WASHINGTON — The Army will review thousands of discharge records of veterans affected by military sexual trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder and other behavioral health conditions following a class-action lawsuit, the service announced Tuesday.
The review is part of a settlement
reached in the lawsuit Kennedy v. McCarthy, which was preliminarily approved
Dec. 28, according to the Army. The service will look at discharges of veterans
affected by PTSD, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma or other
behavioral health conditions.
“Under the agreement, the Army
will automatically reconsider certain discharge-status-upgrade decisions made
by the Army Discharge Review Board between April 17, 2011, and the effective
date of settlement that partially or fully denied relief to Iraq- and
Afghanistan-era veterans with less-than-fully-honorable discharges,” the
statement reads.
Veterans who were discharged and
did not receive an upgrade to honorable from the review board between Oct. 7,
2001, to April 16, 2011, will also be able to reapply due to the settlement.
The lawsuit was filed April 2017
in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut by Army combat veterans Steve Kennedy
and Alicia Carson, both of whom suffered from PTSD and other health conditions,
but where given a general discharge despite their medical issues, according to
the complaint. Their case was handled by the Veterans Legal Services Clinic at
Yale Law School.
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