GI Rights Hotline at (800) FYI-95GI.
January 1998
Philadelphia, PA
1. Leonard Shyles and John E. Hocking, "The Army's `Be All You Can Be' Campaign," Armed Forces &Society , (Volume 16, Number 3, Spring 1990), p. 379.