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Discharge Upgrading: Amnesty For VeteransBy VVAWIn most discussions on amnesty, attention is focused upon the exiles and long-term AWOL men, who, expatriate or underground, cannot return until the threat of punishment (prison, brig or stockade) and punitive discharge is removed. For some of these men, and the people around them, amnesty is an issue of totality --the conditions and conduct of their lives. The issue is largely defined and identified in terms of these groups, and this is reflected, clearly, in the official government line on the amnesty question. But what of the veterans who have already received war-related bad discharges? In the highly polarized discussion of amnesty, the veterans who returned from exile or resumed their civilian identities to face the consequences of military justice have almost disappeared from view. These are the men and women who have already experienced the military judicial "process" because of their opposition to the Indochina War. They have only bad discharges to show for their terms of military service. We are all familiar with instances of people who were drummed out of a service for the "crime" of speaking out against the war, as part of the military's unceasing campaign against the first amendment rights of servicepeople. There are nearly 200,000 veterans who did not go AWOL, but received bad discharges nonetheless, for their opposition to continue US involvement in Indochina. How will amnesty include them? And what of the thousands of black, chicano, and other third world veterans whose only military "crime" was the color of their skin, and whose reward for service was a bad discharge? Recent studies (The Task Force on the Administration of Military Justice) have shown that black/third world servicepeople have long received a disproportionate percentage of bad discharges, substantially higher than their white counterparts. The numerous examples of overt and casual racism in the military are frequently made complete by a bad discharge: minority veterans who are ordinarily disadvantaged in obtaining suitable employment become social untouchables. When will their amnesty be? For many veterans, termination of military service only begins a long period in which he/she is harassed--denied employment, denied VA benefits--and stigmatized as the result of an administrative or punitive discharge. In 1972 alone, 16% of all US Army discharges were less-than-honorable: 52,691 people received administrative or punitive discharges! In contrast, only 2755 applications for review of discharge were filed before all of the service discharge review boards; of these, only 413, roughly 14% were upgraded. Most of the veterans affected by less than honorable discharges did not conform to the image projected by US military code and custom. A bad discharge has become the military's chosen and deliberate response: to third world people who resist white rule and white definition of social roles and behavior; to political activists who work while in the military to advocate and promote change from within the institutional structure; to drug user/abusers --the majority of whom began taking drugs while in the military; and to homosexuality, although federal courts have ruled that off duty/off base activities are not subject to the Universal Code of Military Justice, the military continues its machismo crusade. Actions by servicepeople "to the prejudice of the good order and discipline in the armed forces" (UCMJ Art. 134) are punished by means of the discharge process (under threat of court-martial), although, in the opinion of Judge Tom Clark (US Circ. Court of Appeals), "the only apparent purpose is to act as a catch-all for varied types of unforeseen conduct not otherwise covered by the code." VVAW/WSO, as part of its campaign for amnesty, has initiated a Discharge Upgrading Project (DUP) in San Francisco. The DUP will counsel veterans with less-than-honorable discharges and file for discharge review. VVAW/WSO hopes to over-load the reviewing process in Washington, thus paving the way for a class-action suit against all less-than-honorable discharges. The only solution to this problem is the institution of a single, universal discharge given all veterans retroactively. For information and help, write the following:
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