‘Hung out to dry’

Report: Discharges for misconduct often due to mental health

A federal report has found that 62 percent of military personnel discharged for misconduct from 2011 through 2015 had been diagnosed with mental illnesses that could have caused their behaviors.

The Government Accountability Officereport concludedthe military failed to follow policies designed to prevent inappropriate discharge of service members with Post Traumatic Stress Disorderand Traumatic Brain Injury. The result is many veterans received less than honorable discharges, making them ineligible for health care, disability benefits, or education aid from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The GAO said 57,141 service members discharged for misconduct had been diagnosed up to two years before their release with conditions that included: PTSD, TBI, adjustment disorders, alcohol-related and substance abuse disorders, depression and anxiety.

The conditions, which the GAO called “signature wounds” of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, can affect moods, thoughts and behaviors and may trigger activities such as drug use, insubordination, absence from the military without permission, and crimes, the report states.

The report found the Armed Forces violated requirements in Pentagon policies, federal law and, in the case of the Army and Marine Corps, their own policies that included: medical exams for certain service members to determine if PTSD or TBI were factors in their misconduct; training service members to identify TBI symptoms in deployment settings; explaining potential loss of VA benefits when a veteran has a choice of an administrative discharge over a court martial trial, and monitoring adherence to policies.