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The Navy is reevaluating discharge upgrade applications of sailors and Marines who were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, and other mental health or behavioral conditions.
The examination stems from a preliminary settlement a federal judge approved this week regarding the class-action lawsuit Manker v. Del Toro, which was originally filed by the Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic in 2018.
The suit alleged that thousands of sailors and Marines were discharged with other than honorable or general characterizations of service, due to behavior connected to conditions like PTSD.
As a result of the pending agreement, discharge-status-upgrade decisions from the Naval Discharge Review Board — spanning from March 2, 2012 to the effective date of settlement — will automatically be reviewed in situations where the applicant didn’t receive an upgrade to honorable discharge, and were affected by or displayed evidence of the aforementioned conditions.
Those who fit this criteria will be contacted by the Navy to provide further evidence, along with referral information, potentially free legal representation and medication services.
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