IN THE CASE OF: BOARD DATE: 19 March 2009 DOCKET NUMBER: AR20080014526 THE BOARD CONSIDERED THE FOLLOWING EVIDENCE: 1. Application for correction of military records (with supporting documents provided, if any). 2. Military Personnel Records and advisory opinions (if any). THE APPLICANT'S REQUEST, STATEMENT, AND EVIDENCE: 1. The applicant requests, in effect, that her records be corrected to show her name as T____ R. W____-O____. 2. The applicant states, in effect, that her records incorrectly list her last name in reverse order. The administrative clerk submitted the information without consulting with her parent unit. She requests that her records be corrected to ensure proper identification of her maiden name and true identity. 3. The applicant provides copies of award orders, a Noncommissioned Officer Evaluation Report for the period July 1991 through June 1992, reassignment for discharge orders with an identification card photograph, and her Social Security Number Card. CONSIDERATION OF EVIDENCE: 1. Title 10, U.S. Code, section 1552(b), provides that applications for correction of military records must be filed within 3 years after discovery of the alleged error or injustice. This provision of law also allows the Army Board for Correction of Military Records (ABCMR) to excuse an applicant’s failure to timely file within the 3-year statute of limitations if the ABCMR determines it would be in the interest of justice to do so. While it appears the applicant did not file within the time frame provided in the statute of limitations, the ABCMR has elected to conduct a substantive review of this case and, only to the extent relief, if any, is granted, has determined it is in the interest of justice to excuse the applicant’s failure to timely file. In all other respects, there are insufficient bases to waive the statute of limitations for timely filing. 2. The applicant enlisted under her maiden name of W____ on 2 May 1986 and served under this name until she married on 22 March 1993. 3. On 26 April 1993 a DA Form 4187 (Personnel Action) was completed to change the applicant's name on her official military service records to the hyphenated last name of W____-O____. 4. From this point forward the documents in her records list her last name as O____-W____, W____-O____, O____W____ without a hyphen, and W____O____ without a hyphen. 5. On 31 August 1995, the applicant reenlisted for 4 years. Her DD Form 4 (Enlistment/Reenlistment Document Armed Forces of the United States) shows her name as O____-W____, T____ R____. 6. On 4 June 1997, because the applicant had not provided an adequate family care plan, her command counseled her that failure to provide the plan would result in her being discharged. She was afforded 30 days to comply with the regulations. 7. On 4 June 1997, the applicant notified her command that she could not provide the family care plan and requested immediate separation. This document and the other documents related to her separation were signed by her as T____ O____-W____. 8. On 22 August 1997, the detachment sergeant at the Fort Shafter Transition Point noted that the applicant's name listed in her official records was not the same as the requested change on her DA Form 4187. 9. On 22 August 1997, the applicant was honorably discharged under the provisions of Army Regulation 635-200 (Personnel Separations), paragraph 5-8, Parenthood. The name listed on her DD Form 214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty) is O____W____, T____ R. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: 1. The applicant states that her records incorrectly list her last name in reverse order. 2. The applicant's records list her last name in four different ways on documents prepared following her marriage on 22 March 1993. 3. A DA Form 4187 was prepared and approved to change her last name to W____-O____. This action was never properly fully complied with. 4. The varied ways that the applicant's name appears is and will continue to create problems for this former Soldier and it is appropriate to rectify the errors by providing the applicant with a DD Form 1343 (Notification of Change of Service Member's Official Record) showing that T____ R. W____, T____ R. W____-O____, T____ R. O____-W____, T____ R. O____W____, and T____ R. W____O____ are one and the same individual and that her proper name is T____ R. W____-O____. BOARD VOTE: ___X____ ____X___ ___X___ GRANT FULL RELIEF ________ ________ ________ GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF ________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING ________ ________ ________ DENY APPLICATION BOARD DETERMINATION/RECOMMENDATION: The Board determined that the evidence presented was sufficient to warrant a recommendation for relief. As a result, the Board recommends that all Department of the Army records of the individual concerned be corrected by issuing a DA Form 1343 showing that T____ R. W____, T____ R. W____-O____, T____ R. O____-W____, T____ R. O____W____, and T____ R. W____O____ are one and the same individual and that her proper name is T____ R. W____-O____. __________X _______________ CHAIRPERSON I certify that herein is recorded the true and complete record of the proceedings of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in this case. ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20080014526 3 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS 1 ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20080014526 2 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS 1