BOARD DATE: 3 March 2011
DOCKET NUMBER: AR20100021033
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 her name be changed to Irene with no middle name on her official military records.
2. The applicant states:
* She has been a naturalized U.S. citizen since 15 September 1976
* Her naturalization certificate contains her official name change from Stella Irene to Irene with no middle name
* When she entered the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) on 30 August 1982 to be processed her recruiting officer sent a notarized statement to the Office of the Surgeon General indicating her name had been changed from Stella Irene to Irene
* All forms for her commissioning into the USAR contained her corrected name of Irene with no middle name
* The USAR never changed their records to reflect that she dropped her first name and adopted her middle name of Irene as her first name
* Defense Finance and Accounting Service just sent her forms to fill out to start collecting retirement pay on her 60th birthday (31 August 2012)
3. The applicant provides:
* Promotion orders, dated 28 June 1994
* Notarized letter from a Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY
* Her passport
* Social Security 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 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 was born on 31 August 1952. Her DA Form 71 (Oath of Office - Military Personnel) and appointment document, dated 30 August 1982, show her name as Irene with no middle name. She was appointed a second lieutenant in the USAR on 30 August 1982. She was discharged from the USAR on
21 August 2000 in the rank of major and placed in the Retired Reserve effective 22 August 2000.
3. Her service personnel records contain both names, Stella Irene and Irene with no middle name.
4. The applicant provided a letter, dated 3 August 2010, from a JAG officer at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY. He confirms he saw the original Certificate of Naturalization #10550985, dated 15 September 1976, for the applicant and her name was duly changed by Decree of Court from Stella Irene to Irene on 15 September 1976. She also provided various forms of identification which show her first name as Irene with no middle name.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:
The letter provided by the JAG officer at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY, which confirms he saw the original Certificate of Naturalization #10550985, dated 15 September 1976, for the applicant and her name was duly changed by a Decree of Court from Stella Irene to Irene on 15 September 1976 is accepted as sufficient evidence on which to correct her military records to show her name as Irene with no middle name.
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 correcting her military records to show her name as Irene with no middle name.
_______ _ 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) AR20100021033
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ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20100021033
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