2.  The applicant requests reconsideration of his previous application in which he asks that his WD AGO Form 53-98, Military Record and Report of Separation, be corrected to show that he received a “terminal leave promotion” upon separation from the Army.

3.  He states, in effect, that he just recently learned that officers released at the conclusion of World War II were eligible for a terminal leave promotion.  In support of his request, he has provided pertinent portions of his military records to show that he was eligible for the promotion but has not received it.

4.  The applicant’s military records were lost or destroyed in the National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973.  Information herein was principally obtained from records provide by the applicant.

5.  His military record shows that he was appointed a first lieutenant, Medical Corps, and entered active duty on 31 August 1942 at age 32.  He was subsequently promoted to the grade of Captain on 17 August 1943 and served as an orthopedic surgeon and eventually the chief of the orthopedic service for the 59th Station Hospital in the Southwest Pacific and the Philippines.  He was placed in a terminal leave status effective 25 December 1945 and honorably separated on 30 March 1946.

6.  His military awards include the Philippine Liberation Ribbon, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.

7.  In 1946 the War Department announced a new promotion policy (War Department Circular 140, 15 May 1946, Promotion of Officers on Relief from Active Duty, commonly referred to as terminal leave promotions) for officers released as the result of demobilization after WWII.  This policy provided, in pertinent part, for the promotion of certain officers to the next higher grade (from first lieutenant through colonel) upon their separation from active duty.  Officers were required to have held their prior grade a specified period of time.  In the case of promotions from captain to major, the period was at least 24 months in grade; however, the circular also provided that officers would be given 50 percent credit for all time spent in the lower grade overseas.

8.  The same policy also prescribed that officers who had served the appropriate time-in-grade on active duty since 16 September 1940 and who had attained a efficiency index of 40 were eligible for one-grade promotion, coincident with processing for relief from active duty.  Promotions would be effective the date the officer departed active duty on terminal leave.

9.  Promotions made in accordance with the foregoing authority, were temporary, expired automatically at the end of the official termination of the war plus 6 months, and did not affect the status of the individual in the Officers’ Reserve Corps, or in the National Guard of the United States, in his lower permanent grade.

CONCLUSIONS:

1.  Documents provided by the applicant together with the pertinent instructions from War Department Circular 140 indicates that he had a an efficiency index and the requisite time in grade that made him eligible for a relief from active duty promotion to the next higher grade upon his separation from active duty on 25 December 1945.

2.  Accordingly, his WD AGO Form 53-98 should be corrected to show his grade as major.

3.  In view of the foregoing, it would be appropriate to correct the applicant’s records as recommended below.

RECOMMENDATION:

That all of the Department of the Army records related to this case be corrected by showing that the individual concerned received a relief from active duty promotion to the grade of major effective 25 December 1945.

BOARD VOTE:  

                       GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

                       GRANT FORMAL HEARING

                       DENY APPLICATION




		                           
		        CHAIRPERSON