IN THE CASE OF:
BOARD DATE: 4 February 2010
DOCKET NUMBER: AR20090012678
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, correction of item 7c (Color Hair), item 7d (Color Eyes) and the Social Security Number (SSN) entry in item 32 (Remarks).
2. The applicant states, in effect, he is an African-American and his DD Form 214 (Armed Forces of the United States Report of Transfer or Discharge), erroneously lists the color of his hair as blond and the color of his eyes as blue. He states his hair is black and his eyes are brown. He further states the fifth digit of his SSN is 2 and not 8, as is currently listed on his DD Form 214.
3. The applicant provides a DD Form 214, driver's license and SSN card in support of his application.
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 applicants 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 applicants failure to timely file. In all other respects, there are insufficient bases to waive the statute of limitations for timely filing.
2. The applicant's military personnel records and medical records were not made available to the Board. However, there are sufficient reconstructed records available to conduct a fair and impartial review of the case. This case is being considered using a reconstructed record that consists of the applicant's
DD Form 214, the documents provided by the applicant, and his confinement record.
3. The applicant's DD Form 214 shows he enlisted in the Regular Army and entered active duty on 11 February 1964. He was trained in and awarded military occupational specialty (MOS) 94B (Cook). It also shows he was dishonorably discharged on 4 October 1966, after completing 11 months of creditable active military service and accruing 632 days of time lost due to being in confinement.
4. Item 7a (Race) and item 7b (Sex) of the applicant's DD Form 214 are blank. Item 7c lists the applicant's hair color as blond and item 7d lists his eye color as blue. Item 2 (Service Number) lists his proper Army service number, which was the primary identification number used during his military service. Item 32 contains an entry listing his SSN which contains the number 8 as the fifth digit.
5. The applicant provides a Kentucky driver's license that shows his eye color as brown and a SSN card that lists the fifth digit of his SSN as 2.
6. Army Regulation 635-5 (Separation Documents) Army Regulation 635-5 (Separation Documents) prescribes the separation documents that must be prepared for Soldiers on retirement, discharge, release from active duty service, or control of the Active Army. It also establishes standardized policy for preparing and distributing the DD Form 214. The instructions for completing item 7 contained in the version of the regulation in effect at the time of the applicant's discharge stated to enter one of the following in item 7a: "Caucasian," "Negroid," "Mongolian," or "Indian" (American or Malayan). It further indicated that the entries for 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, and 7f were self-explanatory. The instructions for item 32 included instructions for including an entry listing the SSN.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:
1. The applicant's contention that the eye and hair color listed in item 7 of his
DD Form 214 is incorrect was carefully considered and found to have merit. A review of all of item 7 of the applicant's DD Form 214 reveals that there were no entries made in items 7a and 7b and that the entries in item 7c and 7d were incorrect. As a result, it would be appropriate to add the entry "Negroid" to item 7a and the entry "Male" to item 7b. It would also be appropriate to delete the current entries in items 7c and 7d and to replace them with the entries "black" and brown, respectively.
2. Since the SSN was not the primary identification number used during the applicant's military service and because the SSN card he provides confirms the fifth digit of his SSN is 2 instead of 8, as is listed in the SSN transcribed into item 32 of his DD Form 214, it would also be appropriate to correct the SSN listed in item 32 of his DD Form 214 accordingly.
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 amending his DD Form 214 as follows:
a. Item 7a - adding "Negroid";
b. Item 7b - adding "Male";
c. Item 7c - deleting the current entry and adding the entry "Black";
d. Item 7d - deleting the current entry and adding the entry "Brown";
e. Item 32 - deleting the number 8 in the fifth digit of the SSN listed and adding the number "2."; and
f. providing him a correction to his DD Form 214 that includes these changes.
_______ _ _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) AR20090012678
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