crs_reports: R48907

Congressional Research Service reports with summaries, authors, and topic classifications.

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R48907 Military Discharges: Character of Service and Eligibility for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Benefits 2026-04-15T04:00:00Z 2026-04-16T10:53:27Z Active Reports Madeline E. Moreno, Kristy N. Kamarck, Daniel T. Shedd, Jared S. Sussman Health Care, Military Personnel, Military Personnel, Compensation & Health Care, Veterans & Military Health Care, Veterans Disability Compensation & Pensions Character of service refers to the Armed Forces’ evaluation of servicemembers’ conduct during their service. Generally, there are five statuses under which servicemembers can be discharged: honorable, general (under honorable conditions), other than honorable (OTH), bad conduct, or dishonorable discharge. A servicemember’s branch determines which discharge status he or she should be given. If a former servicemember believes there is an error in his or her service records or disagrees with the discharge status assigned, he or she may seek a discharge status upgrade by submitting an application to the appropriate Discharge Review Board (DRB) or Board for Correction of Military Records (BCMR). On occasion, Congress has enacted laws affecting review conducted by these military correction boards. In 2010, Congress enacted the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) Repeal Act (P.L. 111-321), which initiated the removal of restrictions on gay servicemembers. Pursuant to the DADT repeal, the Department of Defense issued guidance instructing the military review boards to grant approval of requests to change narrative reasons for discharge, characterizations of discharge, and reentry codes for former servicemembers if (1) the original discharge was based solely on DADT and (2) there are no aggravating factors in the record, such as misconduct. Further, federal law provides that military correction boards shall give liberal consideration to discharge reviews in which mental health conditions typically associated with combat operations may have been factors in the original discharge decisions. This liberal consideration equally applies when sexual assault or harassment caused the applicable mental health conditions. A servicemember’s discharge status affects his or her eligibility for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits, including disability compensation, certain pension programs, and medical care. For most VA benefits, former servicemembers must meet the statutory definition of veteran, which includes basic eligibility requirements. As relevant to this report, to achieve veteran status under the statute, a former servicemember must have performed active service in the Armed Forces and be “discharged or released therefrom under conditions other than dishonorable.” Because the phrase “other than dishonorable” does not match any of the discharge statuses issued by the Armed Forces, VA may perform its own evaluation of a servicemember’s character of service to determine basic eligibility for VA benefits. This process is called a character of discharge review. While an honorable discharge and a general discharge (under honorable conditions) are binding on VA and make former servicemembers eligible for most VA benefits, a dishonorable discharge is disqualifying for most VA programs. For discharge statuses that fall outside these categories (i.e., OTH and bad conduct discharges), VA evaluates the circumstances surrounding the discharge from service to determine servicemembers’ eligibility. Federal statutes and VA regulations bar individuals who engaged in certain conduct from receiving VA benefits. Therefore, VA evaluates former servicemembers’ service records to determine whether a statute or regulation (referred to as “statutory bars” and “regulatory bars” to benefits) precludes a servicemember from receiving VA benefits. If a servicemember is not barred from receiving benefits by statute or regulation, VA may determine that the discharge is “honorable” for the purposes of VA benefits. Any claimant who disagrees with a VA determination concerning his or her character of discharge may appeal VA’s decision through the agency’s appeal process. https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R48907/R48907.1.pdf https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/HTML/R48907.html

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