Discharge characterization affects benefit eligibility and civilian employment background. The process for upgrading is specific, the criteria changed in 2014 and 2017, and the evidence requirements depend on the basis for the upgrade.
A discharge upgrade changes the characterization of service on a veteran's DD-214. The upgrade does not change the reason for discharge — that requires a separate correction process — but the characterization is what most third parties read first. Honorable, General Under Honorable Conditions, Other Than Honorable, Bad Conduct, and Dishonorable each carry different eligibility for VA benefits and different signals to civilian employers. An upgrade from OTH to General, or from General to Honorable, can open access to VA health care, GI Bill, home loan guaranty, and burial benefits that were previously blocked.
Two pathways exist. The Discharge Review Board for the veteran's service branch handles upgrades for administrative discharges within fifteen years of separation. The Board for Correction of Military Records handles corrections — including discharge upgrades — for any service and at any time, including court-martial-based discharges. The forms are DD Form 293 for DRB and DD Form 149 for BCMR. Both are free to file and can be filed without representation, though the success rate is substantially higher with experienced legal help.
The 2014 and 2017 policy changes matter. The 2014 Hagel Memo directed the services to give liberal consideration to upgrade petitions citing PTSD as a mitigating factor in the discharge. The 2017 Kurta Memo extended liberal consideration to claims involving TBI, military sexual trauma, intimate partner violence, and other behavioral-health-related circumstances. Together the guidance significantly increased success rates for petitions that connect the conduct underlying the discharge to a documented or plausible behavioral-health condition that was untreated or unrecognized at the time.
Evidence the boards look for. Service records documenting the circumstances of the discharge, including any prior good service and recognition. Medical evidence connecting the conduct to a behavioral-health condition — current diagnoses count, even when there was no diagnosis at the time of service, as long as the symptom history runs back to the period of service. Statements from the veteran describing the experience. Statements from family members or fellow service members who observed the changes at the time. Post-service records of stability, employment, or rehabilitation. The board reviews the file as a whole and weighs the mitigating evidence against the basis for the discharge.
MST-related upgrades follow the Kurta Memo and often succeed when the discharge was based on misconduct that followed the assault — substance use, AWOL, self-protective behavior, or charges arising from the victim's response to the trauma. The petition does not have to prove the assault. It has to show that the behavioral-health condition was a substantial factor in the conduct that led to discharge. The same evidentiary modifications that apply to MST compensation claims — markers as substitute evidence — apply to discharge upgrade petitions citing MST.
PTSD-related upgrades for combat veterans often succeed when the discharge followed a deployment with documented exposures and the misconduct fits a recognizable pattern of post-deployment behavioral health crisis — substance use, isolation, irritability, fights, AWOL. A current PTSD diagnosis with a clinician's opinion linking symptoms back to the period of service is the technical anchor. The opinion does not have to certify causation with certainty; it has to find the connection plausible by a preponderance.
Free legal help. Veterans Legal Services Clinics at most law schools represent veterans in upgrade petitions free of charge. The National Veterans Legal Services Program, Swords to Plowshares, and the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program all maintain referral networks for upgrade cases. The American Bar Association's pro bono referral page lists state-by-state options. For most veterans the assistance is the difference between a viable petition and a denial. The boards see thousands of cases a year and the petitions that follow the format and develop the evidence properly fare substantially better.
Timeline. DRB cases are typically decided within twelve to eighteen months. BCMR cases take longer, often two years or more, particularly for cases involving older records or court-martial proceedings. While the case is pending, VA health care eligibility under Character of Discharge review may be possible for some conditions — the VA can in some cases provide care for service-connected mental health conditions even while the discharge is still OTH, though this requires a separate VA Character of Discharge determination.